Canned vegetables: basic types and methods for their preparation

People tend to make reserves. This desire is inherent in them by nature itself. To save vegetables for a long time, different methods are used. One of the most popular options is canning. It is a variety of methods of processing products aimed at the destruction of microorganisms that cause its spoilage, or the creation of adverse conditions for their activity. Canned vegetables can be cooked both at home and in production conditions. And in both cases, as a rule, the same methods and techniques are used.

Classification of products

Depending on the amount of basic ingredients used in the production process, canned vegetables are divided into two groups:

1. One-component. Only one type of vegetable is processed in them.
2. Multicomponent. For their preparation different vegetables are used. The finished product is a kind of assortment.

These days, these products are well known to the mass consumer. People have long been accustomed to include it in their daily diet. Canned vegetables by the method of cooking are divided into several types:

1. Natural, obtained by sterilizing fresh products with the addition of sugar or salt.
2. Snack bars. For them, vegetables are preliminarily subjected to special treatment. At the final stage, various spices, condiments and fats are added to the basic composition.
3. Products intended for children's and dietary nutrition. For their production, fresh or frozen foods are used, which, as a result of complex treatment, are converted into high-nutritional vitaminized mixtures easily absorbed by the body.

Canned vegetables allow year-round to have on the table products that ripen only in summer or autumn. True, in our day such a problem is often solved differently. On the shelves of shops simply appear vegetables brought from other regions and climatic zones.

Natural canned food

Many people prefer to use canned vegetables cooked in a natural way. This has its own explanation, because, according to experts, they maximally retain the main advantages of the original products: color, taste, aroma and nutritional value. According to the production technology, such preserves are produced by the method:

1. Quenching, that is, sterilization or pasteurization of salted vegetables to increase their shelf life.
2. Marinating. In this case, the safety of the products is achieved by pouring them with a special composition with the addition of acetic acid.
3. Preservation, when boiled vegetables are placed in saline solution.

Such foods can be eaten as a separate dish or garnish. For example, corn or green peas will be a good addition to meat. In addition, canned vegetables are widely used as semi-finished products for the preparation of salads, soups and other complex dishes.

Technology Secrets

The production of canned vegetables is a complex process that takes place in several stages:

1. Preparation of raw materials. First, the vegetables come for sorting, where the quality fruit is separated from those that are not suitable for use (immature, affected by pests or agricultural chemicals). Then the products come for cleaning. There, rough uneatable parts are removed from them. For such an operation, as a rule, special mechanisms are used. After that, the raw material is sent for grinding and calibration.
2. Processing of products. Most often at this stage, blanching vegetables. To do this, they are treated with steam or hot water for a certain period of time. After that, the products are cooled to avoid tissue softening and reducing their nutritional value.
3. Packing. Prepared vegetables are placed in sterile containers and poured with special solutions, using a variety of dispensers.
4. Capping. The container with products is closed by metal lids with the help of seaming machines. This is done to prevent ingress of air into the container, which contains a dangerous microflora.
5. Sterilization is a prolonged heat treatment at high temperature to destroy microorganisms that can interfere with the long-term storage of prepared canned food.

After that, the products are stored and can be used if necessary at any time.

Ready-made snacks

No less popular among the people are also snack vegetables. They are multicomponent products that do not require additional processing and are completely ready for use. It's enough just to open the jar and put the mixture on a plate. Such vegetables, as a rule, play the role of a snack or garnish. It can be:

• Caviar (squash, onion or eggplant);
• Salad ("Winter", "Nezhinsky" or "Amateur");
• vegetable stew;
• Snack ("Minskaya", "Belorusskaya with mushrooms" and others);
• Stuffed products (pepper with vegetable or meat fillers).

As a snack can be used also pâté. In this case, the basis is vegetables, fried in vegetable oil with various spices and salt. And as a supplement most often used mushrooms. It turns out a very successful combination. Such a fragrant mixture, decorated with herbs, will be a good side dish, for example, for ordinary boiled potatoes.