Chewin'

the News

May/June 2001

Gourmet Q & A Freezer Guidelines . . .

Be sure that your recipe can be frozen.

Food in your freezer, as long as it is at 0º F. or below, does not spoil or become harmful to you.  In the big scheme of things, more foods do freeze well than do not.  All of the recipes in this manual will freeze fine.  When incorporating your own recipes into the system, be sure to use the following guidelines:

• Don’t thaw frozen raw meat and re-freeze it without cooking it thoroughly first.  For example, let's imagine that you have hamburger or turkey in your freezer that you purchased while it was on sale.  To use this meat in your frozen meals, it needs to be thawed, then cooked before it can be frozen again.  Use frozen ground meats for sloppy joe sandwich filling, barbecued beef sandwiches, spaghetti sauce, chili or soup.  It can also be made into meatballs that are to be cooked before freezing.  If you want to make meatloaf out of this thawed beef, you will have to bake the meatloaf before freezing it.  Frozen poultry can be thawed, simmered or baked, then used for turkey and noodles, soups, sandwich fillings, casseroles or enchiladas.

• Large pieces of frozen hardboiled egg may have an unpleasant texture after thawing.

• Cornstarch thickened sauces, cheese sauces, and gravies made with milk tend to separate when being reheated after freezing.  These sauces are acceptable for freezing when they are mixed with other ingredients as in a casserole.

• Don't freeze raw vegetables unless they have been blanched.  This includes potatoes.  Blanching is a short period of cooking that seals in color, texture, vitamins and flavor.  Purchased frozen vegetables may be used as they come from the store.  They have already been blanched.  The exceptions to this rule are diced onions, green pepper and celery.  See the blanching information on page 131 for more complete information on blanching specifics.  We actually prefer buying frozen diced onions to putting three or four pounds of them through the food processor!  Frozen diced onions can be found in the freezer case with the rest of the frozen vegetables.

• Cured meats, like ham or bacon, should be consumed within one month of freezing because of flavor changes that can occur after that. 

• Deep fried foods will not stay crispy after thawing and re-heating, and much of the coating may fall off. 

• Egg and milk replacers freeze well in most recipes.

• Fully cooked pasta, dry beans, and rice tend to turn mushy when frozen in liquids.  We suggest cooking these starches less than the full recommended time on the packaging directions if they are meant to be frozen in a thin sauce or broth.  For example, we undercook long grain brown rice by about 15 minutes.  When using quick-cooking brown rice, we shorten the cooking time by 5 minutes.  We cook pastas about half the recommended amount of time.  For dry beans, we shorten the cooking time by 15 to 20 minutes.   You should be able to squash a cooked bean between your fingers with a little pressure.  If you cook the beans until the skins split, you have cooked them way too long.    Instant white rice may turn to paste if you fully cook it and freeze it in a broth or sauce! 

• Salad vegetables, like lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, and radishes, will not freeze well.  Actually, they freeze fine.  It’s the thawing into a soggy puddle that causes the problem!

• Stuffed poultry should not be frozen.  It can pose a real health hazard.

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