Reading 2

Unit 6- Reading 2

Page 90

Preserving foods

The daily diet of early humans depended on what foods they could find. While women searched for available fruits or roots, men hunted for wild animals or caught fish. However, if the humans did not eat the food in a few days, it began to rot.

Rotten food did not taste good. It often made the humans sick. Early humans did not know how to preserve food to keep it safe to eat later. Today we have many techniques to preserve food. Some are thousands of years old.

THE ROLE OF BACTERIA

Early hunters were the first to discover cooling as a way to preserve meat. After killing a large animal, they often dragged it to a nearby cave to hide it from hungry animals. Each day they would cut off pieces of raw meat to eat. It was cool inside the cave, so the animal meat did not rot quickly. It stayed good to eat for many days.

In the winter, meat left inside the cave froze. It was still good to eat months later.

Early hunters did not know about bacteria. They did not know that bacteria cause meat and other foods to rot. They did not know that cooling slows the growth of bacteria and that freezing stops it. In warmer parts of the world, early humans discovered that dried foods lasted for a long time.

They discovered that meats and fruits left to dry in the hot sun did not rot. The humans did not know that bacteria cannot grow without moisture (wetness).

FARMING

When humans learned to farm, it significantly changed the way they lived. They no longer had to search for food. Instead, they relied on farm animals to supply them with meat and milk.

They ate grains and vegetables that they planted. Farmers had plenty of fresh food available during the warm months. They ate much of it. But they also preserved some to create a supply of food to eat during the winter.

PRESERVING FOOD

Farmers discovered several new techniques for preserving food.

For example, they preserved meat by packing it in salt or by hanging it over a smoking fire. They also preserved vegetables in olive oil, salt. or vinegar. People of different cultures used these techniques, and the results were often very different. For example, Koreans combined raw cabbage and salt and made kimchi. Germans combined raw cabbage and salt and made sauerkraut.

During the winter months, farmers relied on preserved foods for their meals.

For thousands of years, there were few significant changes in food, preservation. Finally, in the 19th century, the technique of canning was developed. In-home kitchens, foods were sealed inside glass jars. Then the jars were boiled to ensure that bacteria were destroyed. In commercial canning factories.

cooked foods were sealed into metal cans. A supply of canned foods could be stored in a kitchen cupboard for a long time. Early in the twentieth century, home refrigerators became available. The cool temperature inside kept foods fresh for many days.

A visit to a modern grocery store is a reminder of the many ways that humans have found to preserve foods.

For instance, you will see foods that are frozen, refrigerated, canned, and dried. You will even see smoked and salted meats.