Freezing - Tips and Quick Questions thread

newniepg · 7 July 2009 at 12:36PM

Hi, I bulk bought dried wild mushrooms but find it a bit of a pain to soak them before dinner.

Could I soak a whole load of them and then freeze them? I couldn't work out if it would be ok.

Thank you in advance.

(sorry sorry sorry if this is posted in the wrong place. This is the worlds most confusing site.

)

Primrose · 7 July 2009 at 8:05PM

newniepg - it would be a shame to bulk soak your dried wild mushrooms as the warm water they are soaked in is absolutely delicious when added to the sauce of whatever you're cooking and it would probably be difficult to save it long term. I've never tried freezing soaked mushrooms but imagine they would probably disintegrate into a lushy mixture and not be very pleasant to deal with. Really the whole point of dried mushrooms is that they are already preseved, so preserving them a second time by freezing is fairly pointless. If you put them into soak in hot water immediately you know you're going to need them, they rehydrate pretty quickly and shouldn't delay cooking a meal very much.

FrugalFriend · 8 July 2009 at 12:44PM

What I do with anything thats fresh and I want to last longer is; pre-cut it into the portions I need, then freeze it. Then I only take out the portion(s) I need from the freezer, (ie. the night before) and put them in the fridge. That way they are in my fridge ready to eat, or cook with, the next day.

I do this with lots of things, and it has saved me a fortune in wasted food. For example:

* I cut fresh sausages into separate sausages, place into a freezer container and freeze on day of purchase, defrost as needed (ie. in lots of 4/6/8).

* Whole chicken or chicken pieces. Cut and bag separately and freeze on day of purchase.

* Meat and mince meat. As above.

* Pastry, pies, desserts, cakes, croissants and quiches. Likewise, I pre-cut into slices and freeze on day of purchase. I defrost in fridge, and then microwave or oven bake as needed. With some pastry and cakes I just take the portion straight out of the freezer and microwave for 15-30 secs on a plate- perfect!

The beauty of this system is the food is so fresh when defrosted, like the day it was bought. This tip applied to sausages alone, saves a fortune on wasted sausages!

Swampmonster · 8 July 2009 at 12:49PM

Its a great tip this. So obvious but took me years to do as well. Really worth doing. X

chnelomi · 8 July 2009 at 1:01PM

best thing i ever started too. i was so annoyed at having to throw out half a pack of mushrooms or the last bit of cheese and bendy celery sticks. so i now chop and grate all i can bag and freeze. now when i make stew spaghetti etc i don't have to stand chopping everything and best of all no wasted food in the bin at the end of the week.
Also it provides cover for me sneaking in lentils and carrots etc to bulk out the dinners lol

FrugalFriend · 8 July 2009 at 1:02PM

Yes it is so obvious, although I spent years buying, cooking and wasting food, never realising I could do this. I was feed up throwing out food. Another category of food pre-portioning and freezing is ideal for is bread.

P.S. I never buy freezer bags, when I'm at the supermarket I always take a few extra veg/fruit bags. As long as they've no holes in, they make ideal freezer bags. Also I try to keep the original packaging, so I'll pre-cut a pie in it's original store pack, re-close and freeze. Elastic bands and clean pegs make handy closures.

Patchwork_Quilt · 8 July 2009 at 4:04PM

Or you could wash out bread bags and freezer bags for re-use, as we do.

Brilliant tip. Do you do all the chopping and so forth as soon as you get home from the supermarket?

horsechestnut · 8 July 2009 at 4:11PM

Sometimes it is cheaper to but a whole Chicken, (particularly if it has been reduced) cut it up in to portions when you get home, and bag into individual portions.
You can also slice a Beef Joint into steaks, often works out cheaper than buying individual steaks.

Slopalongplacidly · 8 July 2009 at 8:36PM

Patchwork_Quilt wrote: »

Or you could wash out bread bags and freezer bags for re-use, as we do.

Brilliant tip. Do you do all the chopping and so forth as soon as you get home from the supermarket?

I remember about 40 years ago my mum doing this with plastic bags, which were a huge novelty at the time. I was hugely embarrased that washed-out, inside-out, bags would be pegged to our line. She even washed and re-used aluminium foil when it came in. We put it down to the war years at the time, and yet I have a horrible feeling that I am ending up the same all these years later. If you can use it twice or more times, do it!

Aril · 8 July 2009 at 9:14PM

This can also save you money when going away on holiday. Instead of wasting the excess veg that's always lurking in the fridge I now freeze it all the day before and then can use it at my leisure. It does mean that peppers and the like are soggy when you defrost them but they're perfectly useable in casseroles etc
Aril

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