How to preserve food correctly to extend its life? We reveal to you food by food how to preserve them and thus extend their duration for optimal consumption.
We know that nothing remains and that over time everything deteriorates, even more so in the case of food and especially if it is fresh food. Extending the life of food a little longer is possible if we give it the proper treatment for it.
Some studies have shown that in many households, due to not preserving well or properly, food ends up in the garbage. Wasting food today with the times we run could qualify as a luxury and we should not allow ourselves to do so.
Therefore, properly preserving food even allows us to save a little more in the shopping basket. If you are interested in making good use of food and saving a little more, pay attention to a series of tips that we provide below.
They are a series of simple and easy to carry out tips, it only consists of a change in attitude and correcting some mistakes that we may make when preserving our food.
How to naturally extend the life of food
Vegetables and fruits
So we start with the vegetables. We all know that the refrigerator is the best place for its conservation, of course in the right way to ensure its 100% conservation. We must keep them in the corresponding drawers for this function since it is the place in the refrigerator that is least cold.
We will keep them, if they are very large as is the case of the pumpkin, divided into pieces in bags that we will pierce a little so that they perspire.
The smallest vegetables such as zucchini and carrots are kept unbegged. Whenever we keep any vegetables or fruit in the fridge bagged, we must remember to pierce the bag.
If the tomatoes are ripe, we will keep them without a bag in the refrigerator drawer. If they are still green, we can store them in a dry place, outside the refrigerator and once they mature in the refrigerator.
In the case of leeks, chives, garlic, spring onions, we must keep them unbagged in the refrigerator drawer.
Most of the fruits can be kept out of the refrigerator, as long as we have not split them. In the case of split fruit, we will keep it wrapped in a little transparent film, and remove it for a while before eating it, we will notice its flavor better.
Fish
Fresh fish in the refrigerator lasts only 2 days, we will keep it clean in the refrigerator, instead of away from other foods, if we are not going to consume it within that period of days, we will keep it clean in freezer bags and freeze it so that it is kept in good condition.
The fish is not advisable to store it without cleaning since it will lose its freshness, it will also lose quality, and it will give off a bad smell.
Therefore we must clean it as we buy it, whether we are going to eat it fresh or if we are going to freeze it.
The meat
To keep meat fresh, in the refrigerator it lasts from 3 to 5 days, the best place is the drawers or drawers that refrigerators usually bring to place the meats.
We should not keep them in the trays or containers of the market, it is better to keep them in clean bags.
It is also not advisable to leave the meat on a plate uncovered since it spoils with the air, and it also starts to smell bad.
If we are not going to consume it in the aforementioned days, we must put them in freezer bags and freeze them as we buy them. If the meat is fillets, we store each fillet in a bag separately.
Milk and dairy
The conservation of the milk once the container is opened will last longer, or less days depending on the type of milk that we have purchased.
In the case of fresh or pasteurized milk, it usually has a short consumption date and if we open it will last at most 3 days, and the best place to keep it is on the refrigerator door.
On the other hand, the milk that we buy sterilized, after being opened in the refrigerator, lasts up to 5 days.
The milk that we buy in bricks usually have a longer shelf life, but once opened in the refrigerator it will last about 8 days, and unopened in the pantry at room temperature it will last until the expiration date.
Milk is a product that we can easily notice that it has been spoiled, due to its smell, as well as its acid taste, as soon as we notice that the milk has spoiled we must discard it and not consume it.
The fresh or soft cheese must be kept in the refrigerator so that it does not spoil and it can last for 5 or 6 days, on the refrigerator door or drawers for cheese or butter.
The semi-soft cheese not very cured, we can keep it in the refrigerator, better wrapped in parchment paper, or in a plastic container, and we should not keep it in plastic bags as it prevents perspiration and will fill with molds.
The semi-cured cheese can also be kept in the refrigerator in the same way as the semi-tender or at room temperature in traditional cheese makers. The cured cheese, we can keep it at room temperature in the cheese maker.
The eggs
The eggs we must make sure to always buy them fresh, although they come with their expiration date, they last up to 2 more weeks, as long as they are in the refrigerator.
It is better to keep it in the same container in which they come and on a shelf of the refrigerator, there the temperature of the refrigerator is better maintained, being more stable than in the egg cups that come in the doors. Make sure to store them with the pointed part down.
When buying the eggs we must make sure that they are not stained, and that the shell is not broken or cracked.
Bread
Bread is a food that we can get a lot out of and make good use of. We can eat it fresh, buy a quantity of bread and freeze it, so we will have bread on hand ready for another time, or cake the bread that we have left over, so we do not throw anything away.
We can also take advantage of the remaining bread to make different desserts such as pudding, torrijas. The best way to keep bread fresh is in a cloth bag or in traditional bread baskets.
We should not leave it in the air, if we have fresh bread left over, we can cut it into slices and freeze it in freezer bags, and a few hours before eating it we will take it out. We can also defrost it in the microwave and heat it up.
Another option, as we have said before, is to bake the fresh bread that we have left over in the oven. Sliced bread can also be frozen, so it won’t spoil.
Sauces and jams
Homemade sauces can be frozen freshly made in freezer bags and thawed when we go to consume them. Fresh homemade sauces in the refrigerator last 6 or 7 days.
Once opened, industrial sauces will be kept in the refrigerator door, in the jars that come and tightly covered.
For homemade jams, once opened, we will keep them in the refrigerator well covered, if when we have prepared them we have given them the correct sterilization treatment in the refrigerator, it will last about 5 or 6 months.
However, being homemade and not previously sterilized, it will last us a week in the refrigerator.
Once we have opened the industrial jams, we will keep them in the refrigerator well covered, they are usually consumed before they expire.
The preserves
The preserves, when we open a can and we have left over content, we can store it in plastic or glass jars in the refrigerator and discard the can in which it came.
We must consume it in a week, but we can also freeze it. Keeping the can open in the refrigerator will cause the can to rust, rust and spoil the food.
Other foods
In the case of potatoes or potatoes and onions, it is better to store them out of the refrigerator, in a dry place, and protected from light, and separately.
