New To This Board

mummyyummy_2

hello everyone, I dont know why its taken me so long to finally get round to reading this board, but its brill and im hooked. Im sure you will see me cropping up quite a bit with questions, so pls be patient. I really want to try the os way, really liking all the hm recipes and meal planners. My first question (of many)....I have noticed most of you go on about freezing food, be it soup, bulk made dinners and even takeaways. What are the "rules" for freezing? I mean, do you just wait til its all cooled down then put in freezer. My main concern is, what about when it comes to eating/reheating. Do you take out of freezer that morning to defrost? do you take out when you are ready to eat and defrost in microwave? or maybe there's no defrosting?? what then, re-heat in microwave, or hob??? sorry this must sound realy stupid to everyone but i dont wanna end up poisoning the whole family...lol thanks and hope to spk again soon my xx

lil_me

Right my way - also a newbie so no doubt someone will correct if I am wrong

Freezing bulk made/left over foods- allow to cool completely before freezing

I get mine out on the morning allowing to defrost naturally. I don't like defrosting in my microwave as it sort of part cooks it. Prefer naturally, doesn't loose any moisture that way. Sometimes bigger things need getting out night/day before, trial and error with that one.

Cooking you can ensure safety with meats etc by investing in a thermometer, I paid about £1.50 for mine and it saves the concern over 'Is it hot enough'

Reheating depends what it is, usually I put soup in the microwave, same with lasagne if it's fully cooked, oven if needs browning, stew on the hob (in the oven if throwing dumplings in)

comping_cat

I agree with lil-me, let things cool down completely before freezing, and when re heating (i also let it defrost naturally, unless i really am in a hurry when i will use the mirowave) make sure that all the food is piping hot all the way through.

mummyyummy_2

hi and thankyou for your posts..lil_me, i was just wondering, u said invest in a thermometre for cooking meats etc from frozen, only thing is, how would i know what temp meat was to be cooked at in the first place. I really am a complete novice in the whole "cooking" dept, have always been a farmfoods/ready meal kinda 'cook' -- til now! this is the year i am gonna cook healthily (and cheaply) for my family, with the help from my fellow mse'rs of course..

Churchmouse

When you buy your meat thermometer it will be printed with a guide to the temps required. Mine is a digital one and the "case" has all the temps on it. Others have a dial at the end and you just watch for where the needle settles on the scale iyswim. HTH


edit I don't think i made it clear enough!:rotfl: All meats require different temps, with poultry requiring the highest. Any thermometer will list the appropriate temp for the type of meat, and the way you want it cooked. Beef for example can be rare, medium or well done. Have to say that meat cooked using a thermometer is the best ever! For reheating I think it's a minimum temp of 70 degrees C, but will check that. Yep just googled! Reheat as quickly as possible to 70 degrees!

Gingham_Ribbon

Hello and welcome to the board!

The mega index will probably have something on this but I'm having trouble with the site tonight so can't check for you. Here's the link to it though. It might be useful to have a browse through it at your leisure as it has lots of useful links to great threads.

Also, if you're just finding your way around the board, it might be useful for me to tell you about the search facility. Right above your opening post, you'll see a 'search this thread' button. That's great for finding what you're looking for in a particular thread. This is useful if it's a long thread. If you go back to the main menu, that button will say 'search this board' and you can look specifically on Old Style for information. You can do an advanced search to look for particular words in titles too. I did a search for 'freezing' that way earlier. I'll post some links to some of the threads I found. I hope that will be useful to you.

My apologies if you already know how to do this, but hopefully it will be of use to someone else if you do.

mummyyummy_2

thankyou gingham ribbon, very useful x

Gingham_Ribbon

I found 3 pages of freezing threads just by typing 'freezing' into the advanced search menu on 'titles only' so I've just picked a random sample. I noticed one of the threads did say she found what she was looking for on the mega index so do have a look there too.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=349218&highlight=freezing
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=174149&highlight=freezing
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=149424&highlight=freezing
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=54720&highlight=freezing

I hope that's of use to you. Happy Old Styling!

mummyyummy_2

thanks i will have a good look at it tomorrow, its getting late for me now...but somehow me thinks i will still be on here for sometime x