Three Rules for the Grocery Store
Good food begins with good ingredients. No matter how spectacular your culinary skills may be, if you pick up a bad batch of groceries, your food will turn out just as badly. At best, you’ll end up with a unsatisfying dinner - at worst, you may find yourself suffering from stomachaches and fever.
Many enthusiastic chefs put all their focus on the kitchen, on the actual act of cooking, and forget about the basic preparations which make cooking enjoyable, healthy, and safe. Even something as simple as forgetting to wash one’s hands between cutting meat and peeling potatoes could lead to serious health problems. Harmful bacteria are always a threat to raw foods, and food safety should always be at the forefront of any chef’s mind. Whether you are cooking for yourself, your family, or a restaurant full of high-class patrons, nothing ruins a meal like an encounter with food poisoning.
Rule #1: Keep Foods Separate
Cross-contamination is one of the most common ways that germs escape detection. Many people are well aware that raw meat, poultry, and seafood are prime locations for bacteria to fester and grow. Most know that cooking a steak, hamburger, or fillet thoroughly kills most germs and makes meat safe for consumption. But what happens when those same harmful germs get transferred onto the vegetables through cross contamination? People are much less likely to make sure that a vegetable dish is cooked thoroughly enough to kill bacteria. The moral of the story? When shopping, and when cooking, keep foods apart. Bag meats, poultry, and seafood separately to avoid the danger of cross-contamination.
Rule #2: Check the Cans
Normal foods may go bad after a week or two, but for all intents and purposes, canned food lasts forever …. Right? Not necessarily. Although canned foods usually have very long shelf lives (months or years), they are not guaranteed to be safe. Bacteria which were accidentally sealed into the can may still be alive inside, corrupting the contents from the inside out. To avoid eating a bad batch of canned tomatoes, always check cans and jars. Don’t buy anything that looks bloated, swollen, or cracked. Never grab a jar which has been opened or tampered with. Buy perfect cans, get perfect results.
Rule #3: Shop in Order
Different foods go bad at different rates. By shopping in order, you minimize the chance that foods will begin to spoil before you get home to the refrigerator. A good rule of thumb is to check the temperature of foods. If the store finds it necessary to refrigerate something, odds are it is prone to going bad. Pick up these things last to minimize the time between refrigeration at the store and refrigeration at home.
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For cooking tips and recipe ideas, visit http://www.cdkitchen.com Joseph Devine |