It has taken me 12 years, but I finally feel as though I am no longer squeamish about the possibility that my food has been spoiled. For whatever reason, most of my life I’ve been lead to believe that, for example, you shouldn’t dare eat food that has been un-refrigerated for several hours.
(photo courtesy of missha)
While traveling in Austria five years ago, I was shocked to learn that most people in Vienna have only tiny (or nonexistent) refrigerators. Their pedestrian lifestyles take them past a supermarket every day, where they pick up fresh food for the next few meals.
I cannot find any data to back me up right now, but my guess is that the average American goes to the grocery store once a week. Who do you think is eating fresher food?
A recent Cooking Light (which I cannot find at the moment) listed a handful of extremely common fruits and vegetables that don’t need to be refrigerated: peppers, tomatoes, etc. Why are we so obsessed with keeping things cold? My latest bunch of peas got soft and gross after just a day or two unbagged in the fridge. Out on the counter, they fared much better.
We should be buying and eating food that is clean enough that we don’t have to obsess about keeping it at 40 degrees until the moment it’s about to enter our mouths!
In Europe, a lot of people don’t even refrigerate their eggs at all (see comments on this post)!
In summary, the fridge is bad because
- It encourages us to eat food that is less fresh
- For many people (myself included), it “hides” food from me such that it has already spoiled when I find it a week or two later
- It encourages less safe food at the supermarket (because by forcing us to keep it refrigerated means they can get away with more bacteria, and our infrequent shopping encourages the use of preservatives to extend the life of the food)
- Environmental strain (not just of your own fridge but all of the refrigeration involved in food transport)
Are there others I’m missing?
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi: One other big reason that oversized fridges are Bad is because of the electricity they use! (especially if they are old and not the energy efficient kind). Gourmets are rabid about tomatoes not being refrigerated. Takes away the taste. I used to keep butter at room temp, till I stopped eating so much butter. Yes, eggs as well. How did people keep their food before refrigerators? In cool, dark cellars. Anyway, you are on to something, Ryan.
I always leave my butter at room temp. Interesting that gourmets are so picky about tomatoes - I’d certainly trust their knowledge!
Your great grandparents had a wonderful cabin in Lake County. Outside
the back kitchen door, in the shade of a big madrone, was a big wooden box covered on the outside with fabric (burlap I think). It had a narrow
pipe or two running the length about 2 inches above the box. Water slowly dripped out the length of the pipe 24/7 (the water came from a spring up the hill). It was so cold inside and about the best refrigerator I ever saw!
YOu’re a hippie
Toby’s parents live in Germany and have a refrigerator/freezer combo that is the size of a dorm room fridge (1/3 the size of our normal U.S. refrigerator). They keep all their produce (and even yogurt and eggs sometimes) in a cool dark closet. We always eat things that have not been refrigerated and have never gotten sick (although I stay away from the unrefrig. yogurt, bluck…).