By Frank van Steenbergen
Postcard from Riga, Latvia. It is the blessing of seasonality – the need to preserve foods, so as to keep them for the off-season. Latvia is one such place where there has been, throughout history, a huge challenge to survive the cold winter months when no food is produced. It has a rich and long tradition of local food preservation – pickling, drying, salting, smoking, and fermentation. Cabbage, tomatoes, cucumber, garlic, beans, berries, but also milk, octopus, herring, and other fish have a history of preservation. Much of it continues as a small business activity, and the impressive Central Market in Riga is like an immense living museum of food preservation.
Preserving is not only about keeping the food from spoiling: it may also enhance the quality of food – spices may be added to the pickled food that enhance their taste along with the brine of salt, sugar, and vinegar in which they are immersed. Different colors add to the culinary pleasure. Similarly, smoking changes food texture and adds distinctive flavor, and the choice of wood to use is important.
Among all the methods of preservation, fermented food is a category of its own. Fermented foods are foods and beverages that have undergone controlled microbial growth and fermentation. Fermentation is an anaerobic process in which microorganisms like yeast and bacteria break down food components (for instance, sugars such as glucose) into other products (like organic acids, gases, or alcohol). This creates the unique and desirable taste, aroma, texture, and appearance. There are thousands of different types of fermented foods: in Latvia, sauerkraut, but also in sourdough bread, ciders, kefirs, and fermented beech juice. All over the world, there are thousands of applications using natural bacteria or special yeasts in different degrees of control.
Fermented food also often comes with a bonus. The food that is fermented is nutritious in its original form, but through fermentation, additional health benefits in the shape of probiotics and prebiotics may be added. Probiotics are the so-called ‘good’ bacteria. What they do, among others, is to improve the gut environment and support a healthy immune system. Whereas in commercially produced foods these probiotics may be killed in the process of pasteurization, in local production, still usually are still going strong. In addition to probiotics, fermented foods contain prebiotics. These are special sugar molecules that the body’s microorganisms, such as gut bacteria, feed on to live and thrive.
Though local food preservation has many long local histories, it is useful to project this into the future. As tastes develop, it is important to keep innovating and improving with local food preservation to add to the quality of food and life and the diversity of services in the local economies.
