Compulsive Refrigeration

Found on Salon.com: an article (The big chill) about what people refrigerate.

Sounds silly as a premise, but consider that some people refrigerate mustard (myself included) or vinegar (myself not included), and take into account the growing sizes of refrigerators on the market, and one has to wonder how much power is being consumed from needless refrigeration.

Sure, a lot of items have “Refrigerate after opening” plastered all over them, but how accurate is that advice, and (as the article points out) how much of it is based on lawyers worried about lawsuits from people eating spoiled food?

I found this article interesting because it points out how much our eating habits are just that: habits. Do we put things into the fridge because we’re sticking other things in the fridge at the same time, or because we’ve always done it that way, or because we don’t know any better? When it gets to the point of putting preserved lemon in the fridge, I have to wonder about the state of our culinary knowledge (or lack thereof).

In an informal e-survey of roughly 20 friends in six states, some of whom eat for a living, I found the same pattern. A number did know what foods go rancid in the pantry: nut and olive oils in particular (only corn and sesame oils have never turned on me) and fresh peanut butter (salmonella is not the only threat). They knew real maple syrup can go moldy at room temperature, and that true grits, cornmeal, wheat germ and other grains susceptible to spoilage actually benefit from the cold.

Still, all but one refrigerate scores of other ingredients that have no need to contribute to ozone depletion—and the exception was a what-the-hell cook who says her husband and two sons complain there’s never any food in the house. The rest faithfully chill food that could easily line fallout shelter shelves: soy sauce, chili pastes, vinegar (the original preservative), A-1 Sauce (lasts longer than the smoke in the wood in an English pub), molasses (shelf life of sugar), even cocoa (chocolate is vulnerable, but not the virtually fat-free powder). Oddities that turned up on their lists included juniper berries, tamarind concentrate and preserved lemons (note the adjective there?).

In cases such as this, I have to wonder if the solution really lies in technology. That is to say, if we could design a smart fridge that would advice you not to put the mustard in the fridge, would that really solve anything?

I’m reminded of programming. I’m not so much a programmer as I am a hacker. That is, give me some pieces of code and I can cobble together something that works. And in most cases this is sufficient. What I lack, however, is a deep understanding of how the code works. So while I can get things working, I can’t necessarily tell you why it works or what’s going on behind the scenes.

I suspect that for many, this is how cooking works. Most of the time we throw together a couple of ingredients and whip up a meal. We don’t, however, tend to get into the chemistry behind cooking: we don’t develop a deep understanding of how food and cooking work. I’m guilty of this, as I’m sure a lot of people are. I get by in the kitchen, and I’m sure that’s why I find shows like Good Eats so fascinating, because they explain why cooking works the way it does.

Deciding whether you really need to refrigerate a particular food is related to your understanding of how food works. And while technology can assist us in making choices, there is a point where our common sense and personal understanding has to step in as well. It’s the difference between becoming dependent on technology to make our decisions for us, and using technology as an advisor (not decision-maker).

I realize that our lives are busy, and that not everyone has the time or inclination to learn about these subjects (I know I’m hard-pressed at times). But neither can we punt over to machines responsibility for absorbing that knowledge, because in that direction lies the land of microwave meals and freeze-dried vegetables.

So, what to do? Where am I going with this?

If we could provide a cheat sheet, or a starter-set of knowledge for the kitchen—similar to a starter-set of pots and pans—what knowledge would we include? In the same way that we can package a set of knives as being the essential knives for the kitchen, what constitutes essential knowledge for people just starting out in the kitchen? Obviously this information will differ based on the region of the world you live in (cooking at altitude, for example).

Once we’ve gathered that information, how can we present it in a meaningful way? What are the best delivery channels, the most effective means of putting this knowledge to use in the kitchen?

Sounds like an interesting opportunity for collaboration….any thoughts?

Tags: salon.com, refrigerators, food knowledge, refrigeration