As thoughts of bushels of berries start to fill our thoughts with the onset of summer, we always want to keep as much of the year's harvest as we can. Instead of freezing them in a single layer on a baking sheet, try a little bit of dry ice instead. Your berries won't suffer from a case of the mush and will be freezer burn free!
To freeze berries with dry ice, there's very little that needs to be done. After you've given them a quick rinse (and set on a towel to briefly dry), toss them in a large bowl (don't worry about stems or leaves) with small pieces of dry ice. To handle the super-cold stuff, you'll need high/low temperature gloves (look for rubber ones intended for high heat) which can be found at inexpensive prices if you don't already own a pair.
Don't seal off the dry ice as your berries are freezing, instead try placing your bowl of berries in something larger like a cooler, large stock pot or even your kitchen sink. Do your best to fill each bag near the berry bowl as there will be less air thanks to the dry ice, which will all but eliminate freezer burn and allow them to thaw without getting mushy or discolored. Once frozen solid, the berries can be placed in a zip top bag and kept for a year — sometimes more.
Do you have a great tip on preserving the summer bounty? Share your thoughts below!
• Related: How to Freeze Summer Fruit From Cook's Illustrated
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Comments (16)
I've seen this tip before, but where can I get dry ice? Is it expensive? How much would I need?
Where do you get dry ice from?
Yes, yes! Where in Boston :)
I'm very surprised to see this here the same week as the Good Eats episode (including the same instructions and tips) with no attribution. Shame!
Most grocery stores (at least on the west coast) have dry ice for sale at a couple bucks for a pound. Shouldn't need more than that.
I concur, where oh where does on buy dry ice? I've always wondered.
I buy it at a welding supply place. weird, right?
The best places to find dry ice are usually ice cream or beverage companies. I've purchased it a few times at a wholesale ice cream place, and it's pretty inexpensive.
If you are in the Portland, OR, area this is where I've bought dry ice: http://www.portlandicecream.com/ (in NoPo)
If not: http://tinyurl.com/2bhhr9y
In the Midwest you can find dry ice at Hy-Vee grocery stores, many carry it in a small cooler, sometimes by an exit door near the milk coolers or even customer service. Many bait shops also have them (though I don't know why).
sillyputty - That episode of Good Eats did re-air this week, there really isn't any other way to go about this method, but my Grandparents have been doing it since I was little! Smoothies from their house were always the best!
Sillyputty that was my thought exactly!! Usually AB gets mentioned at least even if not credited because this is a general method. It is interesting though that the description is very close in phrasing to how AB explains it in his strawberry episode.
Also, I'm sure that dry ice is pretty easy to find online. One of the local ice cream shops sells it to make transporting pints of their ice cream longer distances far easier.
You can buy it in blocks at almost any grocery store. Just ask for it at the counter since it's not typically kept with the bags of regular ice in the freezer section.
I also saw that episode of Good Eats and thought the same thing as Sillyputty & Pheonixx.
@sarahrae - I bet if you had mentioned something along the lines of how AB reminded you of a great tip that you've know about since you were a kid then no one would have blinked an eye.
BTW, I wanted to ship some ice cream to my dad recently and researched dry ice...the UPS store told me to Google my city and "dry ice." Sure enough the results came right up! And when I called around, I was surprised to learn dry ice was less than $1.50/lb.
I agree that dry ice is a great way to freeze berries fast, and fast freezing = smaller ice crystals = less mush.
I have seen dry ice available at grocery stores and also at party supply places.
What works even better, however, is liquid nitrogen. Cryogenic strawberries! Alas, that's hard to get your hands on unless you work in a lab :)
Slow Lorus, agreed, it was a poor way to word it on my behalf. Since I had grown up using the method, AB just confirmed what I already knew and it did jumpstart my brain, especially since we've been out of last year's "freezer berries" for about 3 months now!
Wow, evatoad, I have driven past there many times and would never think they had dry ice. Thanks for the tip as I live in the neighborhood.
i've gone to acme ice in boston for dry ice - they have their main location near fenway and the other somewhere in cambridge. it's pretty inexpensive, seeing as all they sell is ice!