Preserving Preservation

The More I dive into the culinary world, the more I realize that there is nothing new under the sun. Every technique and every flavor combination has been done before somewhere sometime in history. This however, does not make it any less exciting. On the contrary, it makes me want to search more and learn more. In class Chef mentioned that the fridge is one of the most important innovations in the 20th century, which got me thinking! The thing I Love to the most in my free time is preserving. It hit me! My hobby, the thing I do because I have the luxury of time was a necessity not that long ago. Upon searching the history of preservation, I found that sun drying is the oldest method of preserving. It works because it removes most of the water content of any given product. but on the other hand it does not remove it all, which does not guarantee longevity. Surprisingly, Cooling and freezing methods were used even by nations in relatively warm climate, like the Egyptians, East Indians and Chinese. But unshockingly, societies  in the northern hemisphere, and those natives to colder places like Peru did use freezing as a method of preserving. At the mean time,  people in the south however discovered  Fermentation, a useful tool of preserving. From there beer, wine, yogurt and cheese -at this point they discovered happiness too-. Other innovative methods of preserving were being invented all over the world. By 1000 BC pickling and salting were very common methods of preserving. Societies started experimenting with other substances for preserving, like spices in China, honey in the Mediterranean, mustered seeds in Egypt and melted fat in Native North America. By the middle ages, all these methods were widely practiced by civilization around the world. 

This is an innovative process that was made and developed by every single culture and society in history. Every single community has added and invented a technique that helped it advance. Driven from the need to secure food for winter, drought, travel or famine. And migration and trade, humans exchanged ideas with one another, and collectively advanced this process. 

Trying to talk about the affects of preservation on me is quit hard, since its literally everywhere. Tomato paste, pickled cucumbers, frozen fruit, jams and many many things more. The invention of the fridge did not limit preserving to cooling our freezing, but it did unfortunately eliminate many preserving techniques. However, one of my very first culinary memories is of my mama spreading dates on plaited palm fronds, in the scorching heat of August's sun in Saudi, to make what we call Maknuz. Which is basically dates dried then mixed with date molasses for preserving.   

Reference 

A Brief History Of Food Preservation - The Full Dossier From DehydratorLab. (2019, October 14). Retrieved from https://dehydratorlab.com/history-of-food-preservation#tab-con-1.

Food Preservation. (2019, December 6). Retrieved from https://www.encyclopedia.com/sports-and-everyday-life/food-and-drink/food-and-cooking/food-preservation.

All photos are mine.