What if the secret to great meals lies in forgotten traditions?

I bet you have been to a dinner session not just to feed your hungry stomach but a hungry soul as well. The kind of meal that requires you to stop and think for a moment before you start eating and chancing on the nice rapture behind the first bite. Imagine if I told you that there isn’t any need to use high tech kitchen gadgets, or use trending ideas and concepts to prepare such a meal? But it could be in those things our one-time forebears did, those traditions we, in fact, still practice. Some of which no longer known by most of the people, but when those traditions are recalled and brought to life to the kitchen, food becomes extra special.

Current society operates on the principle of convenience and so, in most cases, people have distanced themselves from a slow, simple, and mindful method of cooking. However, when these lost practices are as simple as they are presented here, it makes one wonder what would happen if these methods could additionally be fun, delicious, and beneficial to the body? It is about Time to discover the treasures behind Culinary Customs and how the latter can change the approach to cooking and feeding.

The Art of Slow Cooking: Patience Pays Off

Slow cooking may sound prehistoric in the contemporary society characterized by constantly changing technologies and fast foods. Given microwave and fast foods what do people have to wait for hours just to be able to eat? Slow cooking was not only about nourishing individuals, it became more of a way of making meal the voices of the ingredients we use rings out loud.

That is, it is like the aroma from a stew that is being cooked on stove for several hours. The flavors work on each other to establish a product that is far from a hasty meal to be assembled in minutes. Slow cooking was part of the norm in the so called traditional kitchen practices. Men and women would begin to cook in the morning and by evening the food would be well done to their driest desires.

In addition to making your food delicious, slow cooking also preserves and enhances the nutrient value of your foods. When using slow cooking to braise meat, to thicken soup or to prepare a starchy stew the best thing that happens is that flavors are really allowed to fully develope. And the best part? You don’t need to babysit the pot, so you can leave the area for a while to do other things. After all the ingredients are put in you just wait for them to work.

Fermentation: The Oldest Trick in the Book

You might know that kombucha, sauerkraut, or kimchi are good for your gut but what you probably don’t know is that fermentation is the oldest method of food preservation. Although people began to use fermentation to store food before the invention of refrigerator, it provided so many taste and healthy effects.

Fermentation is a biological process in which the sugars are broken down by bacteria and yeast turning normal food into special food. For instance, we have strikes like those of sourdough bread. Still, this bread is not the process of blending flour and water; it’s about time and fermentation. This is why sourdough has a sour taste and has a good chew to it that is not characteristic of bread bought from the market.

Especially all the fermented foods which are a perfect source of probiotics for your stomach. Over several years, civilizations have depended on the fermentation of food to preserve and enrich it. One of the reasons that you’ll find that this product lacked some distinct flavor is because they used methods that are now considered modern they didn’t use the fermentation process.

So next time when you are having a jar of pickles or slice of great sourdough remember you are having a piece of history.

The Forgotten Practice of Pickling and Curing

Foods have always been a problem for man due to lack of preservation and this was before there was invention of fridge. Refrigeration was also not yet known, other methods for preserving food were pickling as well as curing, which also helped to add lots of taste. As we don’t use these techniques for sustaining ourselves at present, they are some of the most effective methods of improving the taste of simple ingredients.

A pickling process involves covering the food product with vinegar or brine to make it taste sour. Consider thee pickled cucumbers, carrots or even onions, thee tangy, crunch aspects add the right kick to most savoury meals. But are you aware that pickling can be done to all kinds of vegetables, fruits, or even eggs? Picking is an interesting way of preserving food because each of them develops its own taste when immersed in the pickling liquid.

There on the other hand is curing which is a process of preserving food by the aid of salt. That’s why salt is used to remove moisture, bacteria are stopped from further growth, and the flavors will appear even deeper. Even basic proteins, such as pork or fish, are kept refrigerated for a few weeks or even months before being used to make products like prosciutto or smoked salmon.

With the methods of pickling and curing is something that can easily be introduced back into any home. Not only will you incorporate more flavors in to your meals, but you’ll also feel as though you are reaching back in time.

Cooking with Fire: Rediscovering the Flames

Next time you roast some meat over an open flame and compare the taste to that of the food cooked on a stove you would wonder how the difference came about. Grilling is as old as civilization, and it remains one of the most effective methods of getting those flavors that come with smoke.

They used fire to do the cooking before electricity came with electric ovens and electric stoves among others. Whether it was just a spit over a laid fire or a clay oven or even an open grill fire has always been an important factor in cooking. Grilling some meat over an open fire which in the present day appliances are unable to produce has a roasted/smoky layer to it which is distinctive.

Being an avid food lover I can attest to the fact that there something special about cooking through fire. The hotter the flames, the better sugars caramelize on the vegetables, meats become crisp while gaining a peculiar smoky note. Probably the most straightforward cooking over fire is roasting, which equals grilling, however, you can also try smoking, which means cooking food over a prolonged period without direct contact with the flame.

Hand-Crafting: The Joy of Making Food from Scratch

Being a part of the generation that seldom or hardly ever prepares foods or other commodities from scratch, we’ve all lost the fun of creating something ourselves. However, if you decide to cook your food on your own you do not only think about the end result but the whole process.

For example let’s look at the task of making bread. Fermenting dough in a bread maker, then taking it out and shaping the dough to make a loaf is very satisfying. Each bite that is taken form newly baked bread has lots of love and care added to it and definitely tastes much better than some bread bought in a supermarket.

Learning how to make pasta by hand, making butter, or preparing homemade jams will give that feeling of having made the food with your bare hands. Unfortunately, when you cook from a scratch, you are respecting traditions that have been in existence for hundreds and even thousands of years. You’ll also seeing that these hand-made foods usually more fresh along with richer flavors compared with foods made with plenty of preservatives or convenience foods.

Seasonal Eating: Taste the Difference

The fore-parents were a luckier generation but they were unlucky in a way they could not get strawberries in winter or tomatoes throughout the year. They took what was obtainable depending on the season, so, they used to get the tastiest meal on their tables. Another interesting tradition that have been long forgotten is seasonal eating.

Have you ever wondered that eating fresh fruits and vegetables are tastier during a given season? people have a wide gauge of how summer tomatoes feel and taste which is different from those tomatoes grown in the vending machines all year round. There are so many varieties available for Autumn squashes, spring greens, and winter root vegetables, and all these come with their type of flavors that can revolutionalize your way of cooking.

If you follow seasonal food rules, you will get the food that is tastier and healthier and, of course, the food that harms the environment less because it is locally sourced. You can benefit largely from foods that are ripened interchangeably within their natural season because they are more nutritionally packed foods and they are flavorful at appropriate time of ripening.

The Social Side of Food: Bringing People Together

In my opinion one of the most stunning aspects of food is where stands fir in terms of uniting people. In ancient time people took meals together, they sat around the table and food was served as they chatted. However, in the present society with many people pressured and tied up with a lot of activities, eating has become an individual affair.

One of the best traditions people can take back into their lives is the ability to reestablish the social connection of food. Often we have a dinner party or cook food with members of the family or just eat together with friends and there is no bond like that of sharing food.

It becomes much more than nourishment for somebody else’s body, but it becomes an act of love. A good basic meal in the company of the family members, friends and other love ones, chatting, joking and relishing the food is something that should not lose.

Embracing Rituals in the Kitchen

It can be very meditative – food is not just a source of nutrition, cooking is not only just preparing food to nourish ourselves. For most cultures the practice of cooking is adjacent to ceremonies, procreation or religious observances. These rituals give an even added value to the food that we prepare.

For instance, in some cultures the people offer thanks to the gods before they cook the food. In others, some foods are prepared when they are in abundance and this is mostly when there are festivals, thanksgiving’s etc. These rituals do not just serve to point out that the food, available on our table is not just food but our culture, history, and love.

In other words, it adds little prescribed steps into this very daily cooking—they can be a blessing before eating, cooking while focusing on the task, or cooking something special for someone important in your life.

A Return to Our Culinary Roots

As we’ve seen, many of the cooking practices that ancient societies performed. But by returning these staple foods to our kitchens we can enrich our dishes, reacquaint ourselves with what we eat, and gain a new appreciation for simpler, traditional methods that are frequently lost in today’s cuisine.

From slow cooking through to fermentation, pickling and cooking with fire or creating food from scratch these traditional methods are still packed with flavour and nutrients. If we do these, then by eating according to the seasons and with people, by holding and celebrating the rituals that are connected with preparing food, we will make the work of cooking more enjoyable and meaningful.

So, the next time you’re in the kitchen, ask yourself What forgotten traditions can I bring into this meal? Allow me to say that often what makes meals yummy is not the latest equipment and techniques coupled with recipes but all those age old practices that have gone down to generations.