#refrigeration

#refrigeration

When you slice a sliver of fresh-baked sourdough bread, the crackle of the crust is heavenly. It's sad to think it's already started a countdown, but while nothing lasts forever, the fridge can certainly extend its shelf life. Refrigerated loaves can last one to two weeks, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and that's a big improvement on the standard two to four days you get on the kitchen counter.

After carefully choosing the freshest produce at the market, people face even more choices with vegetables, fruit, meat and dairy products at home that can help prolong freshness, minimize waste and prevent foodborne illnesses. There are several methods to store and preserve food, such as canning and pickling produce, freezing leftover ingredients and storing food in the refrigerator. Although refrigeration is effective and most households have the appliance, experts say it is safe to say most families simply set it and forget it.

According to the Egg Safety Center, when kept cold at about 45 degrees Fahrenheit or below ( which most refrigerators are), fresh eggs stay safe for up to five weeks past the carton's "Julian date," which is the date it was packed. The "expiration" label marks peak quality rather than safety. Inside the shell, a natural protective layer and steady refrigeration keep bacteria at bay far longer than most people realize.

Temperature is a key factor in ensuring that salad dressing is safe to eat, so check that the settings on your fridge keep it below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Placement is also important. The door of the refrigerator might seem like the most convenient spot to store the bottles, but as you open and close it, the temperature will fluctuate too much.

People in the modern world will never fully appreciate how miraculous it is to have ice on demand. Before the invention of refrigeration technology, we relied on naturally formed ice. If you were in sunny Florida and wanted an ice-cold drink, you needed to have wealth because this was a luxury. The ice industry was a massive business, involving people cutting huge blocks of ice from frozen lakes in the northern U.S., Canada, Norway, and other frosty climates, then shipping them all over the world.

Unless they are destined for creamy smoothies, comforting loaves of bread, or the many other dessert banana recipes, peeled bananas often end up in the refrigerator. Unlike watermelon and berries, cut bananas quickly turn brown, usually within just a few minutes. All hope is not lost immediately, however. Storing cut bananas properly and promptly is the key to slowing down the browning process, and as it turns out, it is not very difficult.

Sriracha is made from a mixture of chili peppers (typically red jalapeño), acidic distilled vinegar, umami garlic, sugar, and salt. Like most chili-pepper-based hot sauces, sriracha is hardy and durable, but not immune to quality degradation over time due to prolonged light and air exposure. Still, dark red tones (even to the point of bordering on dark red-brown) aren't necessarily signs that your sriracha has turned.

Some grocery stores stock their bricks of Velveeta in the refrigerated aisle, alongside cheese blocks and bags of shredded fromage. At other grocery retailers, the Velveeta might be stashed in the canned aisle beside tins of stewed tomatoes and jarred pasta sauces. Both spots work just as well. Velveeta doesn't need to be refrigerated at all, because it's processed. Surprising probably no one, Velveeta isn't technically cheese at all.

Stored in an airtight container in the fridge, homemade yum yum sauce will last for one week. It tastes even better with each passing day, as the flavors have been allowed to meld and chill. But, for foodies playing the long game, start checking on your batch after the seven day mark (that is, if there are any leftovers remaining by then). If your sauce smells at all "off" or has begun to separate, toss it out.

While everybody's preferences differ, a good chia pudding is neither too runny or too clumpy. Instead, it should be creamy and thick enough to resemble, well, a pudding. To achieve this, you'll want to transfer your pudding to an airtight container in the fridge and wait for at least one to two hours before eating it. If you want the pudding to have a really thick, velvety, and almost tapioca pudding-like consistency, consider leaving the mixture in the fridge overnight.

Iceberg lettuce needs no introduction. Its light crunch and slight sweetness make the ideal neutral base for any salad. Occasionally, it's a little boring, overused, and uninspiring. In all honesty, it's the lettuce we forget to hate. Even criticism is gently cushioned as iceberg is often dubbed as " the one salad you might want to reconsider ordering at a restaurant."

While this may be good for making the best brown butter banana bread, it's not great if you're hoping to eat all those bananas while they're still fresh. Who knew that putting bananas in a bowl with other fruit could make them get ripe faster? Well, scientists for one, and now you do too. The reason behind this is due to the ethylene gas produced by the fruit and how it helps make all the other fruit in the bowl ripen faster.

The Anker Solix EverFrost 2 58L electric cooler is widely praised for its rechargeable battery, offering rapid cooling down to freezing in under 15 minutes, and practicality for camping.

The Anker Solix EverFrost 2 is a 58-liter electric cooler with a rechargeable battery, allowing it to cool perishables without the need for ice.