Module ANT2023 for 2019/0
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
ANT2023: Theory and Methods of Food Preservation
This module descriptor refers to the 2019/0 academic year.
Module Aims
A series of practical classes will not only demonstrate fundamental techniques of food preservation but also afford you with the opportunity to gain basic experience in their practice. Lectures and guided readings will provide historical and socio-economic context through which to better understand not only productive techniques, but also livelihoods and businesses associated with them. You may go on to produce the foods they have studied. You may also contribute in other capacities to small- and medium-scale enterprises making these foods, for example in management or marketing, or you may contribute to private or public initiatives to support the producers of these foods, for example working in regional economic development, in the promotion of gastro-tourism, or in food-focused media.
| On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
|---|---|
| Module-Specific Skills | 1. Understand how a range of preserved foods are produced, and practice basic techniques 2. Recognize the economic challenges and opportunities faced by small- and medium-scale artisan food makers |
| Discipline-Specific Skills | 3. Compare traditional food preservation techniques with contemporary artisan practices 4. Recognize the socio-economic drivers of changing food preservation technologies and their implications for practitioners |
| Personal and Key Skills | 5. Produce narrative accounts of various forms of food preservation, artisan practice or enterprise 6. Identify opportunities for new food preservation practices or enterprises, or for the promotion of existing ones |
Module Content
Syllabus Plan
The module will explore food preservation through a series of paired seminars and practical classes. Seminars will include lectures as well discussion of readings undertaken by students in advance of the session. Practical classes will comprise tours of local enterprises, demonstrations and hands-on experience.
The following forms of food making and preservation will likely be covered, with minor variation from year to year depending upon the availability of lecturers and practitioners contributing to the module:
- Pickling and preserving
- Sourdough baking
- Fish smoking
- Butchery and charcuterie
- Cheese making
- Cider making
Learning and Teaching
This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 50 | 100 | 0 |
...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning & Teaching activities | 10 | 5 x 2-hour seminars |
| Scheduled Learning & Teaching activities | 15 | 3 x 5-hour practical classes |
| Scheduled Learning & Teaching activities | 7 | 1 x 7 hour practical class |
| Scheduled Learning & Teaching activities | 18 | 3 x 6 hour field trips |
| Guided Independent study | 50 | Reading in preparation for seminars |
| Guided independent study | 15 | Preparation and revision of journal entries |
| Guided Independent study | 35 | Research and writing of paper |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
Indicative Reading List
This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.
Basic reading:
Sue Shephard, Pickled, Potted and Canned: How the Art and Science of Food Preserving Changed the World, Simon and Schuster, 2001.
Harold McGee, McGee on Food and Cooking: An Encyclopedia of Kitchen Science, History and Culture, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004.
The Gardeners and Farmers of Terre Vivante, Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning: Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage and Lactic Fermentation, Chelsea Green Publishers Co, 2007.
Sandor Ellix Katz, The Arts of Fermentation: An In-Depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes from Around the World, Chelsea Green Publishing Co., 2012.
Andrew Whitley, Bread Matters: Why and How to Make Your Own, Fourth Estate, 2009.
Stanley Marianski and Adam Marianski, Curing and Smoking Fish, Book Magic LLC, 2014.
Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn, Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing, W.W. Norton & Company, 2013.
Paul Kindstedt, American Farmstead Cheese: The Complete Guide to Making and Selling Artisan Cheeses (2005)
Andrew Lea, Craft Cider Making, Third Edition, The Crowood Press Limited, 2015.
