Food: Some Foods You Should Be Careful Of Freezing

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Some Foods You Should Be Careful Of Freezing
Tuesday, January 31, 2006

One of the rages in cooking these days is the fascination with freezing food for later use. There are good reasons that this type of cooking is popular. In many instances, buying in bulk can save a few pennies here and there, which can really add up. Freezing meals also saves time when you are in a rushed state. Even if you keep a relaxed pace, freezing meals can help to reduce what you have to do everyday.

One of the problems, though, is that all foods do not freeze well. Indeed some foods are not made for freezing and reusing. There is some trial and error there. Some foods may change slightly, and while that may be okay with some families, it is not with others. To see if a food will freeze well, you can check online to see if you can find anything about it. Barring that, you should freeze a small amount of the food and try it in a week or so to see if you like it.

Some foods are known not to freeze well, however. Anything greasy, such as fried meat, should not be frozen because the freezing process will serve only to make it seem greasier when reheated. These foods also become soggy and are not good reheated, and that applies to anything greasy, including dishes like scalloped potatoes.

Freezing sandwiches always is a danger because you may find that whatever you have frozen onto the sandwich will work its way into the bread. For example, jellies are not good to freeze already on the sandwich. As a general rule, you should not freeze anything on bread if the insides of the sandwich are heavier than the outside bread.

Among accoutrements for your dishes, mayonnaise and sour cream should be off the list of potentially freezable foods. Mayonnaise is essentially eggs and water, and you are likely to find that if you try to freeze mayonnaise, it will separate. You may be able to get by with it in a casserole, but it depends on the other ingredients. Sour cream becomes very watery, much like the way it looks when you first open a container, only after freezing, you will not be able to stir it back to its normal consistency.

Potatoes are tough to freeze although you can do it if you are quick about it. The problem with potatoes is that they become mushy. If you plan to freeze potatoes, you should not allow them to cook all the way when you are cooking them. Instead freeze them immediately when they start to cook. Do not wait for the dish to cool, or you have waited too long.

Most of the yummy treats made with egg whites, such as cake icing or custards, are not good for freezing. The eggs do not do well frozen, and the icing or custard will separate.

Other foods can be frozen but with a few qualifiers. For example, you can freeze gravy, broth, or soup. Just beware that it may separate during the freezing and defrosting process. If that happens, you can put it in the blender or warm it on the stove and stir it to help avoid the problem in the future.

Many seasonings, including most herbs, will have a slightly different taste after they have been frozen. The best way to deal with this issue is to add them when you are reheating. You should freeze the original serving without any of the seasonings. It will be much easier and tastier to do it when you are reheating although some dishes are dependent upon the seasonings blending in, so it may not work for all dishes.

Do not freeze raw veggies unless you intend to use them in stews or casseroles. You probably will not want to eat the raw if they have been frozen because they will not be very crisp. Instead you will need to cook them.

Remember that there are no hard and fast rules for freezing and reheating foods. Much of it depends on personal preference, so you should be willing to try out different foods to see if they work. You may want to freeze only occasionally, but a growing number of people cook once a month and freeze everything.

By Julia Mercer

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