Mangoes Round the Year

This chapter is about food preservation. We need to preserve food items so that they last longer. When germs grow on food, they spoil the food. Spoilt food is bad for our health. Eating spoilt food can make you sick. Sometimes, a person may fall seriously ill after consuming spoilt food.

Germs need warm temperature, moisture and air to grow. That is why food easily gets spoilt during summer and rainy season.

Methods of Food Preservation

Some common methods of food preservation are as follows:

Sun Drying: Food grains are dried in the sun. This helps in removing moisture from grains.

Salt and Sugar: Adding salt and sugar helps in removing moisture from food. That is why, salt or sugar are added to pickled and jams.

Oil: Adding oil to a food item helps in preventing oxygen getting available to the germs. Lots of oil is added to pickles for this purpose.

Refrigeration: When we keep food in refrigerator, it lowers the temperature. Germs cannot grow under low temperature. That is why fruits, vegetables and milk are kept in refrigerator.

Discuss

Question 1: How did Aman know that the potato sabzi had got spoilt?

Answer: Sabzi may have smelled bad. When a food smells awful, it is a sign of spoilt food.

Question 2: Have you ever seen some food that has got spoilt? How did you know that it was spoiled?

Answer: Yes, I have seen many spoilt food. Most of the spoilt food smells bad. Sometimes, the spoilt food tastes bad even if the smell is alright.

Question 3: Preeti told Nitu not to eat potato sabzi. What would have happened if she had eaten it?

Answer: Eating spoilt food can make us sick. Sometimes, the sickness can be life threatening.

Write

Question 1: Look in your kitchen and write down names of food items that

(a) Can get spoilt in 2-3 days

Answer: Vegetables and fruits

(b) Can be kept for a week

Answer: Kaju Barfi, Cake

(c) Would not spoil till one month

Answer: Namkeen, chips

Question 2: Will your list be the same in all seasons? What would change?

Answer: The list can change in different seasons. Fruits and vegetables generally last longer in winter than in summer.

Question 3: When food gets spoilt in your house, what do you do with it?

Answer: We throw away the spoilt food.

Biji returned the bread

Question 1: Look at the picture of the bread packet here and guess why Biji returned it?

Answer: Greenish grey spots are visible on bread slices.

Question 2: How did she find that the bread had got spoilt?

Answer: These greenish grey spots are because of fungus. Fungus spoilt the bread.

Find Out

Look carefully at two-three packets of food items:

Question 1: What can we know from what is written on the packet?

Answer: A packet of food item displays many things. It shows ingredients, i.e. items from which a food is made. It shows date of packing. It also shows the date before which it is best to use the food item. A small red dot on the packet shows non-vegetarian food, while green dot shows vegetarian food.

Question 2: When you buy anything from the market, what do you look for on the packet?

Answer: I usually look for best before date and price, before buying anything.

Question 3: Different kinds of food items spoil due to different reasons. Some foods spoil soon, some stay good for long. List some seasons and conditions in which food spoils quickly.

Answer: Food spoils quickly during summer and rainy season. This shows that warm temperature and moisture are ideal conditions for spoilage of food.

Match Columns

Given below are some food items and some simple methods by which these could be kept fresh for 1-2 days. Match the correct pairs.

Answer: (a) 3, (b) 1, (c) 2, (d) 4

Write

Question 1: Why was sugar and jaggery mixed into the mango pulp and dried in the sun?

Answer: Sugar and jaggery help in preservation of food. Drying a food item in the sun also helps in food preservation. That is why, sugar and jaggery were mixed with mango pulp and then the pulp was dried in the sun.

Question 2: Why did Appa first choose the most ripe mangoes to be used for making the mamidi tandra?

Answer: Ripe mango has more juice than pulp. Mamidi tandra (aam papad) is ideally made from mango juice. So, Appa first choose the ripest mangoes.

Question 3: How did the brothers make the mamidi tandra? Write down step-by-step what they did for this.

Answer: Following are the steps for making mamidi tandra.

• Squeeze the juice of mangoes, and filter it through fine muslin cloth.
• Mix jaggey and sugar in equal quantities to mango juice.
• Spread a thin layer of this mixture on a sheet of cloth. Allow it to dry.
• Apply another layer of the mixture on the dried layer. Allow it to dry.
• Repeat above step till you get a thick layer of mamidi tandra.

Question 4: What things are made in your house from ripe and unripe mangoes?

Answer: Following things are made from ripe and unripe mangoes.

Ripe Mangoes: Mango shake, ice cream

Unripe Mangoes: Pickles, Meethi chutney, teekhi chutney, Aam Panna

Pickles

Question 1: Make a list of all the different types of pickles that you know about, and share with your friends.

Answer: Mango pickle, Lemon pickle, Carrot pickle, Tamarind Pickle,

Question 2: Is there any kind of pickle made in your house? What kind of pickle is it? Who makes it? From whom did they learn to make the pickle?

Answer: My mother makes pickles of mangoes and lemon. Mango pickles are spicy, while lemon pickle has no spice. My mother has learnt it from her mother.

Question 3: What all things are needed to make any one type of pickle in your house? How is the pickle made? Find out the recipe and write.

Answer: Let us make mango pickle.

Things You Need: Raw mango, salt, mustard oil, spices (turmeric, red chilli, black mustard seeds, carom seeds, etc.

Process:

• Cut raw mango in small pieces and take out the seed.
• Keep mango pieces in sunlight for a day.
• Make powder of spices. Mix with mango pieces. Add lots of mustard oil and keep the mixture in a glass jar with wide mouth. You can also use jar made of ceramic.
• Keep the jar in sunlight for about a week or ten days.

Question 4: How are these things made in your house?

(a) Papad

Answer: We buy packets of papad and fry them.

(b) Chutney

Answer: Chutney is usually made by grinding a mixture of coriander leaves, green chilli and amla

(c) Badiyan

Answer: We usually buy them from market. Sometimes, badiyan is made from a mixture of urad dal and spices.

(d) Sauce

Answer: Tomato sauce is made during winter. For this, tomato is boiled along with pumpkin and spices. Some preservative is added to the sauce.

Question 5: It is a two-day journey by train from Pune to Kolkata. If you were to go on this trip, what food items would you carry with you? How would you pack them? Make a list on the blackboard of all the packed food. What food item would you eat first?

Answer: I will carry puri, aloo bhaji, pickles and namkeen. Puri and bhaji can be packed in tiffin boxes. They need to be covered with aluminium foil. Namkeen is kept in sealed packets. Puri is the first item to be eaten.

Question 6: Glass jars and bottles are dried well in the sun before filling them with pickles. Why is this done? Do you remember what happened to the bread in the experiment?

Answer: Glass jars and bottles are dried to remove moisture. Moisture helps in growth of germs, which spoil the food.