How do you determine if a meal is good to freeze?
I bought an awesome cube freezer for my birthday last year, and I’m constantly figuring out new things about freezing foods -- particularly what not to freeze. In general, I don’t think it’s a good idea to freeze a dish that has any of these items as main ingredients: cooked eggs, milk, yogurt, sour cream, other dairy (except cheese), mayonnaise, cornstarch, cream sauces, and fully-cooked pasta. Fruits and vegetables with a high water content (think: tomatoes, lettuce, watermelon, citrus, and cucumbers) aren't freezer-friendly. These foods separate or break down during freezing and don’t reheat well.
But there are exceptions to the rule. Slightly undercooked pasta frozen in sauce turns out fine when thawed. Frozen chunks of cooked potato will have a mealy texture when thawed, but reheated frozen mashed or twice-baked potatoes are perfectly tasty. You can also freeze whole tomatoes to use in a sauce -- just don’t expect to be able to slice and eat them on a sandwich, like you would fresh tomatoes.
Meat -- both cooked and raw -- can be frozen, no problem. I made a bunch of meatballs and froze them raw for a dinner party a few weeks ago. (You can freeze the cooked meatballs up to six weeks too, but I think they taste better cooked the day before and reheated.) Fresh, plain meat lasts up to one year in the freezer, but be sure not to thaw and refreeze meat…ever. It’s a recipe for food poisoning. If you thaw meat you don’t plan to eat right away, cook it and freeze the cooked portion.
Unless you want your frozen food to taste like stale ice, you’ve got to seal it up right. I like to wrap anything I’m freezing in plastic wrap first (this also keeps food from sticking together), then seal it in freezer zip-top bags. I also suck most of the air out of the bags to make it semi-airtight inside, which keeps the food fresh longer. I think I might invest in one of those FoodSaver vacuum-sealers for my birthday this year.
by Colleen Rush is the author of "The Mere Mortal's Guide to Fine Dining: From Salad Forks to Sommeliers, How to Eat and Drink in Style Without Fear of Faux Pas." She and her husband live in Chicago.
1/31/08
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