It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

linz

I didn't know you could freeze butter. There are quite a few things i'm not sure on whether you can freeze or whether it comes back out a different texture or something (hummus, tzatziki etc) I'd love to know what's ok to freeze as I got a Too Good To Go box from Aldi the other day and have frozen a lot of stuff from it. I looked up whether I could freeze egg noodles and apparently I can, but the texture might be a bit different when defrosted. Would people mind posting what they freeze apart from leftovers, YS meat, bread as I already do that. I'd love to know what else people freeze

London_1

Basically apart from anything with a high water content I freeze. Obviously I freeze soups and they are fine but no point freezing lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes etc, and soft fruits can be frozen but do go a bit mushy when defrosted Strawberries, raspberries, etc but blackberries seem to be Ok and stewed apples are fine.

Google if your not sure . I saw the block butter in a supermarket before the butter prices rose, and tucked a block away for my Christmas baking, and its been fine I even had some on a piece of toast and marmalade for breakfast this morning and its ok It just used up the last little bit in the block. took a bit longer to get soft but in my warm kitchen it wasn't too bad
JackieO xx

linz

London_1 said:

Basically apart from anything with a high water content I freeze. Obviously I freeze soups and they are fine but no point freezing lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes etc, and soft fruits can be frozen but do go a bit mushy when defrosted Strawberries, raspberries, etc but blackberries seem to be Ok and stewed apples are fine.

Google if your not sure . I saw the block butter in a supermarket before the butter prices rose, and tucked a block away for my Christmas baking, and its been fine I even had some on a piece of toast and marmalade for breakfast this morning and its ok It just used up the last little bit in the block. took a bit longer to get soft but in my warm kitchen it wasn't too bad
JackieO xx

Thankyou very helpful. I can to start looking for promotions on stuff like butter and buy extra when there's a good offer on now.

Skintoap

There’s a website called www.freezeit.co.uk that is good for advice on what can be frozen, how to freeze it, and how to defrost it. 

Katiehound

This is also a good source of advice:
 https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/top-tips-freezing-food
some good tips about labelling too.

almost all soft fruit is great- apart from strawberries- but these could go straight into a jelly (when frozen)

I tend to buy a large tray of chicken thighs and freeze in portions. Make a huge savoury mince, eat one portion, freeze the rest in portions.
Some things change their texture slightly when frozen- cheese for example- but if you are cooking with the item  it won't matter.

tryingtodobetter

Skintoap said:

There’s a website called www.freezeit.co.uk that is good for advice on what can be frozen, how to freeze it, and how to defrost it. 

Thank you this recommendation it looks really useful

London_1

I've found hard cheese gets a bit crumblier when your trying to grate it after defrosting but I have a little Kenwood mixer that does small amounts (it cost about £14) and grinds lots of things,  so if your not too fussed whether its grated or ground to crumbs it fine.
 I use the crumblier cheese in mashed potatoes of cheese sauces for a fish pie 

  JackieO xx

SuperSecretSquirrel

Regards hard cheeses like cheddar, if you grate it first, then put in a tub to freeze, it's a lot easier to retrieve just the amount you need - it beaks apart quite easily by hand while still frozen. Much easier than hacking away at a big frozen lump, or defrosting the whole thing! If you just want to buy a big cheap block and portion it up to have say 200g from a 1kg block in the fridge at a time you can just slice it up into portions and freeze. Of course you could have a mix of both, have some portioned up chunks and a smaller tub of grated if that works for you too 🙂

Katiehound

and do label things!

just hunting for chicken portions in the freezer.
Found one labelled 'bone in' - no good for today as that is for the s.c.
Other things that might have been chicken turned out to be ham or bacon!!! gave up and settled for a piece of salmon.
looks like I have eaten all the other chicken portions.........

-taff

I freeze butter, lard, marg, cheese [but as Jackie says] cheddar gets a bit crumbly so you can't slice it when it's been frozen, black pudding, malt loaf, garlic cloves, parmesan rinds, chillies whole, flour, dried fish. There's probably more but that's off the top of my head