Batch cooking - how long will they keep for?

krustylouise

Thank you so much - I will definitely follow this advice!

ostrichnomore_2

I think it would help if you understood a bit more about the freezing process.

food won't 'spoil' in the sense of getting full of bacteria/going rotten/going 'off' while frozen. Not even for years and years.

All that happens is that the freezing process eventually causes damage to the cells of the food - so the texture/flavour is effected. It won't harm you but won't taste as good.

Food in an open container in the freezer will be spoiled in the sense of being damaged by ice and not being so nice to eat. It still won't be dangerous.

There's no need to throw away food that has been frozen, and remained frozen.

Cooking after defrosting
Just make sure the food is not frozen any more. It's that simple. The problem with cooking stuff that is frozen (unless it's intended to be cooked from frozen) is that the outside may finish cooking before the inside reaches the right temperature. There's nothing actually dangerous about the defrosting procedure.
It is suggested you do it slowly just to ensure that it is defrosted fully, while ensuring the outside defrosted bit isn't sitting around at room temperature for too long. I'd quite happily leave a couple of chicken legs out of the fridge to defrost as it doesn't take all that long. A whole chicken, no.

krustylouise

Thank you so much ONM - I really really appreciate that!!!

sonastin

When ONM says "There's no need to throw away food that has been frozen, and remained frozen", I sort of agree but with a small counterpoint. When it has been frozen and remained frozen in the back of your freezer for as long as you can remember and every time you take it out and look at it and think "I wish I could remeber what that was" but decide it doesn't look very appealing and decide to put it back and get a takeaway instead... that's when I think there is a need to throw it away!

I'm hopeless at remembering to label the leftovers that go in the freezer. Batch cooking I'm fine with but leftovers usually turn into "freezer surprise". And leftovers were usually left over because we didn't like it enough first time round to go back for seconds so in a waste-not-want-not mode, I put it in the freezer to suffer another day.

I've spent a month running my freezer down by writing a list of its contents, meal planning a months dinners to use them up and sticking to it. OH has, on several occasions, asked which night we get to eat the woolly mammoth that he's sure is lurking in there somewhere! After 30 days, I've still got the best part of a fortnight's worth of dinners to get through. (and still no woolly mammoth)

As for defrosting, if I remember the night before it goes in the fridge. If I forget, now its generally pretty cool in the house during the day, I take it out in the morning and leave it to defrost on the draining board during the day. In the summer when its a whole lot warmer, I wouldn't be so blase about it!

joedenise

If you do a menu plan with notes on it to show if something is in the freezer it makes it much easier to remember to get it out the night before to put in the fridge to defrost.

I always check what I have in the freezer and try to get as many different meals from the freezer into my monthly plan as I can. This way I can make sure that stuff doesn't stay in there for months on end.

Denise

Steve059

A trick with Pyrex dishes, which you will probably need to use in the meantime, is to freeze the food in it, then remove the frozen "brick" from the dish, put it in a freezer bag and then put it back in the freezer. Then, you can use the dish for other things. Then, when you want to defrost and cook the "brick", put it back in the Pyrex dish.

krustylouise

That's brilliant Steve - never occurred to me!!!! I shall use that tip!

Any

Again, food will not spoil while frozen! The quality might be affected, but with stews you cook it well after anyway.
I generally freeze stews-goulash, beef mushroom, chilly, then soups and pasta sauces.
And meat. I shop at Costco several times a year and then split into portions and freeze in the freezer bags bought at any supermarket.
I defrost things outside next to sink. It goes out at 8ish in the morning and I start cooking at around 6. If it cannot go out in the morning (early start or whatever), the night before I put it in the fridge.
I also defrost fish in the fridge. Only because it defrosts a lot faster.
Prawns you can defrost in a cold water in half an hour! (King raw prawns). I get some when on offer and sometimes they are virtually an emergency meal, when we forget to take something out. Still cheaper then a take out! And you need few prawns for pasta for example, in restaurant they also only put like 5 or 7 into a meal..
Everything then is thoroughly cooked (apart from steaks which we like medium rare).

krustylouise

Thank you Any. I detest prawns, so this is definitely not an issue for me, but I will definitely bear in mind portioning things up and freezing them! The advice on this forum is amazing!

krlyr

I rarely defrost my freezer meals - I just make sure they get a good stir several times when microwaving, so that the entire thing is heated through. This is made easier with things like cottage pie as I freeze the mince and potato separately - so I'd zap both until warm before then combining and putting in the oven for 10 mins to crisp up.