[Ignazio]

I don't have a lot of control over my freezer - I depend upon my housekeeper to keep it stocked and frost free; but when she recently took a holiday I found lots of delicious frozen meals - all labelled and dated but nothing I could add my own touch to.

Having come to the conclusion that prep is much more time consuming than actual cooking I now have a freezer drawer full of breadcrumbs, grated cheese and various sauces. When all I have to do is brown the meat before adding the rest of the ingredients I consider that time well saved.

What do you freeze?

[East]

Cheese, Bread,Morning Rolls,Lurpak Butter and all the usual stuff

[Toby LaRhone]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ignazio

I don't have a lot of control over my freezer - I depend upon my housekeeper to keep it stocked and frost free; but when she recently took a holiday I found lots of delicious frozen meals - all labelled and dated but nothing I could add my own touch to.

Having come to the conclusion that prep is much more time consuming than actual cookidng I now have a freezer drawer full of breadcrumbs, grated cheese and various sauces. When all I have to do is brown the meat before adding the rest of the ingredients I consider that time well saved.

What do you freeze?

I actually enjoy the prep and the cooking for each meal so I instruct my housekeeper to only freeze the surplus that I cook.

[barbeler]

I depend upon my butler doing the same thing, although I became suspicious of all the smoked salmon in there when cook never has served any at dinner.

[Ignazio]

Quote:

Originally Posted by barbeler

I depend upon my butler doing the same thing, although I became suspicious of all the smoked salmon in there when cook never has served any at dinner.

Come to think of it I'm sure I had another bottle of Krug in the cellar.

[Jambo_c]

Not a lot to be honest. We don't eat much frozen food, the odd bit of frozen veg but that's about it. I don't like frozen chips and stuff like that.

I cook from fresh every day, I often make a recipe for 4 but we just eat the rest the following day rather than freeze it.

The main thing it contains at the moment is vodka and ice cream. There's a few bits of frozen BBQ food that we didn't get round to cooking when we had a BBQ a few weeks ago. As I get more into brewing it's starting to contain hops too!

[maggie thecat]

Lots of things. Food for my fish. Butter and meat purchased in bulk. Out of season vegetables. Extra eggs, because the chickens are being productive and you can only eat so much fresh pasta, ice cream and creme brulee. In short, raw materials for meals.

[Chemistry]

Homemade vegan soups and homemade ready meals (as supermarkets tend not to cater for vegans).

Sometimes ice cream and bread too.

[mariaPia]

Berries and home-made sauces.

[mariaPia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by East

Cheese, Bread,Morning Rolls,Lurpak Butter and all the usual stuff

You can freeze cheese?

[pandorasboxes]

ive frozen cheese lots of times, usually the stuff you can get cheaply after crimble.
the only difference ive ever found is that it can be crumbly after, but if using for cooking then its absolutely fine.
milk freezes equally well, just squeeze some air out before replacing the list cos it expands, give it a good shake when defrosted.

[LaVieEnRose]

I freeze most of the meat and meat products I buy. I mainly buy from a very good butcher and there are no preservatives used, so everything goes into the freezer as soon as I get home, except for what's going to be eaten in the next few days.

The shop is only a few miles away, but not on the way to anywhere else I regularly go, so I tend to go about once a month and stock up.

I also do batch cooking from time to time, so there are usually portions of casserole, ragu sauce and that kind of thing in there.

[sarahj1986]

I have found myself doing a once a month big order from Ocado which will imclude an array of meats and fish. I freeze what I can and then take out as and when needed through the month and if needed buy some fresh ingredients to go with it.

[fizzle90]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mariaPia

You can freeze cheese?

Of course you can, how do you expect the cheese on frozen pizzas to freeze otherwise?

[Ignazio]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mariaPia

You can freeze cheese?

I freeze cheese - in fact for the many cheeses (particularly parmesan) I grate before freezing;

[Toby LaRhone]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mariaPia

You can freeze cheese?

And milk - it turns a bit yellow when frozen but becomes "normal" when defrosted.
https://onceamonthmeals.com/blog/ser...cannot-freeze/

This week I froze a large bag of spinach. If you let it thaw it'll be limp but I added some to a curry by just grabbing a fistful of crunchy leaves. I do the same when adding it in a NutriBullet drink.

[walterwhite]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mariaPia

You can freeze cheese?

Most of it yes. I'm not sure you will get great results with things like Brie.

[BlueEyedMrsP]

I don't freeze much, but we buy a fair bit of frozen meat and veg. As a family of four, whatever I cook for our evening meal tends to get eaten that night, and the odd time there are a few leftovers, they get eaten the next day by someone.

[LaVieEnRose]

Probably a big divide here between urban and rural dwellers. When I lived in a city, within walking distance of a shopping centre, I didn't even have a freezer.

[brangdon]

I live alone, so I'll often cook a batch of 4+ meals and freeze two of them. The last one I did was a chicken curry, made from curry powder. I also have a lot of easy meals that are a bought bottle of sauce plus some meat, and I'll freeze some of those too. Also stews. I buy raw meat from supermarkets, and try to get 2-for-1 deals or similar, and then freeze one of them uncooked.

My freezer has three shelves. Top shelf is full of bags of vegetables that I'm currently cooking from - peas, sprouts, broad beans, broccoli etc bought pre-frozen. Second shelf is more of the same, in reserve so I don't run out. Bottom shelf is mostly raw meat I've frozen myself, or cooked meals I've frozen myself. I don't buy frozen meat, nor ready meals any more.

[barbeler]

Every year, my parents used to freeze all the plums from their tree, which seems a terrible waste to me. This year we're gorging ourselves on them straight off the tree. It seems almost criminal to cook plums.

[Welsh-lad]

Ice cubes.
They just aren't the same if you don't

[LaVieEnRose]

Quote:

Originally Posted by barbeler

Every year, my parents used to freeze all the plums from their tree, which seems a terrible waste to me. This year we're gorging ourselves on them straight off the tree. It seems almost criminal to cook plums.

Plums are not very nice cooked, are they? They lose all their sweetness and you have to add sugar back in to make them palatable in sweet dishes.

On the savoury side, I sometimes make Delia's plum/damson chutney which is very good, but last year discovered Nigel Slater's recipe for Chinese plum sauce, which is fantastic. Very good as a marinade for chicken or pork, and had some yesterday as a dip with courgette fritters.

[Toby LaRhone]

Quote:

Originally Posted by walterwhite

Most of it yes. I'm not sure you will get great results with things like Brie.

No, you don't with very soft cheeses.

[Toby LaRhone]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LaVieEnRose

Probably a big divide here between urban and rural dwellers. When I lived in a city, within walking distance of a shopping centre, I didn't even have a freezer.

We used to dream of having a freezer.
We lived in shoe box in middle of road!