Category: Meat

    The Saving is in the Spices

    From the sandy beaches of Zanzibar to the bustling markets of the Malabar Coast, entrepreneurs tore up the world in search of spices.

    When they found cumin, nutmeg, ginger and paprika, consumers around the world went wild. Why? Because spices changed their boiled potatoes, cow hides and thin chickens into delicious savory dishes that sparkled in richness and flavor. The revelation for the palate was both sensational and devastating for people around the world.

    Today the chases for spices no longer leaves vulnerable populations in colonial hands, but the joy in transforming food has not abated. Spices take up half an aisle in your typical grocery store, and a few self-service bins. Beyond salt, we have discovered a need to jazz food up to make the eating decision much more pleasurable.

    Efficient Spicing

    While typical recipes often call for precise spice measurements, efficient eaters have no time for measuring spoons. The idea of only allowing a precise amount of dusty powder in our food is too much of a restraint for someone with a business to run.

    Not to mention, opening and closing all those spice bottles which can add precious minutes through added steps to meal preparation. Unfortunately, spices are by definition inefficient because there are so many different kinds, multiples can be used together in different dishes, and those bottles are either small and finicky or ginormous bulk varieties. Worse if you buy in bulk bags, you have to come up with some other smaller container transfer system or you risk having a mess on your hands every time you want a pinch of black pepper.

    Experiment First

    To include spices, which are essential for enjoying repetitive food and ensuring flavor after freezing and recooking, we recommend adding spices to taste – always. This means put in as much or as little as you want as you prefer depending on how it tastes to you, and whoever shares in the food you’re preparing.

    The Efficient Eater should follow our meal ideas and experiment with how much spice to add each time.

    When bulk cooking, you do not want to add any unknown spice to a pot full of two weeks worth of food. That’s way too much of a surprise to discover you do not like paprika on your chicken after you have cooked two weeks worth of chicken pieces!

    [Ninga tip: you can in fact ‘wash off’ your cooked chicken and re-heat in a new sauce made of another spice. However, if the food has been sitting in the old spice for awhile, chances are the flavors have seeped through and you’ll be in for yet another big surprise, which or may not be a good thing.]

    Unless you know how much you love a particular spice, do not add the entire bottle of something new all at once. Cook your bulk food without spices, then add your new addition to your own serving at each meal. Add or subtract the added amount as necessary for you to enjoy. You can even add a sprinkle or two to each spoonful to decide how the taste is changing, and finalize your decision in one meal. [That’s very efficient! Excellent!]

    After ten or so iterations, you should have an idea of how much spice you can tolerate in one setting. For example, if you experimented up and down with a new spice over five meals, and settled on the amount used at meal five. Remember that amount, multiple the amount – one shake, one spoonful – by the number of meals you cook at one time, and you will have the amount of spice to add to the entire pot or baking dish the next time you cook.

    Write it down if you think you’ll forget. Or put a little less if you’re still afraid. Once you know you like a particular spice with a particular food, you can go ahead and add it to the entire pot and continue to iterate.

    Some suggestions

    • Cumin – for chicken, turkey
    • Black pepper – on everything, almost a staple after salt
    • Garlic – on everything
    • Ginger – for fish, seafood, lighter meals
    • Mustard – often overlooked as a powdered spice, but adds a good kick to lighter foods like fish
    • Oregano – for meat, pasta, dark vegetables
    • Paprika – this spice is sweet ground red peppers so technically goes with everything. But sometimes too sweet for certain meals, but a good option if nothing else is available
    • Red (chili) pepper – on everything
    • Turmeric – for chicken, turkey, fish, vegetables – has taken on a cult-like status in recent times

    For a break down of all the spices we know, and their recommended uses, see The Spice List (coming soon).

      The Case For Frozen Food

      The Efficient Eater website is specifically dedicated to maintaining productivity by finding fast, efficient and easy ways to cook and eat using bulk cooking, freezing your food, and heating the meals up to two to four weeks later.

      The idea is to keep cooked food preserved over time so that the busy entrepreneur does not have to take time out of her day, every day, to cook.

      For those who are against frozen food or re-heating, this process will not work for you.

      But if you are on the fence because you’ve heard some strange things about frozen food…read on.

      In our millennia long quest to make food preparation easier, humankind has made incredible strides. From the invention of fire to microwaves and the refrigerated truck, each year seems to bring a simplified method for meeting our nutritional needs. Of course, many of these advances have come at a cost. Land has been irrevocably altered to satisfy industrial agriculture, and waste and pollution have skyrocketed to produce for the sake of convenience.

      Yet since survival is our first basic instinct, and food is critical to survival there are few who would support altering the mass production of food that has permitted so many to maintain their lives. Instead, we have to consider how we can continue our advancements without causing more destruction.

      For Efficient Eaters who are also trying to stay healthy, one solution is to take advantage of healthy, sustainable purchase options like farmers markets, but to reduce the time burden of using this service by buying in bulk, cooking, and freezing the food.

      Although leafy vegetables, creams and other dairy products are not the best choices for freezing, almost every other food will work, and provide meals for weeks to come.

      For this efficiency strategy to work, you need to be able to freeze food, and assuming the food was safe when you put it in the freezer, you do not need to fear that there will be a problem when you take it out.

      The Facts about Frozen Food

      From the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), here’s what you need to understand.

      Almost any food can be frozen and eaten later

      The USDA exceptions include canned food and food in shells, like eggs. But even these examples have exceptions (to the exception). You can always take food out of a can and put it in a freezer container for preservation. With eggs, the issue is not so much a health threat, but the alteration of texture. You can freeze eggs in the shell, but if the shell cracks, the yolk turns thick and syrupy and will no longer function as you may expect for your favorite recipe. But if you try it, especially if you are using the egg in a savory dish, you may find there is no issue.

      Often the main reason people are afraid to freeze food for any length of time is because they fear an alteration of the taste. Some people believe you cannot freeze food because the after-freezing taste is not as good as the before-freezing taste. This is well…a matter of taste. It does not mean the food has gone bad.

      But a changed taste may be the result of freezer burn. Because of this real issue in many freezers, some believe in the literal interpretation of the word ‘burn’ as if the food has been scorched beyond a recognizable taste. Freezer burn is the damage to food caused by dehydration or oxidation due to exposure to air. So the best way to avoid it is to use air tight containers. You can still eat freezer ‘burned’ food, if you can tolerate the potentially altered taste.

      Frozen food is safe

      The act of freezing stops molecules from moving around, which stops microbes – bacteria, yeast and molds – and microorganisms from growing. It’s the same thing that happens to you if you are frozen. You stop growing and decaying. The food, which has basically already died once to become food, does not die somehow die again to become inedible.

      Instead, the minute you thaw the food, the microbes reactivate and you have to cook or eat (or both) before it goes bad. This is why thawing and refreezing can be an issue because if you leave the food at room temperature long enough to activate microbes, and then return the food to the freezer, you are freezing the active microbes in place for the next thawing.

      Your best bet is to only thaw food when you are ready to eat it.

      Cooking before long-term freezing is also important. Cooking destroys parasites. So cooked food becoming frozen food should not be an issue, unless there was something else going on with the food in the first place. And thawing and re-heating the food in the in the microwave or oven promotes further destruction of some of the unseen creepy crawlies who may have been an issue.

      The process is Fresh -> Cook -> Freeze -> Thaw -> Reheat -> Eat

      Given this sequence, you should avoid capturing microbes, parasites, microorganisms or any other small unknowns in your food. Make sure you are cooking in a safe environment and frequently wipe surfaces with raw food or juices, and watch the use and re-use of utensils that are handling raw food, clean or change utensils as you cook.

      The post-frozen flavor

      Frozen food will maintain its taste if it’s frozen when it’s in good condition. We recommend shopping, cooking and freezing as a one day event. Cook the food on the day you buy it, and freeze the same day to maintain freshness and color when it’s defrosted.

      Freezing does not destroy nutrients

      But there could always be something else going on with the food independent of freezing. So if the food is already deteriorating, freezing does not reverse that process.

      Original packaging

      You can leave frozen food in its original packaging. Food that is prepared specifically to be frozen should be placed in air-tight freezer safe containers.

      Fast vs slow freezing

      Freeze immediately after cooking, and try and keep the freezer closed so that the process can be as quick as possible. Depending on the size of the container, the stored food needs two to four hours to freeze, but overnight is a good rule to follow.

      Refreezing

      You can refreeze food that has thawed in the refrigerator (not at room temperature) or cooked food that was previously frozen.

      Power outage

      If the power goes out and you do not open the freezer door, you could have about two days before the food begins to go spoil. If the power comes on within that time, again do not open the door as you wait for the food to refreeze. If the power is expected to be out indefinitely, time to start eating. If any of the food is uncooked, start by cooking that first.

      Below is the USDA’s Freezer storage chart which is used for quality only meaning the recommended timeframe for eating food where it maintains its original flavor. Cooked frozen food can stay frozen as long as you need.