What freezes well
Wet, saucy food survives freezing best. Soups, stews, chili, curries, braised meat, tomato sauce, cooked beans, meatballs, burritos, cooked rice and grains, bread, and balls of cookie dough all come back close to their original state. Food that depends on crispness or a delicate emulsion does not. Salad vegetables and raw potatoes turn mushy, cream sauces and mayonnaise separate, fried food goes limp, and fully cooked pasta softens further, so undercook pasta by two minutes if it is headed for the freezer.
Packing it properly
- Cool the food quickly, in shallow containers or over an ice bath, and get it into the refrigerator or freezer within two hours of cooking.
- Portion it in the amounts you will actually eat, which for most households means one or two servings per package.
- Ladle soups and sauces into freezer-weight zip bags, press out all the air, and seal them.
- Lay the bags flat on a sheet pan to freeze, then stand the frozen slabs upright like files.
- Leave an inch of space at the top of rigid containers, because liquid expands as it freezes and will crack a full jar.
- Label everything with the name and the date, since all frozen brown stews look the same in March.
Air is what causes freezer burn, the dry, grayish patches that form where food has dehydrated. It is safe to eat and unpleasant, and tight wrapping prevents it.
How long it keeps
A freezer should hold zero degrees. At that temperature food stays safe indefinitely, but quality fades. Most cooked dishes are at their best within two to three months. Keep a list on the freezer door and cook from it weekly, because a freezer is a pantry and not an archive.
Thawing and reheating
The USDA recognizes three safe ways to thaw, which are in the refrigerator overnight, in a sealed bag under cold water changed every 30 minutes, and in the microwave followed by immediate cooking. The kitchen counter is not one of them, because the outside of the food warms into the danger zone while the center is still ice. Soups and sauces can go straight from the freezer into a covered pot over low heat with a splash of water. Reheat everything to 165 degrees. Food thawed in the refrigerator can be refrozen, at some cost to texture.
Tip Freeze tomato paste, stock, pesto and wine in an ice cube tray, then move the cubes to a bag. Each cube is about two tablespoons, which is the amount recipes keep asking for.
