BPA 102: Grocery and Produce

Grocery + Produce
-dry goods- room temp
-canned goods- pie filling, cherries, etc.
-frozen foods

Dry goods- store room
-herbs/spice, nuts, oils, flours, meals, grains, legumes, coffee, tea, etc.

Nuts-
Almonds, cashews, chestnuts, coconut, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, peanuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios, walnuts
Purchase forms- whole, shelled, raw, roasted, salted, halves, pieces, chopped, ground (flour or meal), slices, slivers, paste
Storage- air tight container, cool dry place, frozen up to one year

Sweeteners- keep in air tight container, cool dry place

Trimoline- invert sugar, all fructose, used in choc + ice creams

Fructose is sweeter than glucose

Flours + Meals
-categorized by gluten content
-high gluten- for chewy breads
-bread flour
-all purpose
-pastry
-cale
-self rising

categorized by grain
-wheat
-refined flour
-semolina
-refined wheat
Cornmeal, rye flour, rice, millet, soya

Grains
Rice
-long grain- fragrant, not as high in starch, wont stick together; Carolina, Basmati
-short grain- high starch; Arborio, sushi
Processed
-brown- whole grain
-white- polished
-instant
-parboiled rice- rice grain part boiled, then dried out, retains more nutrients

Barley
-wild rice
-black rice- glutenous
-red rice- very nutty

Wheat- berries, bulgur

Coffee- bean types- Arabica (75% of production), Rubusta (25% production)- higher quality but disease prone

Quality factors in green coffee- before roasted
-bean type
-growing location- higher altitudes are better
-processing- washing, what has been done to it, removing beans from fruit
-green coffee beans are roasted to give flavor

Decaf
-caffeine is alkaloid in coffee
-decaf is 97% caffeine free
-removed before roasting
-chemical extraction-steamed to soften beans then solvents used to remove caffeine
-swiss water method- soaked in hot water to extract caffeine- more expensive

Tea
-black fermented + graded by leaf size
Souchong- largest, Pekoe- medium, Orange Pekoe- smallest
Green- not fermented
Oolong- partially fermented

Canning Process
-product is blanched- emerged in boiling water for a couple seconds- flavors sealed in
-placed in solution with salt, sugar, acid, combination
-vacuum sealed
-“cooked” when reaches specific core temp, then chilled immeditately

#10 can, 6 cans/pack 109 fl oz
-most impt can size, most used in kitchen

make sure get what paid for
-gross weight- weight product + packaging
-net weight- product w/out container
- drained weight- product w/out container or packing liquid (syrup, fillers)

viscosity- thickness of liquid

frozen fruits + vegetables
-blanched
-quick frozen- keep color + flavor better than can, reduce formation of ice crystals
block- like frozen spinach
IQF- individually quick frozen- strawberries, separated
-store at -10F, avoid freezer burn- keep containers sealed, otherwise dries out + smells, looks bad
thaw slowly

Produce
- pack sizes for products vary widely
case/crate, flat, lug, bushel, peck, count, bag/sack, cello (cranberries)

Processing
-Hydrocooled- cold water, stop ripening, kept in controlled temps
-waxing- apples- seals, no moisture lost- stays fresher longer
-controlled atmosphere- reduced oxygen chambers, delayed ripening
-ethylene ripening- all produce picked red, then ripened in ethylene room. Doesn’t get final nutrients from tree ripening
-irradiation- makes sure have no bugs/ diseases from other countries. Long process, have to be bought green/ red ripened later in chamber
-prewashed
-precut- carrots, mangoes, pineapple

Growing terms
-field grown- w/ soil
-hydroponic- grown in water w/ nutrients
-organic- no pesticides
-heirloom- special varietals of tomatoes, applies, specific breeds, can be grown from seeds

Fruit categories: berries, citrus, exotics (not native to an area) grapes, melons, pomes, stone fruits, tropicals

Pectin- natural thickener cellulose in fruit, holds moisture when freeze of get old- juice/ moisture releases

Slipskins- citrus fruits such as mandarins; skin peels of very easily, can slip off

Pay attention to wash the outside of melons, where salmonella would be on the rind, because grown on ground

Clingstone peaches used for canning
Free stone eaten out of hand

Bananas grow in “hand” w/ 5-30 fingers- each finger 5-6 bananas

Most pineapple comes from Hawaii, when cleaning get all eyes out