Cooking Stack Exchange
Cooking Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [food-preservation]

Questions about LONG-TERM food storage such as canning, pickling, freezing, and drying.

This tag is meant as a catch-all term for all long-term food storage questions. Specific topics might include preparing fruit preserves, pickles, dried meat products (sausages or jerky, for example), freezing, and vacuum sealing.

If applicable, please also include tags indicating the type of food and the type of preservation, such as or .

438 questions
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2 answers

Why don't dry bread crumbs spoil, when bread does?

Why don't store-bought bread crumbs spoil? Can you make your own bread crumbs and save them for later use? Will homemade breadcrumbs mold?
brooke
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17
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3 answers

What's the difference between jam, jelly, and preserves?

I assume the difference in name is due to their cooking processes, but am unsure what exactly makes them different.
Eri
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17
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10 answers

How to label jars so the label comes off easily?

I have made several batches of jam over this summer and would like to label the jars. I am printing the labels on my laser printer for a more professional look. Also, I want to reuse the jars, so getting the labels off again is a requirement. This…
user149408
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16
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2 answers

Why peel tomatoes?

Everyone seems to think it is necessary to peel tomatoes before canning or freezing them. Since I do not peel tomatoes when I'm cooking with them (soups, salsa, etc.), I'm wondering if I can freeze them without peeling them. Does freezing/canning do…
Rebekah
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16
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3 answers

Is it valid to claim that a jam contains no preservatives?

Some commercial jams state on the label that they contain "no preservatives", or are "preservative free". As I understand it, jam is a type of fruit preserve. Like most fruit preserves, it is protected against bacteria and mould before opening by…
Ramius
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16
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3 answers

What is the process of storing food in toothpaste'ish tubes?

You know what I'm talking about, these food tubes that are popular for tomato paste, or pesto. Searching for 'food in tube' or 'how to make your own tomato paste in tube' yields mixed results, so I'm wondering if I'm even calling this preservation…
J.Deschenes
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16
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2 answers

Repackaging shelf-stable products

For products that start out shelf stable but are labeled "refrigerate after opening," I'm wondering if it's possible to safely return them to their shelf-stable status to save refrigerator space. A few specific products come to mind: olives, maple…
Jeff Axelrod
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14
votes
3 answers

Why do fridge temperature standards between US and other countries differ?

US recommendations always go for +4°C at most, and this would correlate with how the danger zone is defined in the pertinent literature. In Germany, most literature (and also the specification next to use-by dates on packaging) suggests +7°C or…
rackandboneman
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14
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4 answers

How do I preserve a tomato's freshness after it is cut?

I've seen and read online, and experienced firsthand, that refrigerating a tomato is an awful idea. Not only does it lose freshness, it does little to prevent wilting and leads to flavorless tomato. But, eventually a tomato needs to be cut if…
Zibbobz
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14
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2 answers

Can I freeze ice cream base before creaming it?

I recently acquired an ice cream maker, and successfully used it to make sone chocolate and coffee ice cream. The ice cream maker is actively cooled, but I doubt it makes a different. Most ice cream recipes call for preparing some sort of mix of egg…
Vladimir Cravero
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13
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2 answers

How to tell if preserved chillis are still good?

I grew dozens more chillis than I was able to use this year so rather than throw them away I preserved them in a mason jar. I didn't have a lot of time to do it so I looked online and an article (which I can't find now) said I could just preserve…
Kieran
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13
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2 answers

How to recover jam that has set too hard?

Every time I make jam I always manage to set it too hard. Is there any way to recover it once it's done this?
Vicky
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13
votes
2 answers

How to store garlic?

When I buy garlic, I normally put it in a bowl on the kitchen counter or in the pantry, and then pop off cloves as need. Sometimes, if the garlic has been around for a while, I find what looks like green sprouts inside / popping out of the cloves. …
John Roberts
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13
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2 answers

How long could a meat-based broth be held safely near 180F/82C?

This question is the flip-side of the commonly asked food temperature safety concerns. I'd like to know, if a meat-based soup stock (chicken/pork/beef/etc) were to be held constantly at a safe hot temperature of 165F/73C-180F/82C, how long could it…
Troy Howard
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13
votes
4 answers

Can I can vegetables using sous-vide?

My girlfriend and I were talking about the summer produce season approaching and hit on the idea of canning sous-vide. That is, rather than sterilizing by high heat for a short amount of time, you could sterilize with low heat for a large amount of…
Dennis
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