The primary culinary processing of vegetables is a procedure that a person who has something to do with cooking must face.
General recommendations
Any product that has fallen into the kitchen before being used for cooking is certainly subjected to pre-treatment. This also applies to vegetables. The primary processing of vegetables and mushrooms is carried out as carefully and thoroughly as possible.
Peeling vegetables should be done when the vegetables and hands are sufficiently dry. In this case, careful removal of all damaged areas should be sought.
Immediately after cleaning each vegetable, it should not be placed on a cutting board, but in a bowl where cold water is poured.
The primary processing of vegetables at home and in the catering system includes several stages: sorting, washing, cleaning and slicing.
Sorting vegetables
This stage is designed to remove rotten, badly beaten specimens and foreign objects, in addition, while vegetables or mushrooms are sorted based on size and quality.
Primary processing of vegetables with sorting by quality makes it possible to use each variety more correctly. For example, bitter varieties of onions are used when preparing the first and second courses, while sweet varieties are best used for salad, sauce or a side dish for cold dishes.
Ripe and strong tomatoes are used in salads, mashed and overripe are made tomato puree, and green ones are suitable for salting, they can also be left for further ripening.
Sorting by size helps to conduct the process more correctly, because the cooking time for different sized products in the case of heat treatment can be different.
Sorting by the size of root crops reduces the size of waste during mechanized cleaning. If vegetables are not sorted, much more waste is produced. This is due to the fact that large root crops, along with the skin, capture a significant part of the tuber, which is edible.
Usually sorting is done manually, only for potatoes mechanical sieves and drums can be used.
Washing and cleaning
Primary processing of vegetables necessarily includes washing them in cool water to remove particles of dirt. This step is necessary to ensure compliance with hygiene standards during the manufacturing process.
A thorough washing of the potatoes is required to prevent spoilage by solid fractions of the grater disc on the potato peelers. Waste from well-washed potatoes allows you to get high-quality starch.
Green onions, leaves of spinach, lettuce, parsley, cilantro and the like, after the rotten parts and roots are removed, are lowered into a vessel with cold water for half an hour to soak the soil and sand adhering to the greens.
Then the greens are washed with a large amount of water, which is taken at the rate of up to 10 liters per kilogram of product. In this case, the water changes up to three times.
In industrial conditions, special sieves or baskets are used to wash tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers and zucchini.
The primary processing of vegetables in the third stage involves cleaning.
For potatoes, a catering system provides for peeling. When using them, peeled tubers remain with the eyes, which have to be cleaned with a groove knife.
Manual peeling involves only one knife.
When manually peeling young potatoes, it is poured into a container of water, the peel on it is peeled off due to the rotational movements of the wooden oar. The remaining peel is cleaned by hand with a knife.
In white, red and Savoy cabbage, contaminated and decayed leaves or their damaged areas are cut from the stump. If you have to cook dishes using whole cabbage leaf, the stalk is cut so that the leaf remains intact. If the cabbage is intended for further cutting, the head of cabbage is cut into 2-4 parts, after which it is convenient to cut the stump.
Primary processing: cutting vegetables
So that the finished culinary products have an attractive appearance, and in the process of heat treatment all the pieces are prepared at the same time, they must have the same shape and thickness.
There are special machines for slicing, but in small volumes vegetables are cut manually.
Pieces can be in the form of slices, circles, cubes, sticks, straws or slices.
More complex cutting is done to give the pieces of vegetables the shape of a barrel, pear, cylinder, ball, scallop, nut, shavings, spirals.
Work with mushrooms
Preparatory work with mushrooms, as well as primary processing of vegetables, is divided into certain stages.
First, worm-affected areas should be removed. The legs are cut lengthwise and together with hats are placed for a couple of hours in a basin where salted water is poured to get rid of live larvae.
When the mushrooms are well washed, they can be cooked.
To prevent blackening of the mushrooms during the cleaning process, they are dipped in cold water with the addition of vinegar.