The War on Waste.

Hello all!

This past week has been an experiment for me. I decided I would, with the groceries I had and the few I bought, waste absolutely nothing within a 7 day span. While I dumbassedly forgot to document this time with photos, I will take this week's entry to cover some of the more important concepts I implemented, learned, or tried.

First- is it rotten?

For starters, I love scallions. If my entry on ginger scallion sauce wasn't enough to convey this fact, just know I always have some on hand. Unfortunately, this sometimes means I have a little too many scallions on hand, and some get pushed to the bottom of the veggie drawer or the back of the fridge. When I go to look for them 3-4 days later, I find them wilted and covered in a layer of slimy evil. This week was no exception. However, there's a funny thing with onions and their relatives- they're made in layers. After cutting/peeling away the outer layer or two of the scallion and a quick rinse, we have perfectly useable and tasty scallions again! In addition, for those of you lucky enough to have a window box or garden, here's a handy tip. Take the white root end of your scallions (the bottom inch or so) and plant them. In a couple weeks, you'll have fresh new homegrown scallions!

Okay, enough about my scallion love affair. This peel and wash method works with all members of the onion and leek family.

What about meat?

We all know how it goes- you pull something out of the freezer, set it in the fridge, and then we forget about it or just don't have time to get around to cooking it. The bad news is once meat is gone to the dark side, there's no saving it. the good news is you have an excellent litmus for detecting when something's actually gone funky. Whenever you're in doubt, stick your nose close to the meat in question and take a good whiff. If it smells sour or, well, rotten then you know your course. Now technically with some meats you can cut off the outer parts and still have good meat in the center... However, unless you're really willing to deal with the consequences, I say avoid it. You're playing with fire. Methods like dry-aging or controlled fermentation have just that- control. Your fridge, while it stays generally cold, has a much greater variable than the facilities used to handle meat in that way.

What about fruit and non-onion veggies?

This section is easy to explain. Wrinkles, light wilting, or a little bit of brown spots or edges does NOT mean your veggie/fruit is rotten. Again, use your nose. If you honestly can't stomach eating a peach with a brown spot (cut out the brown spot, but the rest of the peach is perfectly good) or a lightly wrinkled tomato, then use your friend the blender to turn them into a puree or liquid for a sauce, smoothie, or even as an ingredient for some baked goods. A soft orange, for example, does not mean the juice is bad. Mold, on the other hand, is a better indication of rot, but even then the moldy sections can be cut off and tossed, leaving a perfectly good half or so of your ingredient. Too many people just throw away the whole thing because they aren't willing to do a little knifework.

That covers what we waste by rot. How about what we waste by prep?

This is something we're all guilty of. How often do we throw away bones from chickens, pork shoulders, or the like? how many times have we cut off the ends of onions, the tops of tomatoes, or the leaves of celery and thrown them straight in the trash? Next time you have a veggie scrap or a bit of meat, don't think about it as something you'd just open up and chomp into, but think about if there's any bit of goodness you can coax out of this little nub or peel or what have you. Most veggie bits can be added to stock, bones and meat scraps as well. The only thing I don't add to my stock are chicken giblets, since some of the parts can give off a weird taste when stewed. They are fine roasted for a gravy, or as part of a salad! For containment, keep two bags in your freezer- one for veggie scraps, one for meat scraps. Whenever you have scraps, load them in. On stock day, empty your bags into the pot and go to town!

The list goes on. Stale bread? make croutons. Little bit of leftover pork loin or beef? Pair with some instant ramen, chicken stock and chopped scallions or greens for a quick Asian-styled lunch. Bacon fat left over from cooking your breakfast? reserve it and cook just about anything in it to add a nice smoky flavor to your ingredient.

Some things do get away from us, and have to be tossed. That is a tragedy, but with just a little use of a knife, plastic bag, window box, or oven, we can save money and waste less food. Good for you, good for the environment, and good for cooking.

Until next time, the nose knows.