欧美人文风情第188篇:冷冻食物二三事

 Food is delicious, not to mention kind of important for life.  食物很美味，更别说对生命来讲有些重要。

But food also goes bad,  但食物也会坏掉，

so humans have invented many ways to preserve it to eat later or far from where it was harvested.  所以人类发明出许多方法来将食物保存起来，好能稍后再吃或在离产地很远的地方吃。

Some of these methods require unhealthy chemicals or degrade the food's nutritional¹ value.  这之中有些方法需要不健康的化学物质，或者会降低食物营养价值。

But luckily, freezing can preserve food with most of its nutrients², well, frozen in place. 不过幸好，冷冻可以将食物和其中多数营养保存起来，这个嘛，把营养好好地冻起来。

The important part is that most chemical and biological processes run slower at lower temperatures,  重要的部分是，大多数化学和生物过程在较低的温度下会进行得比较慢，

which means that if you cool food a lot,  那就代表如果你将食物大幅冷却，

enzymes³ and bacteria and fungi⁴ in the food get too cold to decompose⁵ it. 食物里的酵素和细菌以及真菌就会冷到没办法使食物腐坏。

That's why food lasts longer in the freezer than in the fridge than on the counter.  那就是为什么食物在冷冻库保存得比在冰箱和流理柜上久。

Freezing, however, wasn't always an easy task, especially before fridges were invented. 然而，冷冻并不一直是一项简单的任务，特别是在冰箱被发明出来前。

It's not that freezing food is a new idea 不是说将食物冷冻起来是个新点子

I mean, people who live in cold places have done it by default for thousands of years.  我的意思是，住在寒冷地区的人们几千年来就只能这么做。

But things got messy when we started creating artificial winter to freeze food in warmer climates. 不过当我们开始在比较温暖的气候里打造人造寒冬来冷冻食物时，事情就变得麻烦了。

Early freezers were basically rooms full of salty ice, which, while they could freeze food,  早期的冷冻库基本上是装满洒盐冰块的房间，那种房间，虽然它们可以冷冻食物，

took many hours or even days to do so.  但却要花上好几个小时，甚至是好几天来这样做。

A slow freeze gives fluid within cells the time to stack up into big ice crystals.  速度缓慢的结冻过程让细胞内的液体有时间结成大冰晶。

Since water expands when it freezes, 由于水在结冻时会膨胀，

the sharp edges of these crystals poke⁶ holes through the walls of the cells,  这些结晶的锐利边缘会戳破细胞壁，

and when the food thaws⁷, the fluid leaks out.  而当食物解冻时，那液体就会渗出来。

Gross! Even grosser? Birds' eyes. Clarence Birdseye, to be precise. 恶!更恶心的？鸟类的眼睛。确切地说，Clarence Birdseye。

An American entrepreneur who lived in Arctic Canada in the nineteen-teens,  一位 1913 至 1919 年间居住在加拿大极地的美国创业家，

Birdseye noticed that when Inuit people went ice fishing in minus-40 degree windy conditions,  Birdseye 他注意到当因纽特人在负四十度颳风的情况下去冰钓时，

their catch froze almost immediately.  他们的渔获几乎是马上结冻。

When cooked later, the fish tasted fresh.  过一阵子被拿来煮时，鱼尝起来很新鲜。

Birdseye realized that the Arctic frozen foods were tasty  Birdseye 发现北极冷冻食物很好吃，

because they froze quickly and formed smaller ice crystals that didn't damage the cells. 因为它们快速结冻并形成不会破坏细胞的较小冰晶。

Inspired, he went on to develop a process to quickly freeze food by pressing small packages between metal plates chilled to 40 below zero.  受到启发，他开始研发能快速冷冻食物的方法，那冷冻方法是靠将一包包小包裹塞进冷冻到零下四十度的金属板间。

Combined with clever marketing⁸, this allowed Birdseye to bring Arctic winter to the rest of the world  结合聪明的行销，这让 Birdseye 得以将北极的冬天带到世界其它地方，

and to almost single-handedly jump-start the modern market for frozen foods. 且几乎只手开启了现代冷冻食物市场。

You probably even have your own freezer, a marvelous device cold enough to quick-freeze almost any food you put in it.  你搞不好甚至有自己的冷冻库，一个冷到可以快速结冻几乎你放进去的任何食物的神奇设备。

In other words, the North Pole—in your kitchen. 换句话说就是，北极－－在你家厨房里。

 

1 nutritional   

adj.营养的，滋养的

参考例句：

• A diet lacking in nutritional value will not keep a person healthy.缺乏营养价值的饮食不能维持人的健康。
• The labels on food products give a lot of information about their nutritional content.食品上的标签提供很多关于营养成分的信息。

2 nutrients   

n.（食品或化学品）营养物，营养品( nutrient的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a lack of essential nutrients 基本营养的缺乏
• Nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream. 营养素被吸收进血液。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 enzymes   

n. 酶，酵素

参考例句：

• It was said that washing powders containing enzymes remove stains more efficiently. 据说加酶洗衣粉除污更有效。
• Among the enzymes which are particularly effective are pepsin, papain. 在酶当中特别有效的是胃朊酶、木瓜酶。

4 fungi   

n.真菌，霉菌

参考例句：

• Students practice to apply the study of genetics to multicellular plants and fungi.学生们练习把基因学应用到多细胞植物和真菌中。
• The lawn was covered with fungi.草地上到处都是蘑菇。

5 decompose   

vi.分解；vt.（使）腐败，（使）腐烂

参考例句：

• The eggs began to decompose after a day in the sun.鸡蛋在太阳下放了一天后开始变坏。
• Most animals decompose very quickly after death.大多数动物死后很快腐烂。

6 poke   

n.刺，戳，袋；vt.拨开，刺，戳；vi.戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢

参考例句：

• We never thought she would poke her nose into this.想不到她会插上一手。
• Don't poke fun at me.别拿我凑趣儿。

7 thaws   

n.（足以解冻的）暖和天气( thaw的名词复数 )；（敌对国家之间）关系缓和v.（气候）解冻( thaw的第三人称单数 )；（态度、感情等）缓和；（冰、雪及冷冻食物）溶化；软化

参考例句：

• The sun at noon thaws the ice on the road. 中午的阳光很快把路上的冰融化了。 来自辞典例句
• It thaws in March here. 在此地化雪的季节是三月。 来自辞典例句

8 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。