Freezing Foods

Your freezer can be your best ally when it comes to meal-planning: when pressed for time, having a home cooked meal ready at the touch of a button can be a lifesaver. If you are a fervent vegetable or fruit eater, keeping produce in your freezer rather than on your counter will help you preserve it for more than just a few days. Lastly, buying meat or produce in large quantities and freezing it will go a long way in helping you save money. Best of all, you will never have to stare at an empty freezer again!

The Basics

The ideal temperature for your freezer is 0 ˚F or -18 ˚C. When freezing foods, it is important to leave enough room between the containers to ensure proper airflow. Pick your containers wisely; the key to avoiding freezer-burn is to make sure that your food does not come into direct contact with air. Heavy duty foil, plastic wrap, freezer bags and plastic containers will do the trick. Just make sure to add a label detailing what is contained in each package and when it was frozen.

When shopping, make sure to select good quality produce. Freezing will not improve their quality, simply preserve it. Blanch (quickly boil in salted water) veggies before freezing to get rid of any unwanted micro organisms and preserve their texture, nutrients, and colour. Veggies will usually remain good for 12 – 18 months. For fruit, add sugar or syrup to avoid discolouration and flavour loss, be prepared, however, for a slight change in texture. Most frozen fruits will keep for 8-12 months.

 

Remove all excess fat and clean your meat, fish and poultry thoroughly. Take the time to tightly wrap them in heavy duty plastic wrap; remember that direct contact with air is what causes freezer-burn. Consult the table below to find out the freezer life of your favourites:

Item	Will keep for:
Poultry	6 to 12 months
Beef (steaks, roasts) and lamb	12 months
Ground beef	4 months
Pork	6 months
Sausages	3 months
Fish (like Cod, Haddock, Red Snapper)	6 months
Oily fish (like Salmon and Carp)	3 months

Prepare food in advance, such as lasagne and casseroles, and freeze serving sized portions in plastic containers. They go from the freezer to the microwave and are the perfect solution for healthy lunches or quick and easy dinners. When making soups or sauces, double the recipe and freeze half for another time. Use freezer bags to save space.

It’s best to thaw food in the refrigerator to avoid bacteria growth, especially meat, fish and poultry. Meats that were thawed in temperatures of 5 ˚C (40 ˚F) or below, and still have visible ice crystals, can be safely refrozen. On another note, your fruits and veggies will thaw without risk at room temperature, just remember to use them as quickly as possible and refrigerate the leftovers; they will not keep for long after thawing.

 

Not all foods go in the freezer. Sour cream and icing made from egg whites, cooked egg whites, mayonnaise and sauces thickened with flour will crumble and separate once frozen. Tomatoes, celery, watercress, cucumbers, endives, lettuce, parsley and radishes tend to turn into mush and lose all consistency, taste and colour. Fried foods and potatoes will lose their texture and become soggy and unappetizing. Lastly, cooked pasta or rice should not be frozen as they too tend to taste overcooked once reheated.