We as humans have always had a need for food storage. It was a creative way of ensuring our survival. By harnessing the power of nature and a rudimentary understanding of chemistry and physics, we found various ways to store the food that we found on a plentiful day for consumption at a later date. Food preservation allows us to form a consistent food supply. This is vital when thinking about building communities.
The modern age has brought with it many advents and innovations that would have been like black magic to our caveman ancestors. One of these marvelous inventions is the refrigerator, and the concept of cold storage in general. If you have a large amount of temperature sensitive materials that you’re looking to store at a reasonable rate while receiving excellent service, go ahead and take a look into temperature controlled storage.
There are many ways of storing food besides refrigeration however, and in this article, we’ll be delving into some of them. One of the most commonly found ways of food preservation that you will find across cultures is drying. The sun and wind were used since ancient times in the Middle East and Asian countries. In places where the climate was quite dry and hot, drying was a very easily accessible form of food preservation. In other countries that don’t have sufficient sunlight or wind, “still houses” that used fire to dry out food were found.
Another common method is using salt to cure foods. This method is also quite interesting and prevalent across cultures because it is simple and very effective. The salt draws out the moisture in the food and prevents the growth of harmful pathogens in the food (because they need moisture to reproduce and grow). A method that was very commonplace in colder countries was freezing. Communities that lived in snowy or icy conditions would take their food and keep it buried underground in the winter. This method was the inspiration for modern day refrigeration.
Fermenting was a method that uses microbes to fight pathogens. By fermenting and promoting the production of healthy microbes in food, acid and alcohol are produced that kill harmful pathogens. Oftentimes, fermented food leads to very popular delicacies such as kimchi and beverages such as beer. A related but dissimilar method of food preservation was called pickling. Pickling is when food is preserved by placing it in an immersion of salt and vinegar. This prevents the growth of harmful pathogens. It is widely believed that Indians created the first pickled cucumber (leading the way for the modern-day pickle slice). Sugaring was also a very popular method of preservation because of its simplicity. Sugaring is the process of immersing the food in sugar. Sugar also causes a dehydrating effect in the food causing all the moisture to be wicked away, thereby preserving the food. This was a very popular method of preservation in ancient Rome and Greece, and they brought about the advent of jams and jellies which were originally used to preserve fruit.
