FOOD. Science. Technology. Quality

Food. SCIENCE. Technology. Quality

Food. Science. TECHNOLOGY. Quality

Food. Science. Technology. QUALITY

Authors

IWONA NAMYSŁAW, EWA CZARNIECKA-SKUBINA, INGRID WACHOWICZ

Title

Assessing the correctness of preparing dishes of vegetables and potatoes at home

Abstract

The objective of the research was to identify a method of preparing vegetables and potatoes under the home conditions and to assess its correctness with reference to the rules in force in the catering technology. The research was performed by conducting direct survey among 500 adult persons from the Province of Mazowsze in Poland. The survey form included questions dealing with the preparation of vegetable dishes; the questions referred to the following: kind of raw products and of half-finished products, readyto-cook dishes used in preparing meals, method and conditions of conducting pre-treatment and thermal treatment of ingredients, and storage of dishes. The research proved that the respondents usually used raw products to prepare dishes at home, and, only seldom, they thermally treated them; as to various canned vegetables and/or vegetable preserves, the respondents used them sporadically. The respondents usually purchase ready-to-cook vegetable products in the form of salads and crudités. About 80 % of respondents also prepare salads and crudités at home at their own. Furthermore, the respondents prepare at home and on their own such meals as: bigos (stewed dish made of sauerkraut and/or fresh cabbage, meat, and mushrooms), gołąbki (stuffed cabbage), potato and/or vegetable gratins, and potato pancakes. Only 31.4 % of the respondents correctly perform the process of preliminary treating of vegetables and potatoes. Just a small group of respondents applies thermal methods to prepare potatoes allowing for retaining their nutritional values, such as: cooking in microwave oven and/or in pressure cooker, or steaming. The most commonly used method of thermal treatment of green vegetables is cooking them in water or steaming them. 35 % of the respondents prepare a borsch (beetroot soup), which is a popular meal in the Polish menu, using a ready to-cook product contained in a cartoon, or a concentrate. Among the respondents who prepare this dish at their homes on their own only as few as 10.2 % use the correct technology. More than 60 % of the persons polled keep ready-to-eat vegetable dishes in the refrigerators. Based on the research accomplished, it was concluded that the meals made of vegetables were not always correctly prepared at home. The incorrectness events found referred to how the respondents handled the raw products while pre-treating them and thermally treating them. It was proved that the majority of respondents properly kept the ready cooked meals.

Keywords

vegetables, potatoes, culinary preparation, quality

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