How to make your own baby food
Food Hygene
Just like any cooking, when you make your own baby food, the first place to start is to develop good habits to ensure that your baby will not be eating any harmful bacteria.
Survival of Harmful Bacteria
The basic rule of thumb is to cook your food until the core temperature is 75°C or above. This will ensure that harmful bacteria are destroyed.
It is possible to cook at a lower temperature, but the time needed to kill the bacteria increases dramatically. See the table below.
Temperatures and time needed as follows :
• 60°C for a minimum of 45 minutes
• 65°C for a minimum of 10 minutes
• 70°C for a minimum of 2 minutes (recommended)
For more information on food hygene, try the wikipaedia here.
Making your own baby food
To start with, everything you will be cooking will be pureed, which actually makes the whole process very easy. The first step is usually to boil vegetables until they are quite soft, then put them in the blender. With meat, it is a similar process, but the meet should be cooked well in the same way you would cook a stew. on a lowish heat for 45 minutes or an hour. If you are interested in a meat dish, the beef puree is a great place to start.
Here are a few other great examples of early baby food recipes:Once you have tried a few pureed recipes, you will find it very easy to invent your own flavours and combinations.