November 22, 2009

Is That Avocado Ripe Enough to Eat?

Reader Ilana sent me an interesting question: How do you tell if an avocado is ripe? Well, sometimes it’s difficult because avocados ripen unevenly. The lower part, surrounding the seed, ripens faster than the thickest part of the avocado’s neck.

I’ve had some avocados get brown and spoil before ripening. I presume it has something to do with the way they had been grown or stored. Usually an avocado ripens within a week. To make it ripen faster, put it in a paper bag in a drawer and don’t forget about it.

The avocado on the left is ready to eat. You can tell because the skin is starting to get brown and wrinkled. The unripe one is textured, like all avocados to varying degrees, but not wrinkled or shrunken.

Filed Under: Food Safety and Storage Tagged With: , , ,
November 15, 2009

Nine Tips to Help Food Last Longer

Acquiring good habits and keeping track of what’s in your refrigerator will save you money on your food bill.

Below I share tips to avoid cross-contamination: Don’t inadvertently mix up foods with different “eat-by” dates.

For more information see my chart on storing leftovers, Is This Food Safe to Eat?

1. New package, new spoon. When you open a new container of cottage cheese, use a fresh spoon too. The bits of older food on the original spoon will contaminate the fresh package.

Filed Under: Food Safety and Storage Tagged With: , , , ,
October 25, 2009

Is This Food Safe to Eat?

Every day WikiAnswers.lists dozens of questions about whether it’s safe to eat the three-day-old quiche, or the raw chicken left on the counter. The problem is that every food is stored under different conditions, and this makes a huge difference in how long it keeps. Published guidelines tend to be conservative. If you follow them strictly you may end up throwing out good food.

I wrote up a list of things to consider when deciding about questionable leftovers. The list will help you think about the type of food and whether it was stored properly. But first, examine the food. Leftover food should always look and smell normal.

The list is also a guide for storing foods carefully in the future. You pay good money for your food, why throw it out because it wasn’t put away properly?

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August 11, 2009

Food Storage Problems

The party’s over. The company was good, the food was tasty and plentiful, and our three meals ran smoothly. We enjoyed celebrating with my son. The only problem I had was with unexpected food spoilage.

It started last Thursday, when I did the majority of the cooking. It was an unusually hot day, and the cooked fish balls didn’t seem to be getting cold in the refrigerator. So I left the bulgur wheat on the stove to cool longer than I would have liked.

Filed Under: Food Safety and Storage
May 3, 2009

Don’t Bite the Bugs: How to Prevent Insect Infestation

Insects aren’t necessarily bad for you, and insects in grains have served as a source of Vitamin B12 for vegans in some countries. However, they can destroy your food. And most people prefer not to include them in their diet. Since bugs aren’t kosher, I’ve learned techniques for keeping bugs out of food in the […]

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