Is the barrel a relic of the past or a useful device from the past?

2025 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2025-01-22 17:55

How to make a container out of wood - a tub, they knew back in ancient Rome. And the name comes from the Latin word meaning "bucket". According to the device, the tub is a sealed container, the walls of which are made of vertically standing planks, jewelry fitted to each other and fixed with hoops. The latter can be both metal and wooden.

The bottom of the tub is also a set of wooden boards. Unlike a barrel, the tubs do not close hermetically from above, their lid is like a saucepan. It would seem that in the times of glass, metal and plastic, wooden utensils are an anachronism, but, oddly enough, it has recently begun to gain popularity again.

Why tub

Since ancient times, a wooden tub has been used for s alting. This is due to many factors. Many acid-rich foods, such as tomatoes, apples, or cabbage, are s alted, fermented, or soaked to produce fairly active chemicals. And they, in turn, interacting with the walls of containers made of metal or plastic, spoil the taste of products and even saturate them with carcinogens and other harmful substances.connections.

Wood is a completely different matter. It is not only friendly with any products, but, on the contrary, is able to adsorb elements that are undesirable for our body.

And in some cases, and this is primarily associated with the production of alcoholic beverages, the material of the walls of wooden containers saturates the alcohol with unique tannins, making it a unique drink. This is how the unusual taste of such famous alcoholic products as cognac, whiskey, elite French port wine is created…

But, without touching the elite or exotic products, it is enough to try crispy pickled cucumbers or cabbage in an oak tub to understand what distinguishes wood from metal or plastic.

Birch tubs

However, the tree is different from the tree. For home canning, a birch tub is most often used. This is due to the absence of tannins in the chemical composition, a kind of natural neutrality, coupled with good strength properties of birch wood.

Birch tubs are indispensable for urinating apples, sauerkraut, pickling cucumbers and tomatoes. For a long time, until spring, black milk mushrooms, mushrooms or volnushki s alted in a birch tub are stored. Even snowballs, according to the famous Soviet singer E. Khil, can be s alted in such a tub.

Oak barrels are also very common, but due to the presence of tannins and astringents, somechemically active products, for example, honey. But the birch tub is perfect for this.

Caring for wooden utensils

But no matter how good a wooden barrel is, it is, nevertheless, not a plastic bucket that, after use, can be thrown into a barn or cellar and not remembered until the next harvesting season. This cookware requires maintenance.

To remove the remnants of last year's pickles from the wood and the cracks between the boards and restore the tightness of the container after drying out, the tub is soaked. If it has dried out badly and the water does not hold in it, it must be immersed in water completely for several days. After the tightness of the tub is restored, it is washed with a washcloth and steamed with boiling water for sterilization.

In the off-season, barrels, tubs, and other wooden utensils are rinsed, dried thoroughly and stored in a dry place out of the reach of sunlight.