Tag - preservation

bunch of fresh basil leaves
Researching Ingredients

Flavour of basil – Herb science

The other day we bought a beautiful fresh bunch of basil. Whereas you can use the dried version of a lot of herbs in a lot of recipes, I find that basil is almost always best when you use it fresh. It is no use making a...

January 1, 2020
6 min read
Home made yogurt
Making Food

How yogurt is made – In a factory & At home

Just like a sourdough starter, yogurt is a self supplying food. Once you’ve got yogurt, all you need is extra milk and some patience. With those you continue making new yogurt from your yogurt! Just as with a...

August 18, 2019
10 min read
sauerkraut, ready for fermentation
Food Microbiology Basics

Lactic acid fermentation in food

Yogurt, sauerkraut, pickles, none of these products would exist without lactic acid fermentation. This is a series of chemical reactions that transforms your ingredients into something pretty different (and delicious)...

June 16, 2018
5 min read
Storing Food

Making jam – the Science

If you have fruit trees in your garden you’re probably also swamped with fruit during certain times of the year. All of a sudden, you’ve got 5kg of figs and 20kg of apples. And not enough time to eat them...

August 18, 2019
8 min read
strawberry raspberry creme patissier pie
Storing Food

On choosing & storing fresh strawberries

Summer’s there! Warm temperatures, sun and long long light days. Living in the Netherlands, summer is no guarantee for nice weather, rain and cold(er) days are no exception. Summer for me is a synonym for berries...

May 20, 2018
5 min read
spices for making sauerkraut
waffles

Making sauerkraut – start of my experiment

This month I try to focus all of my posts on the science of fruits and vegetables (I call it fruit & vegetable science month!). Then, this morning, I was browsing through the internet and ran into a (Dutch) post on...

August 18, 2019
5 min read
Storing Food

History of Pasteurization

Sometimes we tend to forget how much our food supply (and it’s safety) has changed over the past two centuries. Children (and adults for that matter) used to die way more frequently from contaminated milk. Milk...

January 3, 2020
3 min read