10 Important Vintage Cooking Skills You Should Have

Today we make cooking more manageable by using different appliances such as blenders, grinders, choppers, refrigerators, air fryers, ovens, and others in our kitchen.

But women in the past used different skills to make magic happen in the kitchen. The vintage cooking skills help them to create delicious meals for their family.

Nowadays people still use these skills although it is a dying art. These skills can help to save money and make you more self-sufficient.

10 Important Vintage Cooking Skills You Should Have infographic

1- CANNING

Poor people knew how to preserve food for future use. Learning this skill makes your life easier. You see the markets are overflowing with fruits and vegetables in the late summer and early fall. This is the right time to preserve these food items. You can keep food by canning and drying it.

Canning is the preserving technique that was used in the past. Whenever home growers have surplus food they start canning them for future use.

If you have an abundance of peaches, pears, berries, and tomatoes then you can preserve them. In this way, they can use nutritious food throughout the cold months of winter.

For canning, you need mason jars with lids, tongs, and a funnel. Before using jars you must clean them with hot water.

2- COOKING FROM SCRATCH

Frozen foods are available in the market. You have to just buy them. This way of feeding is not nourishing and quite detrimental to health.

This is a very easy and convenient way to buy processed food and make it a part of your daily diet.

Life becomes very fast and if we talk about preparing food from scratch it will take time. Processed food has a negative impact on your health that’s why you can’t make excuses for lack of time.

When you make your food from scratch then it will not only be healthier but save you money.

You can easily make those food items that contain preservatives at home from scratch. You can make pizza dough, salad dressing, bread, broth, and pancakes from scratch.

Cooking from scratch is a vintage cooking skill that makes your food more delicious. In the past women made food from scratch because they didn’t have the convenience of grocery stores and processed foods.

3- FERMENTING

In the past, when there was no refrigerator, fermentation was used to preserve food. Fermentation is a process in which microorganisms such as bacteria and yeast break down the food components and turn them into other products.

For example, by fermentation sugar is converted into glucose. The other things you can make by fermentation are yogurt, kimchi, sauerkraut, beer, miso, wine, cider, and sausages.

Vegetables, fruits, cereals, meat, fish, eggs, dairy, legumes, seeds, and nuts can be fermented. These foods are very nutritious in their original form but after fermentation, they have additional benefits.

Fermentation improves the quality of food, its taste, aroma, appearance, and texture. For instance, when you ferment table olives then their bitter-tasting phenolic compounds are removed.

The most important benefit of fermented food is that they reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, inflammation, and high blood pressure.

Fermentation is a vintage cooking skill because this is a simple and affordable process as it needs few ingredients and saves money. You can ferment different vegetables such as carrots, radishes, beetroot, cabbage, and turnip.

4- PICKLING

This is also a vintage cooking skill for preserving your food for a long time. In this process, you have to keep edible products in an acidic solution.

Mostly vegetable products are used for making pickling. The vegetables that are used for making pickling pickles are green olives, cabbage, cucumber, garlic, lemon, cauliflower, beans, onions, and other vegetables. Pickling is very popular in Asian countries.

There is a difference between pickling and fermenting. Although both are ancient cooking skills for preserving food. When you make pickles of something you preserve your food in brine or an acidic solution.

The pH of the acidic solution is 4.6 or lower. If we talk about fermentation, in this process bacteria transform the food.

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5- DRYING FOOD AT HOME

This is another method of preservation of food. drying food is the process in which extra moisture is removed from the food so as a result bacteria, yeast, and mold cannot grow. For drying food you need low heat, low humidity, and good air circulation.

There are different methods of drying.

Dehydrates are used to dry food uniformly. The drawing process does not affect the quality of food. Dehydrators have fans and vents for proper air circulation with an electric element for heat.
The other method of drying is using an oven. The drying period of food in an oven is 2 to 3 times longer than in a dehydrator. This is a slow process of drying because there are no fans for fresh air. The other drawback of using ovens is that they consume more energy than a dehydrator.
This is the easiest and most natural process of drying. In this process, you place your food items in the sunlight and let them dry. This drying process takes at least 3 to 4 days. Make sure the humidity level of your climate must be low. Because in high humidity the food will mold before it dries.
Another process is air drying. This process is different from sun drying because you have to place your food items indoors in a well-ventilated area. You can dry hot peppers, herbs, and mushrooms in the air easily. After drying, you can keep them in paper bags. It will help to protect them from dust and other pollutants.
You can also use your microwave for drying herbs and leafy vegetables. You can’t use a microwave oven for drying most other foods. Make sure you have a small quantity of food for drying in the microwave. When herbs are dried in the microwave, they taste overcooked rather than dried.

6- CHEESEMAKING

Cheese making is a lost art because most people like to buy ready-made cheese from a market and use it in their dishes. If you have more milk at home then you can use it for making cheese for future use. This is the only way to keep milk from spoiling.

It doesn’t matter what type of cheese you want to make. For all types of cheese, there are some basic steps that you have to follow.

First, you should warm your milk. It is suggested that you should use fresh milk, not old milk for making cheese.
To start the fermentation process you can use a number of methods. You have to introduce an agent such as bacteria to the solution that consumes the fresh milk sugars.
At this stage, you have to add rennet to the milk to help it from curds.
When the curds are set, you can cut them with a long knife.
Now you can drain the curd through a cheesecloth and save the whey.
When the cheese is ready you can wrap it and keep it in the refrigerator.

7- BAKING

This skill is also dying. Nowadays people buy readymade baking items from the market. The best thing you can do is to bake your bread at home. We know that baking needs practice just like cooking.

When you follow the recipe then you will be successful in making your favorite dishes. If you follow some tips then you can bake your favorite food items easily.

First, you should measure the baking ingredients properly. The ingredients you are using must be of high quality for better results. The ingredients you are using in baking must be at room temperature.

For instance, cold butter cannot be creamd and if you are using cold eggs then it will curdle a batter. Use a good mixer and check your oven temperature before starting to bake.

8- BUTCHERING AND DRESSING

Nowadays you can buy chicken in pretty packages. They are boneless and skinless, you can easily use them in making different dishes. If you have never done it before then it can be difficult for you but practice can make you perfect.

With the help of simple tools and equipment, you can do it at home. The tools you need for butchering are as follows.

A sharp knife
A tray or flat board
A bucket or bowl
You need hot water for soaking and dressing
For disposing of the feathers of the slaughtered chicken, you need a polythene bag.
When you soak the slaughtered chicken in hot water you need hand gloves for protection.

The above are the simple things. With their help, you can easily slaughter the chicken for meat.

After slaughtering, the next step is dressing. Keep the chicken in the bowl or bucket you have. Pour the boiling water into the bowl or bucket so you can pluck out the feathers.

If you are slaughtering a broiler chicken then you must not leave it for a long time in hot water. The reason is that it will peel off the skin from the flesh. 2 minutes or enough for soaking the chicken in the hot water.

For native chicken, the time can be extended to 3 to 4 minutes. When you peel off the skin of the legs then pluck the feathers from the wings and tail.

After finishing your work you can rinse the table or tray and cut your chicken into tiny pieces with the help of a sharp knife.

9- USING SIMPLE AND BASIC TOOLS

We know modern kitchen appliances are a blessing but it is better to learn how to do things the old-fashioned way. Old-school tools will enhance the taste of your food.

By using these tools you will see the taste of your cooked food will be changed. These tools are cookie pie, meat hammer, food mill, spurtle, cherry pitter, potato ricer, stovetop toaster, meat grinder, pickling crock, and pie bird.

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10- COOKING OVER FIRE

In the past people cooked over fire. You should know how to cook over the fire because if you are in a jungle, forest, desert, or on the sand then you have to cook your food over the fire.

The foods cooked on the fire have a rich and smokey flavor that is not possible in the food cooked in the home kitchen. For outdoor cooking, you must know this technique because your family and friends will be incredibly impressed by your skills.

There are different ways of cooking on a fire. First, you can dig a hole in the ground and cook your meat directly on top of the wood embers or charcoal.

The second method is cooking your food on the rocks. Set your stones in such a way that they can efficiently heat. Pour a few drops of water on the surface of the rocks to check they are ready to cook.

You can also cook your food by wrapping it in foil. After that, set them next to the flames. This method is perfect for slow cooking.