Keeping Food Fresh: Old World Techniques & Recipes [Paperback]

Claude Aubert (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1999

Food preservation techniques can be divided into two categories: the modern scientific methods that remove life from food, and the natural 'poetic' methods that maintain or enhance life in food, " writes Coleman in his foreword to Keeping Food Fresh. "The poetic techniques produce live foods like those celebrated for centuries and considered gourmet delights today. The scientific techniques produce dead foods and literally seal them in coffins. My instincts tell me that long-dead foods cannot properly nourish long-lived people."

Terre Vivante, located in south-central France, like the Real Goods Solar Living Center, is a place where people have tried to "get it right, " to demonstrate that food can be grown without toxic chemicals, disruptive machinery, and waste. This book, the collective effort of more than 150 organic gardeners working across France and in various corners of Europe, celebrates recipes for storing fruits and vegetables in a form as near as possible to fresh, including:
-- Solar and air drying
-- Lacto-fermentation in crockery or jars, as in sauerkraut
-- Storing produce a root or pantry in cellar, attic,
-- Preserving produce in its own juices, or in oil, vinegar, salt, or sugar
-- Preserving in wine

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Deliberately omitting the two most widely used food preservation methods in the United States (canning and freezing), editor Aubert (Hunger and Health: Eleven Key Questions on Farming, Food, and Health in the Third World) presents here an array of old-fashioned recipes for food preservation collected from the editors at Terre Vivante, a French ecological center. The result is a charming, compact collection about how to use salt, oil, sugar, alcohol, vinegar, drying, cold storage, and lactic fermentation to preserve foods. Though the contributors are European, similar recipes and methods were used throughout the world until the advent of canning in the late 19th century. But, since many of the recipes do not meet current American food safety standards, this book is more a curio than a practical handbook; it may, however, be useful for Y2K survivalists and historical researchers. Not an essential purchase for public libraries; recommended only for the most extensive food collections or where demand warrants.ABonnie Poquette, Shorewood P.L., WI
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

This enlightening book offers options to the traditional methods of preserving fruits and vegetables from the garden by freezing or canning. In a foreword written by Eliot Coleman, the well-known gardener notes how the use of more natural methods serves to enhance the flavors as well as the nutritional values of foods. Contained here are 250 recipes that feature eight different ways to preserve fresh produce. In various instances, spoilage is prevented by using salt, sugar, oil, vinegar, wine, or alcohol. Some recipes preserve foods for weeks, while others keep foods good for many months. Should the millennium bug be a problem, look to this manual for information on how to preserve food by storing it in the ground or a root cellar, by air drying, by preserving with the condiments mentioned above, and by other techniques that deserve wider recognition. Alice Joyce

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 197 pages
• Publisher: Chelsea Green (September 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890132101
• ISBN-13: 978-1890132101
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #242,793 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Traditional Food Preserving Techniques from France, August 1, 2001

By 

"steve-xwzx" (Nerstrand, MN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Keeping Food Fresh: Old World Techniques & Recipes (Paperback)

"Keeping Food Fresh" is a compilation of recipes for preserving food contributed by readers of a French gardening magazine. It was originally published in French and has been translated to English with care. Recipes for frozen or canned products were omitted to allow a focus on older, more traditional methods.

The material presented is perhaps best used by the American reader as a point of reference when evaluating other recipes. It also could serve as the starting point for experimentation. It is not a cookbook in that the recipes come from many sources and do not appear to have been checked in a test kitchen. Some of the quantities betray their metric roots, since few recipes in this country would call for 11 pounds of an ingredient.

Some recipes clearly do not meet USDA safety guidelines, as is pointed out in the editorial comments.

Those who appreciate Eliot Coleman's writing should realize that his writing in this book is limited to the introductory material.

Overall, I found the book to be an interesting read, with much unique knowledge not available elsewhere. It approaches "primary source" material in that the traditional family recipes have undergone little editing, thus their historical fabric is more effectively captured.

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Have Book, June 29, 2000

By 

Leda Meredith (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Keeping Food Fresh: Old World Techniques & Recipes (Paperback)

I can't recommend this book highly enough! If you are interested in delicious, safe ways to preserve food without the need for a freezer, canner, or other equipment, this is the book for you. Written in a wonderfully personable style by gardeners and farmers who've been using these recipes all their lives.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, but not a normal cookbook, July 8, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Keeping Food Fresh: Old World Techniques & Recipes (Paperback)

The recipies in this book were submitted by French magazine readers, and cover a wide variety of traditional preservation techniques: preserving with vinegar, oil and sugar; preserving with alcohol; preserving by lactic fermentation; and several other techniques.

If you're looking for straightforward, easy, safe recipies for preserving food, you'll find this book a mixed blessing. Many recipies omit quantities, and few of them have been tried in any sort of test kitchen. Most importantly, a number of these traditional recipies involve important food-safety issues--as the book itself repeatedly makes clear. You will, however, find many excellent ideas in the chapters on oil, vinegar, sugar and alcohol.

If, however, you're interested in traditional food-preservation techniques, this book is uniformly excellent. The chapter on lactic fermentation of vegetables is fascinating, and the diversity of preservation techniques is remarkable.