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Master the active vocabulary. pantry –кладовая для продуктов, буфетная комната

pantry – кладовая для продуктов, буфетная комната

pallet – поддон

eventual – конечный, окончательный

extent of ripeness – степень спелости (выдержанности)

pickling – квашение, засол, посол, пикелевание

cellar – подвал, погреб

millet – просо

cornmeal – кукурузная мука

rigid – жёсткий, негнущийся, негибкий, несгибаемый, твёрдый

rodent – грызун

to sprout – давать почки, пускать ростки, давать побеги, расти

to dispense – раздавать, делить, распределять, отправлять.

Food storage is both a traditional domestic skill and is important industrially. Food is stored by almost every human society and by many animals. Storing of food has several main purposes:

· Storage of harvested and processed plant and animal food products for distribution to consumers

· Enabling a better balanced diet throughout the year

· Reducing kitchen waste by preserving unused or uneaten food for later use

· Preserving pantry food, such as spices or dry ingredients like rice and flour, for eventual use in cooking

· Preparedness for catastrophes, emergencies and periods of food scarcity or famine

· Religious reasons (Example: LDS Church leaders instruct church members to store food)

· Protection from animals or theft

The guidelines vary for safe storage of vegetables under dry conditions (without refrigerating or freezing). This is because different vegetables have different characteristics, for example, tomatoes contain a lot of water, while root vegetables such as carrots and potatoes contain less. These factors, and many others, affect the amount of time that a vegetable can be kept in dry storage, as well as the temperature needed to preserve its usefulness. The following guideline shows the required dry storage conditions:

· Cool and dry: onions

· Cool and moist: root vegetables, potatoes, cabbage

· Warm and dry: winter squash, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, dried hot peppers

All vegetables can be safely stored by refrigeration or freezing. When refrigerated uncooked, they should be used within a month, although depending upon the extent of ripeness when refrigerated, they may spoil earlier; this will most likely be obvious due to visible mold, brown spots, and so on. Frozen vegetables should be used within a year. When cooked, vegetables can be safely refrigerated for several days, or frozen for up to a year. However, if meat or animal ingredients such as fats or butter have been added to the vegetables during cooking, they should be eaten within 4 days if they are refrigerated; they can be safely frozen for 6 months. Many cultures have developed innovative ways of preserving vegetables so that they can be stored for several months between harvest seasons. Techniques include pickling, home canning, food dehydration, or storage in a root cellar.

Fruits can be refrigerated for up to a month uncooked, or frozen for up to a year. There are a large number of methods of preserving fruit for extended periods of up to six months: candying, dehydrating, or cooking into preserves such as jam or jelly.

Grain, which includes dry kitchen ingredients such as flour, rice, millet, couscous, cornmeal, and so on, can be stored in rigid sealed containers to prevent moisture contamination or insect or rodent infestation. For kitchen use, glass containers are the most traditional method. During the 20th century plastic containers were introduced for kitchen use. They are now sold in a vast variety of sizes and designs. Metal cans are used (in the USA the smallest practical grain storage uses closed-top #10 metal cans). Storage in grain sacks is ineffective; mold and pests destroy a 25 kg cloth sack of grain in a year, even if stored off the ground in a dry area. On the ground or damp concrete, grain can spoil in as little as three days, and the grain might have to be dried before it can be milled. Food stored under unsuitable conditions should not be purchased or used because of risk of spoilage. To test whether grain is still good, sprout some. If it sprouts, it is still good, but if not, it should not be eaten. It may take up to a week for grains to sprout. When in doubt about the safety of the food, throw it out.

Spices and herbs are today often sold prepackaged in a way that is convenient for pantry storage. The packaging has a dual purpose of both storing and dispensing the spices or herbs. They are sold in small glass or plastic containers, or resealable plastic packaging. When spices or herbs are homegrown or bought in bulk, they can be stored at home in glass or plastic containers. They can be stored for extended periods, in some cases for years. However, after 6 months to a year, spices and herbs will gradually lose their flavor as oils they contain will slowly evaporate during storage. Spices and herbs can be preserved in vinegar for short periods of up to a month, creating flavored vinegar.

Alternative methods for preserving herbs include freezing in water or unsalted butter. Herbs can be chopped and added to water in an ice cube tray. After freezing, the ice cubes are emptied into a plastic freezer bag for storing in the freezer. Herbs also can be stirred into a bowl with unsalted butter, then spread on wax paper and rolled into a cylinder shape. The wax paper roll containing the butter and herbs is then stored in a freezer, and can be cut off in the desired amount for cooking. Using either of these techniques, the herbs should be used within a year.


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