Being prepared to freeze just about anything, from soups to sauces to egg whites, is a huge advantage in the kitchen. After all, what good is throwing an entire lasagna in the freezer when you know you'll never thaw the whole thing out? Read on for my essential supplies to make freezing a breeze.
• Ice cube trays - My last apartment kitchen came with these seemingly useless ice cube trays that produced ice the size of sugar cubes. Although they lacked ice potential, they were perfect for freezing small quantities of pesto. And I never had to worry about needing to re-use them and ending up with pesto flavored ice. Purchasing ice cube trays to set aside for freezing food makes freezing left over tomato sauce or egg whites a cinch and allows for small portions for later use. Fill trays with food, wait a few hours until frozen solid, and then transfer to a heavy duty freezer plastic bag. Then use cube by cube as needed.
• Plastic wrap - Do you ever notice how inexpensive plastic wrap sometimes lacks that clingy quality? To keep food protected against air exposure in the freezer, using plastic wrap that works as a shrink wrap is key. If you have the space, restaurant supply stores carry big rolls of plastic wrap designed to be used easily sitting on top of a counter, without two handed tearing and sheets folding up on themselves. Glad Press'n Seal freezer wrap also works wonders for freezing, as it allows you to come close to vacuum sealing.
• Aluminum foil - I purchased a roll of recycled aluminum foil recently and I couldn't believe how thin it was. Shiny, yes. But it didn't hold up against the heavy duty variety I usually use. This is also a great product to pick up from a restaurant supply source.
• Plastic bags - Those heavy duty freezer-style plastic bags aren't just an extra effort on marketing; they're better at keeping out dry freezer air and preventing frost. Also, many come pre-printed with a spot to name and date the food - which is key when defrosting and mistaking disks of pie dough for hamburger patties like I have done.
• Plastic take out containers - Next time you order take out food don't pitch the containers. When you're short on good quality containers for freezing, these work like a charm. My favorites are the cylindrical deli containers often used for soup.
• Foil baking containers - Have you ever banished one of your favorite glass or ceramic pans to the freezer, not remembering its hiding place for months? Foil containers make for easy storage and don't compromise your usual baking container supply. My favorites are the small loaf pans, perfect for an individual pot pie or lasagna.
What are your essential tools for freezing?
Related: Love Your Freezer? Washington Post's Guide to Freezing
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My Rival Seal-A-Meal!! Squeezes all the air out, making food last a long time, with
no freezer burn! Yay!
A sharpie! Lol. As long as it's labeled and dated I can make an effort to use it.
Flat-freezing things like soups and freezing in smaller portions also helps me. And anything that can go straight (or almost straight) into the oven or the pot while still frozen is good.
I'm hoping to get a chest freezer soon, so I can freeze things like berries and chopped veggies on sheet pans so they don't stick together when I bag them.
I love the idea of freezer cooking but it creates some extra waste I'm not a fan of. Any tips you have would be great!
How many of these disposable products can be reused for more freezing? Obviously the plastic bags can be washed and reused but what about the pieces of plastic wrap and aluminum foil? Assuming you don't destroy it trying to unwrap your food (which always happens with foil for me), can it be rinsed off and reused? I love the idea of freezer cooking but it creates some extra plastic waste I'm not a fan of. Any tips you have would be great!
Yes on the sharpie! And because I am so cheap and like to reuse my freezer bags, I very rarely write on the bag and instead use masking or painters tape to attach to the wrapped food for easy labeling.
RHOSWEN, you can use glass jars in the freezer - just be careful. There are also plastic containers designed for freezer use and reuse.
I have a few freezer staples (some variety of beans and rice, lasagna, quiche) and ingredients (mirepoix, veggie ends for stock, pesto) that I just keep refilling. Those have dedicated and never washed bags.
I also advocate the muffin tin for a freezer tool. Just portion out your soup/stew/rice/whatever, freeze, remove and bag! Silicone would work better, but I just briefly soak the bottom of the tin for easy removal.
My FoodSaver! Love it.
I started keeping a small dry-erase board tucked into a cabinet where I jot down things that go into the freezer. Not the obvious stuff like frozen peas that are aways in there, but any kind of leftovers, or things in packages that won't later be immediately obvious what they are. It's been a HUGE help, I scan the list every day to see what I might want to use. I also keep those little mini Post-It notes in the kitchen and use those to label stuff, either stick on the container or slip inside the Ziploc. (Although I like the sound of the masking tape + Sharpie idea...)
Like Rhoswen, I'm also concerned about not using too much disposable stuff. There are times when foil or plastic wrap are necessary, but I try to minimize them. I do prefer zip bags over containers, though, because I can squeeze out a lot of air from them. With containers I often find I don't have the right size for the amount of food, and then there's empty space in the container, so it doesn't store as well. So I try to reuse bags for as long as possible--as Tatterhood said above, dedicated bags for certain items means you don't have to wash them.
Re-usable plastic clips are great. I try to avoid aluminium as much as possible (carbon footprint's terrible).
I am big on this topic - going to a class tomorrow night on buying/storing/using in bulk actually! I go on a large Costco trip every couple of months and buy all the meat and other items I will want/need for my husband and I. Then we buy things like eggs and bread every week or so (if only he liked my homemade bread....).
I use saran wrap to individually wrap meat that's on the butcher trays (yes, a lot of work, but saves on mess and allows me to not waste unused thawed meat (wasting saran wrap vs meat we won't eat? i'll go for the plastic)) and freezer bags. I reuse the freezer bags by washing them out with super hot water + soap when the meat frozen in them is used up.
I also make pot pies and freeze them. I was using aluminum baking trays as well but I don't bake pies or casseroles all that often in my glass dishes so I was spending money on things I wasn't using at home and switched that up - just depends what you cook and how you use your dishes. I like the idea of using the glass dishes I have because I'm creating zero waste that way.
I also buy a ton of onions at once (they're so much cheaper coming in bulk), chop them up, and freeze them. Same with green onions. I also watch for sales on bell peppers cause they freeze wonderfully. It's so nice to have these items on hand to throw in a skillet when making an omelette, prechopped and ready to go. Frozen veggies and spices (basil, cilantro, etc) are the way to go for a 50+ hour working lady.
I've found all of this depends on how and what you cook/eat. Once you recognize your established eating patterns (and don't try changing them - work with them) you can then decide what works best frozen and what works best fresh. Some may not like the freezer thing and that's great - but I prefer taking the time to freeze food over eating processed stuff and having to go to store every few days to pick up fresh items. It's a lifestyle thing - and everyone has a different one.
One of these days I plan to start cooking soups and using the flat-freezing and/or frozen cube methods out there. As of right now, though, I need another freezer before I can add to my regimen.
A plastic straw--when I freeze something in a Ziploc bag, I stick the straw all the way down into the bag, seal it as far as I can and then suck out all the air, remove the straw and seal completely. It's not quite as effiecient as a vacuum sealer but it takes up a lot less space!
My zuchini never freezes well. It thaws out into a limp watery blob.
I love the plastic cylindrical take-out containers, too. I checked on the safety of microwaving them, and the types we have are completely safe. Good way to reuse! They are great for soups, as you said.
We also use gallon zip-top bags, sheet pans (to freeze slices of banana, for example, then gather into one bag so they don't stick together), foil, plastic wrap, and sets of the cheap multi-piece storage containers from Ikea. Those are great because their low price allows you to not miss them while in the freezer.
The best food-to-freezer tool I use: Painter's tape. The label is easy to see and it stays on containers *but removes easily*. Just pull off the tape before you microwave, and no sticky residue, just like with walls.
Kitchn readers are the most clever folks! The muffin tin tip is great and I love the straw idea. I have a Food Saver but sometimes I don't want to drag it out just for a few veggie pancakes for my one-yr-old son. The straw will be so much more convenient.