Frost Free Freezers! Yes, that box is frost-free and freezing, but not everything was made to be stored in the freezer. Take homemade meringues: while the store-bought kind is chalked full of chemical stabilizers, the real meringue made with just egg white and sugar will weep when removed from a freezer to thaw.
Here is a list of items that should never find their way into the frozen abyss.
Whole or diced white potatoes: Talk about a mess! If you try freezing potatoes even in a stew or soup, the structure of the potato causes ice crystals to form inside the potato chunk, and all you have is a soggy mess. How you can freeze potatoes is coating the potato particles in fat or oil. The fat of the butter and cream coat the potatoes and instead of a runny mess and you have a quick addition to any meal. Works for both mashed and pared red potatoes coated in olive oil.
Recently, I was blessed with five large bags of white potatoes. Each bag had one or two rotten potatoes, but the rest were fine. I peeled and boiled them and made multiple batches of mashed potatoes mixed with lots of heavy cream and butter. I used them during the holidays which helped to lighten the workload for the traditional homemade meals.
Cream based soup or sauces: While you can freeze the ingredients used to make it, whole milk and cream, the water content of the soup results in less than favorable dish.
Cooked egg whites: It’s just gross, but I would encourage you to freeze whole eggs and egg whites for cooking. A good tip when freezing egg whites is to freeze a white in each cube of a standard ice cube tray and transfer to freezer container when frozen. This works well!
Gelatin: The water content is too high and will not freeze well.
Fully cooked rice: you can par-cook rice, but fully cooked rice will turn to a starchy goo.
Mayonnaise or mayo-based salads like tuna fish salad or egg salad: Once again it’s the gelatinous property of egg yolks that causes it to thicken or gel when frozen.
Fully cooked pasta: The pasta breaks down but you can incorporate pasta into casseroles if you undercook the pasta.
Frostings/icing that includes raw egg whites as an ingredient should not be frozen. An example of this would be old-fashioned 7 Minute Frosting where you make a syrup out of sugar, and you slowly pour the hot mixture over whipped egg whites to make a delicious frosting. It is similar to a meringue.
The lists of foods that do freeze well far outweigh the few that you shouldn’t freeze like these breakfast of biscuits and sausage gravy. I make a large batch so that I have plenty to freeze for later. I pack the gravy in the bottom of a container and cover it with foil and arrange the biscuits on top. It’s a quick breakfast when I am busy.
I hope you will consider investing in a freezer. If your local Buchheit does not carry them on the showroom floor, you can talk to one of their friendly team members to special order just the right unit for your home. Hope you find time to relax today!
Be blessed! Anne May
