People tend to stockpile. This desire is embedded in them by nature itself. To preserve vegetables for a long time, different methods are used. One of the most popular options is canning. It represents various methods of processing products aimed at the destruction of microorganisms that cause its damage, or the creation of adverse conditions for their activity. Canned vegetables can be prepared both at home and in production conditions. Moreover, in both cases, as a rule, the same methods and techniques are used.
Product classification
Depending on the amount of main ingredients used in the manufacturing process, canned vegetables are divided into two groups:
- One component. They process only one type of vegetable.
- Multi-component. Different vegetables are used for their preparation. The finished product is a kind of assorted.
Nowadays, such products are well known to the mass consumer. People have long been accustomed to include it in their daily diet. Canned vegetables according to the method of preparation are divided into several types:
- Natural, obtained by sterilizing fresh foods with added sugar or salt.
- Eateries. For them, vegetables are previously subjected to special processing. At the final stage, various spices, seasonings and fats are added to the main composition.
- Products intended for baby and diet food. For their manufacture, fresh or frozen products are used, which, as a result of complex processing, turn into highly nutritious fortified mixtures that are easily absorbed by the body.
Canned vegetables allow all year round to have products on the table that ripen only in summer or autumn. True, today such a problem is often solved differently. Vegetables brought from other regions and climatic zones simply appear on store shelves.
Natural canned food
Many people prefer to use canned vegetables prepared in a natural way. This has its own explanation, because, according to experts, they maximize retain the main advantages of the original products: color, taste, aroma and nutritional value. According to the production technology, such canned food is made by:
- Fermentation, i.e. sterilization or pasteurization of salted vegetables to increase their shelf life.
- Pickling. In this case, the safety of the products is achieved by pouring them with a special composition with the addition of acetic acid.
- Canning when boiled vegetables are placed in saline.
Such products can be eaten as an independent dish or side dish. For example, corn or green peas will be a good addition to meat. In addition, canned vegetables are widely used as semi-finished products for the preparation of salads, soups and other complex dishes.
Secrets of Technology
The production of canned vegetables is a complex process that takes place in several stages:
- Preparation of raw materials. First, vegetables are sent to sorting, where there is a separation of high-quality fruits from those that are unsuitable for use (immature, affected by pests or agricultural chemicals). Then the products are sent for cleaning. There, rough inedible parts are removed from them. For such an operation, as a rule, special mechanisms are used. After this, the raw materials are sent for grinding and calibration.
- Processing products. Most often, blanching of vegetables is performed at this stage. To do this, they are treated with steam or hot water for a certain period of time. After this, the products are cooled to avoid softening of the tissues and reduce their nutritional value.
- Packaging. Prepared vegetables are placed in a sterile container and poured with special solutions using various dispensers.
- Capping. The container with products is closed with metal lids using sealing machines. This is to prevent the ingestion of an air tank that contains hazardous microflora.
- Sterilization is a long-term heat treatment at high temperature to destroy microorganisms that may interfere with the long-term storage of cooked canned food.
After that, the products are stored and can be used if necessary at any time.
Ready snacks
No less popular among the people are also snack canned vegetables . They are multicomponent products that do not require additional processing and are completely ready for use. Just open the jar and put the mixture on a plate. Such vegetables, as a rule, play the role of a snack or side dish. It could be:
- caviar (squash, onion or eggplant);
- salad ("Winter", "Nezhinsky" or "Amateur");
- vegetable stew;
- appetizer ("Minsk", "Belarusian with mushrooms" and others);
- stuffed foods (pepper with vegetable or meat toppings).
Pate can also be used as a canned snack. In this case, the basis is vegetables fried in vegetable oil with various spices and salt. And as a supplement, mushrooms are most often used. It turns out a very successful combination. Such an aromatic mixture decorated with greens will be a good side dish, for example, for ordinary boiled potatoes.