How to freeze odds and ends without trying too hard
Whenever I mention freezing something to avoid food waste, readers ask me what they can safely freeze and what process they need to go through to freeze various foods.
There are books and websites devoted to proper freezing practices (here's a good guide) which can help you learn some of the basics of freezing (for instance, air is the enemy!).
If you're armed with some principles, you can better figure out what will work with a particular food you're faced with.
That said, freezing guides can make you feel like the process of freezing food is very complicated, and that can put you off from even trying it with your extra odds and ends.
Really though, when you have small amounts of food there's no need to make this a complicated procedure.
You don't need a blanching production line if you're just freezing a pound of extra green beans, for instance.
So, here's some advice.
1. Use google!
Search the internet to see if you can find some guidelines to help you. That'll give you a good starting
2. Remember this: you can freeze more foods than most people think.
For instance, somewhere around a zillion and a half people don't know that you can freeze milk!
And did you know you can freeze greens like spinach and then use them in a smoothie?
If you've got food that might get wasted, see the first point above. It's worth a google search to see if your item can be saved by freezing. Always consider it a possibility!
3. Freezing food is not that dangerous.
You can mess up, say, canning, if you do it improperly, so it's important to follow those directions carefully.
But the very worst thing that can happen with freezing is that your food will get freezer burnt, or the texture will suffer when you thaw it.
This would be a big deal if you were freezing 50 pounds of something, but if it's just odds and ends, it's no big deal.
Don't be scared!
The point is that food that is safe to eat before you put it in the freezer will be safe to eat after you put it in the freezer, as long as your freezer is, well, freezing.
The freezer won't kill all varieties of bacteria, so you do need to be sure that what you're freezing is in good shape. But as long as it's safe going in, it'll be safe coming out.
(Just make sure you thaw the food in a safe way, especially if it's meat.)
4. If you're in doubt, you can always give it a try and learn from it.
There's nothing like experience to help you remember what works and what doesn't! Some of this is a matter of preference, so you might as well try it and see if you like it.
(This is the idea behind my whole "try it and see" philosophy!)
For instance, a few months ago I prepped some butternut squash cubes for roasting, realized I made too many, stuck half in the freezer, and just yesterday I thawed and cooked some.
I didn't know for sure if this would work out well, but I figured the worst-case scenario was me thawing the cubes, steaming them, and turning them into butternut squash soup. Definitely worth a try when the other option was wasting them!
If you're doing something like prepping three pans of the main dish and then freezing them, you want to be super-duper sure the ingredients are all freezer-friendly.
But for small odds and ends that might be wasted anyway, the stakes are low.
My tips:
Label! Label! Label!
Oh dear, so many times I have put things in the freezer in a rush, and then later had no idea if I was looking at soup, banana puree or ??? In those cases, when I have the time, I thaw and wait for the surprise.
freezing nuts or flours will extend their life. I live in a hot place and buy nuts and grains in bulk. I have a freezer just for that, because finding weevils in my expensive flour or rancid almond flour makes me cry (both have happened).
Freeze bananas without the peel, makes things easier.
Oh, and don't forget to eat from your freezer! I love mine, it is fully of happy surprises and helpful last minute additions.
Labeling is key. My mom's friend served us frozen Margarita/Sangria swirls once. Mine tasted weird, but I wasn't sure if it was my taste buds and I didn't want to be rude. Then her friend said, "this tasted funny". Turns out the margarita part was actually frozen chicken stock! We had a very good laugh! (And made fresh drinks.)
I know it is weird, but I NEVER label things. But I just only freezer a few things . . .baked bread, bread ends, refried beans, cooked beans, hummus, celery for stock, whole hot peppers, cut bell peppers, blueberries, and the occasional tomato sauce. Plus bulk purchased local meat. I can ALWAYS tell what I have in there 🙂
This is a hilarious story!
Hahaha! I have the corollary story. I was making soup from odds and ends in the freezer, and I grabbed a container of what I thought was chicken stock. It was frozen solid so I stuck it in the microwave to thaw it out enough to dump it into the pot. Just as I was about to put it in, I caught a whiff of something that didn't smell right. It was apple juice concentrate. A close call! 🙂
A lot of liquids look very similar once frozen!
If the type of food is sold frozen in the grocery store, then you can also freeze it at home!
Totally agree with the suggestion to experiment with freezing and see how the texture turns out.
Great tip!
I'm a bit surprised many people are not sure about how to freeze food. Maybe I'm not doing everything correctly? For me, freezing food consists of putting certain food in a plastic bag or a plastic/glass container and tossing them in the freezer @_@.
When something stays in the fridge for too long, they do change color, especially raw pork. We also try to purge our freezer every once in a while by cooking up all the food so that we don't have anything sitting there for a year. >_<
About the milk, I pour off some before freezing in the jug because it will expand when frozen. I love always having frozen milk in the freezer. Also, after I thaw it, I shake it well to redistribute or it will taste funny. Otherwise, it tastes exactly the same as fresh to me.
Great tip - I do the same things with milk. I actually prefer milk that has been frozen and then thawed. I also freeze a lot of foods in glass jars. They are perfectly safe if you remember to leave "head space" before freezing. I've never had any problems with glass pickle jars which aren't specifically designed for freezing, but I always make sure there are not cracks or chips in/on the glass jar.
Yep...the head room part is what's essential in my experience.
Be careful freezing in glass unless your container is for that purpose- ask me how I know! I often will freeze half of something before it gets old (like soup) and then I'll be in the mood for it later. If you take it out of the freezer the day before, it will be thawed and ready to heat up. Wrap well- many times I double wrap and the foil if I used that can be reused. I'm especially careful when wrapping pies. Cupcakes freeze very well.
I'd like to know about blanching. Is it only fresh vegetables that need blanching, and do all of them need to be blanched? Are there different lengths of times too? Once that's figured out it seems waaay easier than canning.
Mainly it's to keep the color of food bright and fresh and to preserve the texture. Here's a guide: https://www.thespruceeats.com/blanching-vegetables-before-freezing-1327660
I rarely find myself freezing raw veggies, mainly because I don't like eating frozen vegetables! So I'm not a blanching expert.
Thank you for the link, Kristen. What a great roundup of information!
My household saves scraps/tiny bits of food that would be wasted to make stocks. You would be amazed at what would otherwise be wasted (cannot compost in my area) such as carrot peelings. Sometimes one can use the boiled vegs for a dog food supplement, like boiled carrots.
Ooh! Good idea! I had never thought of freezing leftover carrots or celery for stock.
I have a bag for veggie ends and skins just for stock. I also throw in herb stems.
I save unwanted celery bits and onion/leek/scallion/shallot skins & tips for my chicken stock. Just put them in a bag or rubbermaid in the freezer because it doesn't matter if they get freezer burnt.
Other people save wide arrays of vegetable bits or leftovers for veggie stock. If you can balance the contents and amounts correctly (for example, cabbage overwhelms everything else, too much carrot makes it overly sweet) this works great. I cannot so I don't do this.
I have the toughest time figuring out how to freeze soft things and cheeses. Last time I froze a block of cheese, after I defrosted, it became the most crumbliest thing. Argh! Google is your best friend here.
I freeze cheese all the time. I have found that if you let the block of cheese thaw in the refrigerator then it will usually be just fine. If I leave it out on the counter or try the microwave on a low defrost setting it usually becomes very crumbly.
One of my favorite things to freeze is cheese rinds. Especially for having d cheeses like Parmesan. Then when I make a big pot of minestrone, zuppa toscana, or similar I toss the frozen rinds in the soup to flavor the broth. (Fish what is left out with a slotted spoon before serving.) It adds great depth to the soup flavor and would otherwise be trash.
The Ball blue canning book is cheap and I think it tells you how to freeze. Any guide for food preservation will have freezing instructions, as a rule. I blanch when freezing large amounts of squash or peas, for example, but leftover bits of this and that, no way.
When freezing, it helps to lay a freezer bag flat -- make sure the seal is tight! -- before putting it in the freezer. Mash the hamburger flat in the bag, let the liquid stuff level out with the bag laying flat, that sort of thing. It will freeze and thaw faster because of its being uniform and thinner than if it's all in a frozen ball in the bottom of the bag. It's also easier to stack them that way when frozen.
I thaw in a cooler or in the refrigerator. If the item is small, I might thaw under cold water (in it's bag) if I'm in a hurry, but my normal choice is to put it in the refrigerator the day before I need it or put it in a cooler the morning before I need it that evening. For something large, like a whole chicken or butt roast, I only thaw in the refrigerator.
I also drop leftover bones, celery leaves, onion ends, chicken necks, etc., in a bag in the freezer for soup stock or broth, later.
I love my freezer!
When I had kids at home, I always kept a 'leftovers soup' plastic container in the freezer. Basically, after dinner if there was food left over, I would throw it in the container. and when the container was full, I would pull it out and heat it up, adding any extra veggies, broth or pasta to make it yummier. I would check what was in there and combine with other fresh or frozen food to enhance flavors. My kids all loved leftovers soup night. It was never the same twice. FYI, I didn't freeze the leftover meats in that container unless it was ground beef in the spaghetti sauce. #frugaldinnerwin
I like this idea!!
Anyone know if pasta can be frozen? I made too much spaghetti and meat sauce two days ago (and mixed the pasta together with the sauce.) We had it for dinner two nights in a row (not popular with the family.) We still have leftovers. Can it be frozen or will the pasta turn to mush? learning experience for me!
I think it will get a little soggier after being frozen, but I'm not sure how much. But this is definitely a case where I'd figure it was worth a try. Freeze it, wait a few weeks (until pasta sounds appealing again!), thaw it, and taste a little bit to see how it is.
In my experience, the saucier the pasta is, the mushier it becomes when reheated. And I have not had good luck with freezing the whole grain type or the veggie type pastas. White pasta goes better, and the chunkier the shape of pasta, the better. Ziti, Penne does pretty good. Macaroni is only "meh", Spaghetti is too thin.
My best advice for freezing pasta is to freeze it right in one of those aluminum baking dishes, only let it thaw until it is "barely" thawed, and then bake it right away.
I found it possible to freeze plain or lightly sauced pasta if you let it thaw slowly and reheat in the microwave or a shallow frying pan. Too much excess sauce or liquid will make it mushy.
You could add some lightly scrambled egg and some cheese and then bake it in a pie shell for baked spaghetti pie which can be reheated like you would lasagna or baked ziti. With a meat sauce I bet it would be delicious! There are many recipes online.
You could always try using it as a baked spaghetti dish instead of eating it as "regular" spaghetti when you defrost it. Maybe baking it would help with the potential "mush" factor 🙂
@Susan, I freeze cooked left over cooked pasta regularly (just plain no sauce) as my daughter won’t eat rice or mashed potatoes currently. So when the rest of us are having those starches, I just grab a handful of cooked but frozen pasta and cover with boiling water for 2 minutes drain and serve. Saves me time. She likes to eat it with a little pesto longside her main and veggies.
If you have a chest freezer, a good tip is to fill 4 milk jugs with water and put one in each corner of the freezer. This way if you lose electricity, especially when out of town, the frozen milk jugs will turn your freezer into a cooler and keep your stash from freezing! A friend of mine came home from vacation to a freezer full of spoiled breastmilk due to a power outage and I've kept frozen jugs in mine ever since!
My favorite thing to freeze is cilantro. A bunch is super cheap and I never use it all at once. I chop it, freeze it, and throw a handful in soups and casseroled straight from the freezer whenever I need it. Works like a charm.
The more full the freezer, even if just of containers of water, the colder the food will stay.
In areas where power outages are common, put an ice cube in a small dish or clear covered rubbermaid container in the freezer. If you open the freezer and find the ice cube is thawed, or thawed and re-frozen flat, it means the power went out or the lid was left open.
Strange as it sounds, if you need to keep things frozen for a short while and don't have a cooler, an oven is well-insulated and holds a lot of packages.
Learning how to flash freeze at home has been amazing! I used to toss everything in a Ziploc and throw it in the freezer. The problem came when it was time to defrost: 'lo and behold, it would take ages to defrost a huge ice chunk. Now I freeze food items on a tray first. I spread them out and give them room. Once they're frozen individually, I then toss them into one big bag. That way, I can use only what I need, and they defrost more quickly. 🙂
My MIL freezes potato chips and candy. Why bother with healthy food? 🙂 She says they taste fine and it keeps her from eating too many treats at one time.
Here's a tip - one that I don't use as often as I should. Freeze things like fresh herbs in ice cube trays. You have to make it fairly liquid for it to work - for herbs that usually means putting them in the blender with some water. Then it's easy to dump one or two into your recipes when you need them.
Make sure to let the food cool completely before freezing or you will get ice crystals that will encourage freezer burn. I will usually let the container sit overnight in the fridge and freeze it the next day.
When you thaw baked goods do not unwrap them until they are completely thawed or they will dry out faster.
I usually put a layer of plastic wrap or wax paper under foil to protect in case the foil cracks or tears. I lost a good piece of steak to bad freezer burn when it tore as someone was moving things around in the freezer. (We ate it anyway, but bleagh, not very tasty.)
I freeze treats like pieces of baklava individually so i can have one on sunday with my coffee. I get them from the ladies at the greek festival Better to ration them out than eat a pastry box full all at once! Also do the same with spinach pies and the cheese pies
0. LABEL. Label, label, label. A good label includes the food and the date frozen.
1. Freezer burn is not dangerous, although it can make food untasty. It doesn't matter if things that go into soup or smoothies are freezer-burnt.
2. Oxygen is the enemy of fresh and it encourages freezer burn. Do what you can to eliminate oxygen from your containers - suck out the air, vacuum-pack, wrap tightly, etc.
3. It's usually better to freeze things individually than in one big lump. Cut the thing if appropriate (frex, pieces of melon, slices of cheese), spread out on a sheet (I use a pan with sides, lined in Silpat), freeze for a day or so, then bag/vacuum-pack/etc.
4. Bananas should be peeled before freezing but don't need to be cut up. It's easy to break them into pieces.
5. Foods should be frozen only once per state: once when raw, once when cooked. This is for taste and look only; re-freezing does not make food unsafe. It does lead to lose of moisture and mushy texture.
6. Defrost gradually. I like to partly defrost in the microwave, then finish the process in the fridge. If I try to fully defrost in the fridge, the edges get cooked and it can dry out.
7. Keep a list. You did label, right? Now write that stuff down on a piece of paper. Bingo - now you have a list. Cross things off your list as you use them. Every now and then, compare the list with the actual freezer contents.
8. I strongly encourage you to keep meat scraps, liquids, and juices for stock or cooking liquids; and to make and freeze stock. (Concentrate it to save freezer space, and put the concentration on your label: "chix stock, 4x, June 18".) Freezer burn doesn't matter for stock inputs, you can put the stuff in a baggie if you want (I do this with shrimp shells and tails). I've been known to take bones home from restaurants.
NB: I rarely freeze veggies. They get mushy when defrosted so I don't bother ... unless I think I'll use it in soup or smoothies, such as spinach.
My biggest issue with freezing stuff used to be that our freezer seemed to give everything freezer burn or a slightly off taste (no idea why!), and even double bagging with heavy-duty freezer bags didn't seem to help. But a couple years ago, my mom gifted us a Food Saver (vacuum-sealing system), and it seriously has been AMAZING--easily one of the best practical gifts I've been given in years and years! We've never had freezer burn since, and it even seals off stuff like chip bags or frozen veggie bags that you've just eaten partway.
I freeze eggs -- cracked and scrambled. I even freeze them in increments of 4 so when I bake 2 batches of brownies (a common item) -- I can make double the recipe and the eggs are already pre measured.
Just to clarify -- 1 box of brownie mix uses 2 eggs.