What foods can/can't you freeze?

Justamum

Someone earlier asked about freezing mashed potato. I've seen frozen mashed potato for sale - why? I ask myself. How hard can it be to boil a few spuds up?

Anyway, my late FIL used to buy loads of tomatoes when they were going cheap, and freeze them whole to use in cooking. He was one of those people you couldn't tell anything to, so I stopped wasting my breath about it. Try using them in cooking - you might as well just use plain ice cubes.

viv0147

Hi just noticed on another thread you can freeze milk,butter,cheese,well I didn't know that.
So it has me wondering what can I freeze, so I and no doubt many would love to find out and of course how to do it.
I hope no one gives me the cold shoulder on this one. thanks

newlywed

Hi, my most recent discoveries from here are:

You can freeze baked potatoes
You can freeze raw chopped onions - saves doing it most days
You can freeze most non-iced hm cakes

susank

I also freeze the Organic fat free yogurt - it freezes fine and tastes no different when you stir it after defrosted. Depends what you want to freeze - can do loads of veg - cut up and blanched - what would you want to try and freeze.

boo81

I freeze all bread products, you can freeze wine in ice cube trays for cooking and also passata for pasta sauces.

thriftmonster

If you ever see it in a charity shop, I can highly recommend the St Michael Freezer cookery book - ie a M&S one from the late 70s / early 80s - it has a pale blue cover. As well as all the basic info, it has some fabulous recipes - it's one of my bibles

daveyjp

Fresh herbs - they are expensive to buy at about £1 a plant and you only use part of the plant then they die. Use what you need and freeze the rest, they last months.

lil_me

I think possibly easier to ask what you can't since finding the help on thi site I waste so much less as I freeze it.

With freezing - if it's fresh you can usually freeze it but watery veg like cucumber can go icky, think 'can I buy this frozen' if you can you can most likely freeze it yourself. Veg a lot tend to blanch or freeze cooked but many can be frozen from fresh. Meat and other foods I follow a rule from fresh of - freeze once, cook once, freeze after cooking, reheat (DO NOT FREEZE AGAIN) If it comes frozen miss out the freeze once first and go straight to cooking then follow same rules. If you're unsure if a meat has been previously frozen or not then cook before freezing just incase.

lynzpower

One revelation is you can freeze eggs. :T so i have some mini tupperwares, I break 2 or 3 eggs with a dash of milk. beat lightly with a fork.

Handy for when I fancy eg ried rice or something like that, bring the tupperware out of the freezer when im bringing the meat out.

I freeze bread ends whizzed into breadcrumbs- handy when we are doing HM chicken nuggets/fish fingers.

If we are going away for the weekend, and we have a half pint of milk left I usually freeze that too.

If theres a couple of slices of ham thgat qare going a bit on the dry side, i chop them and stick in the freezer handy for a pizza topping.

things like courgettes, beansprouts, peppers - those veg with a high water content dont freeze that well.

angelavdavis

As well as meat, small bag of frozen peas and HM bread rolls, I freeze:

- Milk
- Cheddar (either grated or in blocks)
- sliced mozarella for pizzas (buy on offer). These are open frozen first then bagged up
- paté (inc HM)
- Sliced sweet peppers - open frozen first - add frozen to bolognaise or curries
- Sliced lemon/lime for my G & T's! - open frozen first
- whole chillis
- breadcrumbs (open frozen first)
- Peeled ginger
- Sliced, dry fried slices of aubergine (ready for moussaka) - also open frozen
- Herbs I haven't had a chance to use (fresh ones in their bags then just crunch up when I need to use them
- icecubes of leftover coconut milk
- home-blanched portion bags of brussel sprouts, carrots, turnip, parsnips, swede, spinach, sliced mushrooms, (this is because I dont' have the room for shop bought large bags of these) raw: mange tout, baby corn, asparagus, corn on the cobs, chopped celery
- HM Meals - spag bol, chilli, stews, shep pie, fish pie, salmon encroute, curries, mashed potato (I prepare this when the potatoes are looking on the verge of sprouting), chicken casseroles, HM soups.
- HM Garlic and herb butter - rolled using greaseproof paper into a long tube shape

In fact, my freezer is permanently a real effort to close as I only have 2 and a half drawers!!

I've never thought of slicing onions - great idea!

If I know I will be working late, in the morning, I bung some frozen lamb chops in with a handful of the frozen winter veg, sprinkle some stew pulses on top, add a bay leaf, some dried rosemary, a pint or so of water and a Kallo stock cube into my SC in the morning - hey presto - lamb stew to come home to! I serve with some of the defrosted mash or boil some potatoes.