When it comes to cooking, cooking ingredients play a vital role. No matter how good your cooking skills and utensils are, the food you cook and serve will be spoiled if the cooking ingredients are not fresh. So, you have to know how to take care of them, from how to defrost a freezer used to store them to how to prepare them properly. The following tips on how to keep your cooking ingredients fresh and healthy will help in this case.
Use proper storage
The first and most important thing to keep your cooking ingredients fresh and healthy is to use proper storage. Although you have a fridge, it doesn’t mean you can just put all of your cooking ingredients there. Different cooking ingredients need to be stored in different places. For example, meat has to be put in a freezer to last long while it’s best to put fruits and vegetables in the drawer at the bottom part of a fridge. Those cooking ingredients must be separated to avoid contamination. In addition, some cooking ingredients are not recommended to be stored in a fridge such as spices.
Rotate stock regularly
The next tip that you can use to keep your cooking ingredients fresh and healthy is to rotate stock regularly. In this case, you must use the FIFO (first in, first out) principle. That way, no cooking ingredients will be wasted due to expiration or rottenness. To help you with this, you can put newly bought cooking ingredients at the back of a drawer while the older ones are put at the front. This will make it easier for you or others to use the older cooking ingredients first.
Properly clean and prepare your cooking ingredients
Another tip that is no less important in keeping your cooking ingredients fresh and healthy is to clean and prepare them properly. Before you cook them, you always have to wash them under running water until they are clean to remove dirt and bacteria. In addition, you have to trim damaged or rotten parts of your cooking ingredients to prevent them from contaminating the meal you prepare.
Label and date containers
Another simple but helpful tip to keep your cooking ingredients fresh and healthy is to label and date the containers used to store them. You can label them based on the date you buy them. Use a permanent marker and big font so that the writings are clearly visible and can be read in an instant. That way, you will know right away if they have sat in your drawer or fridge for a long time and are expected to have expired.
