Food spoilage

“ Open-kettle canning is unsafe because temperatures reached are not high enough to destroy all the spoilage organisms that may be in low-acid foods, such as meat and vegetables, other than tomatoes.
Spoilage bacteria may also enter the food when it is transferred from kettle to jar, making it undesirable as well to can other foods such as fruits, pickles, preserves, and jams by this method. ”

“ Experts have worked long enough, carefully and thoroughly enough, to convince themselves and others that the cold-pack method and the intermittent method, which methods are employed for cooking the product in the jar, are sure, safe, reliable and efficient methods. So if your food spoils convince yourself it is not the method but something else. Spoilage is due to imperfect jars, imperfect rubbers, imperfect sealing of tin cans, careless blanching, insufficient cold dipping or poor sterilizing. ”

“ By having their own gardens and canning the harvested produce, they often can save money. Eating quality of home-canned products encourages some individuals to can. The activity of growing or obtaining produce and preserving it in the home sometimes gives people a sense of personal achievement and satisfaction.
In canning, food is preserved by applying heat to prepared food in containers so that micro-organisms that cause spoilage or food poisoning are destroyed and enzymes that cause undesirable quality changes in the flavor, color, and texture of food are inactivated. ”

“ This type of spoilage is caused by the action either of yeast or of a certain kind of bacterium which thrives best without air. It is usually due to imperfect sterilization. Fermentation can usually be detected by the presence of bubbles of gas in the jar and a loosening of the sealed cover.
(b) Flat Sour is a kind of spoilage in which no gas is formed, but acid is produced, giving the food a sour taste. In some cases of flat sour, a milky deposit appears in the bottom of the jar which can be detected if the container is glass. ”

“ Safety is best assured when you exercise special care as you prepare and pack food into canning jars, fitting jars with properly pretreated lids, and heating jars of food to a high enough temperature for a sufficient length of time to kill micro-organisms that cause spoilage. ”

“ Slight flaws in the can or rubbers which were not detected at the time of sealing may cause the spoiling of carefully canned fruit. In the preservation of fruit, every effort should be made to secure sound fruit, perfect jars, and good rubbers, and to have the fruit and utensils perfectly processed, and the jars securely sealed. Failure to accomplish these ends may result in much loss of materials and time.
KINDS OF SPOILAGE.—As mentioned previously, canned foods spoil either from imperfect processing or sealing. Different organisms growing in preserved foods cause different kinds of spoilage. ”

“ As has been pointed out, it is not the mere presence of micro-organisms that causes the spoiling of food, but their constant growth. Therefore, to keep milk from souring, meat from spoiling, bread from molding, canned fruit from fermenting, and so on, it is necessary to know what will prevent the growth of these minute organisms. Different foods require different treatment. Some foods must be kept very cold, some must be heated or cooked, others must be dried, and to others must be added preservatives. ”

“ All left-over foods, as grains, vegetables, or others of a moist character, should be removed to clean dishes before putting away. Unless this precaution is observed, the thin smears and tiny bits about the edges of the dish, which become sour or moldy much sooner than the larger mass, are apt to spoil the whole. They should also be set on ice or be kept in a cool, dry place until needed. Left-over foods of any kind, to be suitable again for use, must be well preserved. Sour or moldy fragments are not fit for food. ”

“ The process of decomposition, in the case of fish, is arrested by ice, which robs it of its flavour, and in Russia provisions of all kinds are frozen to preserve them. It is clear that the chemical conditions of food vary, for while venison, hares, partridges, grouse, as also some cheese, &c., are held to be most relishing and nutritious in a state of partial decomposition—beef, mutton, veal, pork, and fish are detestable on the slightest approach of putridity, though there is an incipient decomposition, making the two former tender, which renders them better for digestion. ”

“ People whose time is valuable can save much work by placing the dishes from the draining board upside down on a shelf prepared from wooden slats, or set them in a wire basket and let them dry without wiping.
If the dishes are not washed immediately after each meal, place the silverware and knives in a high bowl or quart measure and let them soak in hot or cold water. Remove all foods from metallic utensils immediately after the meal is over. Never allow metallic spoons to stand in fruit sauce, salt or in any kind of prepared food. Acids dissolve metal and in this way may produce poisoning. ”

“ Potatoes, rice, custards, raised mixtures, such as dumplings, suet pudding, and brown bread, as well as many other foods, are decidedly injured by overcooking. The recipes generally state the minimum and maximum time which each food should have. This information will also be found easily accessible in the classified index. There is danger in leaving meats or soup stock or even cereals in the cooker long after they have cooled down, as they will be likely to spoil. ”

“ The staple grain feeds are corn, oats, wheat, barley and buckwheat. The grain by-products, bran, middlings and gluten feed, to which may be added corn meal, ground oats and ground barley.
Animal food of some kind is an essential to growth and egg-production. Skim milk and butter milk, fish scrap made from oil-free fish, beef scrap, fresh cut green bone and good grades of digester tankage are all excellent. But use only feeds of this character which are of prime quality. Oily fish, poor beef scrap and mouldy green bone will surely cause trouble. ”

“ All porridges and spoonmeats that are made thin, and quickly prepared, are sweeter, brisker on the palate, and easier of digestion, than those which are thick, and long in preparing. Food should never be given to children more than milk warm, and the proper way to cool it is by letting it stand uncovered to cool itself; for much stirring alters the composition, and takes off the sweetness. Covering it down too, keeps in the fumes that ought to go off, and by excluding the air, renders it less pure.—Flour Pap. ”

“ Care of food after cooking.—Bread, cake, cookies, and pastry should be cooled on a rack, or spread out in such a way that they do not steam. They should then be placed in a tin box or stone jar, which has been cleaned by washing and scalding with boiling water, and thoroughly dried. This process destroys any mold that might be lurking about. Keep paraffin paper on hand to cover this class of food in its box or jar. This will prevent too rapid drying out. Do not use cloth. It flavors the bread or cake, no matter how clean it may be. ”

“ Like canning and drying, JELLY MAKING, PRESERVING, and PICKLING are methods of preparing perishable foods to resist decomposition and change. When treated by any of these three processes, fruits and vegetables will keep for long periods of time and will thus be ready for use during the seasons when they cannot be obtained fresh. The preservation of food by making it into jellies, preserves, and pickles does not, as in the case of canning, depend on the sterilization of the product, but rather on the use of certain ingredients that act as preservatives. ”

“ In times of scarcity and famine various substances, besides the flour of the cereals, have been made into bread, or have been mixed with it, in order to lessen the quantity of the former required by the people. For this purpose, almost every amylaceous vegetable at once plentiful and cheap has, in its turn, been eagerly appropriated. Acorns, beech-mast, the leguminous seeds, numerous starchy bulbous roots, and similar substances, have been employed, either in the form of meal, or made into an emulsion or jelly, which has been used instead of water to form the flour of bread-corn into a dough. ”

“ The freezing of meats such as beef and poultry, and holding them to a desirable season has rapidly become an important factor in packing house work. Not only beef, poultry, butter and other food products are accumulated, but pork cuts, such as hams, shoulders, bellies, etc., are frozen and carried indefinitely or until it appears desirable to thaw and cure them. ”

“ As well as a Julienne, a coulis de racines, a soup of lentils, carrots, onions, &c. being well prepared, furnishes with the greatest economy, excellent dishes in an instant.
All farinaceous substances, such as oatmeal, rice, spelt, semoulia, vermicelli, and in general every thing that may be formed into a paste, nutritive [108] and easy of digestion, may be prepared and seasoned with either vegetable or meat soup, and even with milk, before they are made to undergo the preserving process, in order to facilitate the use of them at sea and in armies at a moment of necessity. ”

“ A piece of lemon or a spoonful of tomato will rust it and it will soon become disagreeable.
Do not begin your work until the food is put away. Next empty every glass, cup, bowl, and pitcher. Rinse with cold water those which have been used for milk or cream. Scrape your plates and dishes carefully, and put those of one sort together. This saves time; it does not waste it. A crust of bread from the broken bits will easily wipe out a fine china bowl or silver ladle without scratching it as a knife or spoon might do. ”

“ The baker asserts that he does not put alum into bread; but he is well aware that, in purchasing a certain quantity of flour, he must take a sack of sharp whites (a term given to flour contaminated with a quantity of alum) , without which it would be impossible for him to produce light, white, and porous bread, from a half-spoiled material.
The wholesale mealman frequently purchases this spurious commodity, (which forms a separate branch of business in the hands of certain individuals,) in order to enable himself to sell his decayed and half-spoiled flour. ”

“ The other method of keeping food, namely, DRYING, depends for its success on the fact that such micro-organisms as bacteria cannot grow unless they have a considerable quantity of moisture or water. Molds grow on cheese, bread, damp cloth or paper, or articles that contain only a small amount of moisture, but bacteria need from 20 to 30 per cent. of water in food in order to grow and multiply. This explains why in high altitudes and dry climates foods keep for a long time without artificial means of preservation. ”

“ PREVENTING CANNED FOODS FROM SPOILING.--From what has just been said, it will be seen that the success of canning depends entirely on destroying harmful micro-organisms that are present in the food and preventing those present in the air from entering the jars in which the food is placed.
Some foods are more difficult to keep than others, because bacteria act on them more readily and the foods themselves contain nothing that prevents their growth. Among such foods are meat, fish, peas, corn, beans, and meat soups. ”

“ Under the non-perishable foods are classed those that are not subject to bacteria or mold in ordinary circumstances. These should be kept dry, however, and never in a heated place. In a sense, no food material is non-perishable. Insects sometimes develop in the cereal products, for instance, and the material is thus286 rendered unfit for food. The food adjuncts do not spoil except as they lose flavor if kept too long.
Perishable.—Milk, cream, uncooked meat, uncooked fish, shellfish, berries, fruits with delicate skins, lettuce, and vegetables that wilt easily. ”

“ Why does food spoil?—The decay and moldiness of fresh fruit are matters of common observation; and the housekeeper knows that mold is liable to cover the top of a jelly glass, and that a can of fruit will ferment at times, even to the point of bursting the can. ”

“ For instance, in cream of celery soup, cover the celery with cold stock instead of water, using a quart instead of a pint of water, and then use only a pint of milk, having in the end the same quantity of a much more tasty soup at a less cost. One soon learns that all made-over dishes are more savory where stock is used in place of water. If peas, beans or cabbage are being cooked, this water may be added to that in which beef or mutton has been boiled, the whole reduced carefully by rapid boiling, strained and put aside for use. ”

“ In this branch of cookery, doing quickly is doing well. The fire must be brisk, the attention, alert. The introduction of cooking-stoves offers to careless domestics facilities for gradually drying-up meats, and despoiling them of all flavor and nutriment,—facilities which appear to be very generally laid hold of. They have almost banished the genuine, old-fashioned roast-meat from our tables, and left in its stead dried meats with their most precious and nutritive juices evaporated. How few cooks, unassisted, are competent to the simple process of broiling a beefsteak or mutton-chop! ”