help me get over my fear of freezing things

[Anonymous]

i know freezing food makes sense, but i have an irrational fear of it. i am afraid that food with either be ruined and taste bad OR spoil we will all get sick.

i can't explain it but i am ready to shake it!

i know freezing meals and other things is cost effective and helps with quick prep.

can anyone give a freezing newbie any tips? what equipment do i need to do it properly? what freezes beautifully?

[Anonymous]

wrap frozen meat in foil wrap then put it in a freezer safe zip lock back

buy some freezer bags and start slowly

you will be fine

[Anonymous]

My frozen food fears ended with the purchase of one of those cheapo vacuum sealer things you can buy in the grocery store and the bags to go with it. Adds to the cost, but you can wash out the bags and reuse. Ziploc makes one. I think another brand does also. I use them mainly when I buy chicken on sale. What really helps is to precut the chicken into how you are going to use it (for me, pieces for stir-fry or longer strips for chicken tenders). Then I can just pull the bag out of the freezer the night before, place in fridge, and it's all ready to cook the next night. No freezer burn. No mess (I literally just dump the contents into the stir-fry pan when I stir-fry).

I also try - when I get up the energy to make something like lasagna - is to make two (for our small family I make two small ones), and freeze one. The trick is to freeze without cooking it AND to use freezer quality wrap and foil (I use both a saran wrap or that "sticky" wax paper stuff and a heavy duty foil).

The other thing I freeze is extra soup and chili. You can do it in the bags I mentioned above (I have heard). But I tend to do it in tupperware, so I can just pop it in the microwave. So of course, look for freezer and microwave safe containers. The trick here is to let it cool fully in the fridge without the top on (so no condensation), then put it in the freezer. Soups with noodles do get a little mushy, but still taste good (wouldn't use if noodles was the main part of the soup).

[Anonymous]

I was afraid, too. I started small- I made way too much chili once and figured the worse that could happen is that it would taste horrible and I would need to throw it out. I cooled the chili (everything needs to be cool before freezing), poured them into little ziploc freezer bags, squeezed out all the air (you want to do this with everything too) and away it went. one month later, I took one bag out and defrosted it. Looked like crap, but I reheated it and it tasted just fine.

I have since branched out to lasagna. I prepared two, baked one and wrapped the other (still in the glass pan) with aluminum foil and then saran wrap. Took it out a couple weeks later, defrosted it, then baked as usual. It was very good!

[Anonymous]

Things that *don't* freeze well are things that change texture when the moisture in them expands. So fresh veggies typically don't freeze well, because their moisture is trapped in the cells and when they freeze, the water expands & bursts the cell walls which makes the fresh veggies mushy.

Cooked veggies freeze much more nicely because the heat breaks down the cell walls & so a lot of the moisture has already escaped.

If I were you, I'd start with a super-pureed type of soup, something that's already gone through blender. You won't get any texture changes, and you can bring it to the boil when you reheat it so it will assuage any germy fears.

The only equipment you need is a freezer, a ziploc bag, and a sharpie (to label the bag. Permanent works best.) Squeeze all the air out of the bag & you will get a nice seal.