February 2020

We get it. Putting away groceries, like getting groceries, is a chore. One you’re not all that excited to do in the first place. Weekend time is precious, after all, and the quicker you can get through the chores, the quicker you can get to other things. Better things. Weekend-things. So your produce goes wherever it will fit, and that’s that.

Except if you use your crisper the proper way, you can save money. Everyone likes saving money, right? And everyone likes it when food tastes good, too, which proper crisper protocol can help enhance. Yes, how you use your crisper can have an impact on how good your fruits and veggies taste.

Do we have your interest?

Air Flow, Air Flow, Air Flow

Want fruits and veggies that taste extra fresh? Your refrigerator drawers are part of that equation. The airflow in the crisper is controlled by vents—and most drawers have adjustable humidity vents, so, depending on the desired outcome, you can either create more humidity by closing off airflow altogether or monitor how much humidity your food receives. For best results, we recommend one crisper be kept low humidity and the other high humidity. We’ll get into what to put where in a moment.

Getting Gassy

Ethylene gas might not roll off the tongue, but it has a pretty large say in what goes bad when. Pears, bananas, kiwis release this hormone as they ripen. Like, say you are really jonesing for fresh avocado, sooner rather than later. Ethylene gas is your best friend. If you want to keep your lettuce fresh and crunchy? Not so much. Depending on what you put where, you could be opening yourself up to unnecessary food spoilage. Cutting the airflow access to certain crisper drawers helps keep that gas trapped in one place. Other produce will last longer.

Lessons in Humidity

Low-humidity is ideal for food that goes bad quickly. Apples, stone fruits, avocados—these are all things you want to keep in a low-humidity crisper. High-humidity is best for food that might wilt over time—like lettuce, thin-skinned veggies. Also the place to put all the foods you don’t want exposed to the ethylene gas, like strawberries.


Too Much of a Good Thing

Your refrigerator crisper is going to operate best when it’s two-thirds full. A happy medium, in other words, between too much and not enough. Pack too much into your refrigerator drawer and there isn’t room for airflow. Pack too little and your food has too much air exposure. It’s the Three Little Bears’ logic of refrigerators, but it works.

So what refrigerators are the best for your kitchen?

For large families that go through groceries like nobody’s business, there’s the KitchenAid® French door refrigerators. Not only can you pack in a lot of food, the layout is intuitive, placing fresh foods at eye and chest height, so you can see exactly where everything is, how full everything is, and what might need a top-off to remain efficient.

There are two models from Samsung that we love. There’s the Samsung 23 cu. ft. Counter Depth 4-Door French Door Refrigerator with FlexZone Drawer in Stainless Steel. This baby has a flexible storage drawer with four different temperature settings and an adjustable Smart Divider to keep organized. Plus, it’s Wi-Fi and BixBy enabled, which helps you control the temperature remotely.