Great 'food items that freeze (and those that don't)' Hunt

endeeo

If you use half o lemon or just the zest in cooking, slice up the remainder and freeze on a baking tray. When solid place in sandwich bag and use a slice or two in Gin & Tonics instead of ice cubes. Just great!

rosieben

one-non-blonde wrote: »

I suspect the answer is no, but what about pate? I have the best part of a kilo in the fridge with a use by date of tomorrow. I'm liberal with dates so would probably give it 'til Friday, but I think even then there will be a significant amount left!

Pate freezes well, I'd freeze in smaller portions, wrap each portion in cling film and then bag all the packages into one plastic bag

ashleyriot

Ham and chicken slices freeze very well.

Portion up as needed and separate with grease proof paper (£1.50 / 60 metres at ASDA - divided up is enough for over 300 portions easily).

Does require a bit of pulling away from each other when removing from freezer (although I imagine if you were to freeze before stacking up on each other in the freezer this would not happen - I'll investigate this).

salsaver

Keep onions in the fridge or put in to chill before slicing and freezing and you don't get any tears.

Pisco_2

I pretty much freeze everything: Vegetables (especially pre-chopped), ginger (both grated and chopped), cakes and bread (I always put a piece of greaseproof paper inbetween slices to make it easier to take a slice), pasta (par boil fresh before freezing is better), risotto (it come out a bit grainy but taste fine with a knob of butter added while cooking), left over lemon juice/wine (like there's any wine ever left over!). I didn't know you could freeze egg yolks and whites - very excited about that!

One of my favourite freezing tips is to make quick(ish) jam. Equal quantities of prepared fruit (e.g. stoned/peeled/chopped) and jam sugar. Put together in a bag or tub, mix up to ensure that the fruit is completely covered in sugar and then put into the freezer. Freezing the fruit breaks it down slightly so when you cook it (just up end it straight into a pan and boil for 4-6 mins) you get delicious jam. I still use the cold saucer test (put a saucer in the freezer when you start making the jam and when you think it's boiled for 4 mins drop a small amount on it and if it sets the jam is done). The beauty of this is that you can freeze fruit for a while before making the jam, but also that you can do smaller quantities.

Brian_Steele

It seems that Forumites love freezing cheese, but in my experience, it's disastrous. If you are into boring, mild mousetrap then perhaps it's ok, but I find that hard cheeses go crumbly and develop an odd tang to them if they are mature and soft cheeses just go hard and do not ripen properly. In other words, never freeze anything approaching a good quality cheese. In any case, hard cheeses keep for a really long time in the fridge and if they do start to go mouldy, then just scrape it off, as by definition, it was mouldy when you bought it.

Milk however, freezes well, but UHT is cheaper for emergencies.

As for stock, I always make it when we have a roast - either on the day, or freeze carcasses and left over vegetable trimmings for another time - and then reduce it and freeze it as ice cubes. Then, you always have a ready supply of real stock.

zebedy

can you freeze marscapone? I have half a tub left over from some baking last night

Lydiabcde

I am a big fan of my slow cooker. I often bung in a whole chicken in the morning and leave it on all day on low. I stand it on an upturned saucer and add about a teacup of water. When I get home there is enough chicken for tea (quick tea - a jar of korma sauce; frozen mixed veg done for 6 mins in the microwave; a pack of 2 min rice. My young children will eat this no probs.)

I debone the rest of the chicken and either freeze it or use it in the following days and I drain off the stock and freeze that. It comes in useful for making risotto or soup. Unlike shop bought stock it is chicken only and no added salt etc. As the fat separates during the cooling process you can scrape that off too and therefore make it healthier!:D

Honey_Bear

Mashed potato freezes really well if you add some milk powder to it before you shove it in the freezer.

I made a big vat of spal bol sauce when really good mince was whoopsied recently, but went off eating it. I discovered last week that when I defrosted it, squashed it into a baking dish, poured in a deep layer of frozen peas and shoved a layer of the milk powdered mash frozen mash it made a really lovely cottage pie. None of the TV chefs would call it a cottage pie, but I did and OH scoffed it quite happily and was none the wiser.)

When onions are in season and super-cheap (or the 5kg bags at Lid1 were reduced to £1.39 recently) I buy as much as I can realistically deal with and chop and fry them before freezing them in usable portions - 60g of the resultant stuff is one onion. (I put garlic in some batches and label them accordingly.) When I want to make soup, I grab a pile of pre-friend onions, chuck in the spices and fry them as the onions defrost in the oil that seeps out. Then chuck in whatever veg you have to hand, stock (from the freezer, usually) or water and a stock cube, simmer it, whizz it, done.

PenguinOfDeath

rosieben wrote: »

Pate freezes well, I'd freeze in smaller portions, wrap each portion in cling film and then bag all the packages into one plastic bag

This, I bought some reduced pate after Xmas, froze then defrosted months later and it was lush!

I always buy YS bags of peppers, slice, then lay on a board to part freeze, (so they don't stick together) then put in a zip lock bag in the freezer to add to stir fries etc