How do we preserve our food? [Cambodian food]

In my previous articles, I talked a lot about food, edible plants, recipes for various dishes and many other things related to food. You can click my signature below to read more about them! 

Beef grilled over fire during camping

However, I want to talk about how do we preserve our food for a long time use, for example meat and vegetables?

Some can last up for days, months and for years too. How do we do that? Many family in the rural areas do not have refrigerators and our ancestors did not have it too but they passed these knowledge to us. It means that the way they preserved food was here long time ago!

I admire Cambodian ancestors; my ancestors; who found ways to keep food without using refrigerator at all for a long time use. I will come up one by one how they preserve it! The process can make them last for months and some last for years.

Paok (fermented fish with roasted rice), smoked fish, dried beef/crocodile and pork/beef sausage

Meats

• ផ្អាប់ Fermented: there are two forms of fermented food and usually they are with freshwater fish or shrimp. Fish is available so much throughout the country so locals process it and use for a long time. (1) ប្រហុក​ read as Prohok (fermented fish, only using salt). This one can use as a base ingredient for other dishes and can be invented into many things. You can eat them raw, cook them, mix them with other things or use it as a base ingredient in various soups. It can be kept up to years.. (2) ផ្អក read as Pa-ok (fermented by adding roasted rice - the taste is sour after, short lifespan than that of Prohok). What you can make them from? Fish, small shrimp, pork.. Keep them in the jars.
• ងៀត Dry: They marinade them with salt, sugar and sometimes pepper then dry them with the sunshine. What you can make them from? Beef, pork, crocodile meat, wildlife meat (not recommended to eat from wildlife conservation perspective), seafood (shrimp, stingray, squid). They can be kept for a long time, up to a year! Store them in open air space (far from pets)

• ឆ្អើរ Smoke: What can make them from? Fish and some seafood - smoked fish can make yummy dishes such as mango salad. Keep them in opened air space.
• សាច់ក្រក Sausage: Pork, beef (that can be kept for a long time too)
• សាច់ផាត់ Phat: different from drying, this one you cook either fish or pork well and then you dry them. Then, you rip open the cooked ones fiber by fiber, fry them on the cook again and keep in a closed bottle.
• ប្រៃ Salty: egg kept in salty water or ash left from firewood. You keep them there, when you want to use take one by one to use.

Vegetables pickles - kind of dishes but keep for few days too!

Vegetables

• ជ្រក់ Pickle: Bamboo, Cucumber: pickle for years. The bamboo then can be used to make different of soups.
• ចាវ Sweet pickle: especially for cucumber, whole or cut half of them and soak in sweet-salt juice and keep them there. You will eat them raw with rice and grilled fish!
• សំងួត Dry: taro leaves, bamboo, tamarind, paddy field herb (thyme) 
• ប្រៃ Salty: reddish,  

Fruits

• ដំណាប់ Jam: mango, pineapple, tamarind
• កូរ Pudding: Mango,

Juice

• Palm juice - to become wine or sour wine
• Palm juice will be refined to become brown sugar
• Honey - just keep it like that!

I have seen my mom and elders in the village do it a lot and keep for using at home.​Those preserved food are kept for a long time and will be used occasionally, especially for dry season that most fish or vegetables are not available.