Freezer breakdown- help needed with food

taurusgb

Arghhh!!! Moan first if you can bear it....... so far this year we have had to replace the washing machine, the dishwasher, the oven - and now my small chest freezer has died.

I have a fridge freezer (which of course was almost full when I found the chest freezer defrosting last night), so I threw away :mad: anything of low value from there (breadcrumbs, odds and ends waiting to be combined into new meals, that sort of thing) to make room for the meat and anything else that was luckily still frozen solid from the chest freezer. I was left with the food that was at the top of the chest freezer that had started to defrost - sausages, brocolli, home made stock, overripe bananas and LOTS of veg. Questions are:-

1. I cooked the sausages last night - how long can I safely keep them in the fridge to use?
2. I made banana cake - we have enough to feed a small army - again, how long will it keep. My DH and DS love it but can only eat so much per day.
3. I made a HUGE amount of vegetable soup with a lamb stock base - how long will this keep in the fridge as soup
4. For those of you with dehydrators - the soup is very thick, is it possible to dehydrate and make leathers? and if so should I use cling film or baking paper to line the trays and how long will the leathers last in the fridge?

Going to stand in the corner and bang my head against the wall now

Honey_Bear

The rule of thumb with cooked meat is three days, but it depends on your fridge (and the temperature setting). If you're going to be opening the door a lot and filling it up to bursting full, you'll need to set it at a lower setting.

As this is a super-emergency, try Freecycle asap - you'd be surprised at how many people just want someone to come and pick up their surplus to requirements stuff, rather than take it to the tip. There are also masses of places that recondition electrical goods and sell them with a three month guarantee for a fraction of the cost of a new one, as part of work training programmes. Worth a quick look in your local yellow pages.

D&DD

Oh no so sorry to hear that Taurus
If you have leather sheets yes dry the soup on those and no you don't need to even keep it in the fridge It can store as leather in greaseprrof paper rolls or powder it down if its easier then just make up like a cup a soup.

Dehydrate the veg hun I've done peas,corn,carrots,broccoli,spinach,beans just about everything in mine the only thing that was a bit dodgy was cauliflower..the rest is fine and stores in jars.

Bananas can be made into leather either on their own or mixed with any fruit you have frozen (strawberry and banana is lovely) or just dry as chips.

sorry interrupted by the door..leather sheets i use easy leave from lakelands or greaseproof if needed not sure how clingfilm would work,dry the breadcrumbs too then they can be saved and stored in jars

pigpen

1. I cooked the sausages last night - how long can I safely keep them in the fridge to use?.. refreeze now they are cooked or until they look/smell inedible.
2. I made banana cake - we have enough to feed a small army - again, how long will it keep. My DH and DS love it but can only eat so much per day. .. until it goes furry.. wrapped in foil in an airtight tin it lasts a while.. if it gets stale toast it and eat hot with butter on.
3. I made a HUGE amount of vegetable soup with a lamb stock base - how long will this keep in the fridge as soup.. it will probably start to ferment in a few days, but you could get something out of your fridge freezer that needs a couple of days to defrost in the fridge to make room for some tubs of this?

Soups for lunches, sausage casserole tonight and cake for afters.. That should be most gone!

DS could invite a friend or 2 round to clear some more away.. if you are feeling brave!