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s/o: Am I the only one who dislikes eating food from the freezer that I cooked a while ago?
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Anonymous
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I see so many DCUMs saying that they cook in big batches in order to freeze XYZ and pull it out later at some undetermined time. Or you cook a pot of chili and freeze half. Maybe a beef stew, a lasagna, pea soup, whatever.
A variation on this is some DCUMS go to meal assembly places, put together 12 meals, take them home, and freeze them. I would certainly eat split pea soup that was frozen 3 months ago if that meant the difference between starvation or not. I'm not a super princess. But I can't get behind doing this sort of thing on any regular basis because the food just doesn't taste good. It defrosts as flavorless, freezer burnt, etc. and often the components are mushy paste. This just applies to food -I- cook, btw, and not to Trader Joe's preservative-free stir fries or Whole Foods frozen salmon. So I don't think the issue is my mechanical equipment. Perhaps someone, a serial food freezer, will enlighten me. What am I missing? |
Anonymous
| I'm not a fan of it either. |
Anonymous
| I must be missing the same thing. Tried it for a lasagna, and when reheated, it tasted really bland and mushy. Does one cook differently if one expects to freeze the meal later on? |
Anonymous
| Not a fan either and we usually end up eating less of the frozen meal and/or throwing it out so we don't end up saving any money in the end. I have basically given up on doing this except I still will freeze leftover sauces on occasion. |
Anonymous
| OP -- I agree. It sounds like a good and frugal idea when one does it -- but the taste is really bad. I did this with a chicken, rice, broccoli dish. Patted myself on the back for being so thrifty and organized...well, the taste was really bland. |
Anonymous
| some stuff freezes better than others. Pasta does get mushy. Beans in chili might as well - definitely want to leave them a little firm before freezing. Also, the TJs stuff has a ton of salt, even if no preservatives, so it may hold up better even in a freezer that isnt ideal. I wouldn't cook and freeze if I didn't have a stand alone freezer - the regular freezer gets opened too much, which leads to defrosting/refreezing, which does bad things. Finally, freezer burn is partly caused by exposure to air. Hence all the tight vacuum-seals on store-bought food. I always lay a layer of foil or plastic over anything I freeze in a tupperware so it isn't exposed to the air at the top of the container. There has definitely been trial and error on what freezes well, but I'm a food snob and I love to cook and freeze. |
Anonymous
| I'm kind of food snobby too, or at least I have a hyper sensitive palate and that's why I cannot abide this freeze/reheat thing. Revisiting something I cooked 2 months ago is always a major disappointment and I know all the air exposure tricks, too. |
Anonymous
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My husband will not eat meat that has been frozen. Which is really frusterating because he will buy a ton of meat when it is on sale.
For me, there are some foods I freeze and never use, because they are so unappetizing. But I also have learned some tricks. For all - the quality of the container and paper is important. You need stuff that is made for the freezer (regular plastic wrap and aluminin foil breaks down - or so I've read) For lasagna, the trick is to freeze before baking. Same with meatballs. Freeze while raw, and then cook in sauce. For soups, anything with noodles will turn mushy. For chicken, you can freeze in marinade. I personally don't use frozen chicken for anything that the quality/taste of the chicken is super important (I wouldn't just grill chicken breasts). But I find it does OK in crockpot recipes. My favorite is stir fry (I pre cut, so I can just defrost and use). While I notice a difference, its not horrible when used in this manner. But if you aren't going to eat it, don't freeze it. |
Anonymous
| Like a PP mentioned, freezing before cooking makes a huge difference, plus freeze in pyrex and not plastic, to avoid taste changes through leaching plastics. |
Anonymous
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I freeze a lot of stuff. Use pyre( small and round ones, can't seal the square ones), fill to the top -no air, comes out fine. Slow freezing(ie large containers) can mush things up.
before you cook something you know you want to freeze, go online and look up how to freeze it.( there are thing you can't freeze at home.) |
Anonymous
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Oh wow, as a family where both parents work FT we DEPEND on cooking and freezing!
Doesn't sound like you are packaging correctly if you can tell it was frozen. We invested in a food saver - works really well and "vaccu-seals" everything in. My mom introduced me to the concept - I got on board years ago after we were married and she pulled out our wedding cake on our one year anniversary. She had packaged that baby up so well it tasted the same as it did on our wedding night. I was sold, especially since so many of my friends complained about their cake tasting awful on the one year anniversary! Also, we have a "Cook and Freeze" cookbook - not everything freezes well. We have a veggie lasagna that freezes pretty well, as does tomato sauce. A couple of chicken casseroles work well, including a few that do not use soup! |
Anonymous
Just want to add - agree with freeze before baking, and some recipes do have modifications which is why getting a cookbook or going to a web site that focuses on freezer recipes is helpful. |