What do you freeze?

Anything that I don't eat from the fridge that has gone out of date I put in the freezer. I don't bin food.
 
Any meat from the supermarket that is going cheap because it's going off.
Left over curries/sauces/bolognesey-type things.
Bread
Ginger (really useful - chop it up and freeze it. Great for grating!)
Grated cheese
Ham that won't be eaten by its best before date
Sausages, obviously. Buy in bulk then freeze.
Freezing yoghurt with a spoon makes for a nice summer snack :p

Haven't thought about freezing fruit or veg though.. Interesting thought!
 
Other than portions of food that I've deliberately cooked in batches for freezing:

- Bags of frozen mirapoix; super useful

- Bags of prechopped herbs (coriander, parsley, basil, mint, chives, rosemary, thyme, sage, tarragon)

- Bags of prechopped garlic and ginger, I find the taste better than the jar/tube stuff, but more convenient than doing it fresh every time

- Big bag of different chillies (mainly finger, jalapeño and habanero)

- Bag of red/white wine ice cubes (from bottles we don't finish)

- Vast quantities of chicken breast from muscle foods, because win

There's a bunch of stuff that I don't freeze because I don't like how freezing alters the taste/texture of it.

Also not keen on freezing stuff that is at/past it's expiry date personally. Taking food that is past it's prime and then freezing it for a few months is never gonna yield anything I'd be eager to consume. Our old food goes to the dogs.
 
High water content items do not freeze well though, I'm talking lettuce, cucumbers, whole tomatoes, etc, as they get all messed up once defrosted.

I do have my own freezer though as I bulk buy and bulk cook. So apart from your standard frozen veg and frozen chips, I also have:

Slices of bread (4) in a a seal-able bag, for easy toast or next-day sandwiches.
Ridiculous amounts of steaks/sausages/burgers/etc that I buy online.
Ridiculous amounts of batch-cooked meals in foil containers, currently rocking portions of macaroni cheese, Mexican lasagne, chicken tikka masala, and gnocchi.
 
mjt said:
Haven't thought about freezing fruit or veg though.. Interesting thought!
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Shops even sell frozen veg so why wouldn't you be able to freeze them yourself!

I freeze soft fruit such as blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries. More so with blackberries after I have been blackberry picking as the amount I pick it's impossible to use up at once. :)
 
krooton said:
High water content items do not freeze well though, I'm talking lettuce, cucumbers, whole tomatoes, etc, as they get all messed up once defrosted.

I do have my own freezer though as I bulk buy and bulk cook. So apart from your standard frozen veg and frozen chips, I also have:

Slices of bread (4) in a a seal-able bag, for easy toast or next-day sandwiches.
Ridiculous amounts of steaks/sausages/burgers/etc that I buy online.
Ridiculous amounts of batch-cooked meals in foil containers, currently rocking portions of macaroni cheese, Mexican lasagne, chicken tikka masala, and gnocchi.
Click to expand...



With tomatoes you make a quick ragu out of them:
Cut in half, scoop out seeds. Strain seeds ito collected juices and then discard.
Gently fry onion in olive oil, add to tomato halves+Juice
With a hand blender blend the toms+onion, and add in ffew clothes of crushed garlic

Gently simmer mix until it is reduced by 50-60% and is a ncie thick tasty sauce. Divide into freezer bags.


Then you have an instant awesome pasta sauce that will beat any shop bought junk, and is easily extended with vegetables or turned into spag bol etc.
You can also make a spiced version by frying cumming/coriander or whatever firs, grinding them and adding to the toms before simmering. Good for curries, chili etc.
 
LeeUK said:
Shops even sell frozen veg so why wouldn't you be able to freeze them yourself!

I freeze soft fruit such as blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries. More so with blackberries after I have been blackberry picking as the amount I pick it's impossible to use up at once. :)
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Commercial freezing does it much faster to create much smaller ice crystals and therefore does not mess about with the texture as much.
Freezing fruit at home and then defrosting prior to juicing is a good way to rupture cell walls if you want to get a high juice yield from them.
 
D.P. said:
TBH, eaiseier to list what doesn't freeze: Fresh spinach, kale, lettuce etc.
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I agree with spinach and lettuce but I have two bags of kale in my freezer which I regularly dip into as required.

I have all sorts of stuff in my freezer: All types of raw meats and sausages etc. slices of left over roast, leftover takeaway, milk, bread, veg, fruit, butter etc. I also batch make soups and meals like spag bol (tends to get a bit watery with freezing but still tastes fine), chilli, curry and stews amongst other things. I've stopped freezing cheese as I find it makes it crumbly.

My advice would be that nothing is going to do you any harm if you freeze it and defrost it properly before cooking (many things don't require defrosting). Some things don't freeze well and the flavour or texture is spoiled. Give things a try and see what works :)
 
LeeUK said:
That's because plastic bottle milk is mostly water. More so for those green and red types.
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All milk is mostly water... I'm talking about the emulsion breaking down. Granted, I didn't try shaking it to see if I could restore it, but it looked rather gross so I threw the whole lot out.
 
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