The drive to prepare a meal can come in waves. You braise
short ribs for hours on Sunday and struggle to gather the will to make ramen on
Thursday. On those nights, it helps to have a freezer full of, well, braised
short ribs. It’s cheaper than takeout, requires nearly no energy to reheat and
feels like an act of care, past you taking care of present you.
اضافة اعلان
The freezer is the best source of fully cooked dishes,
homemade meals that need only to be heated through and, of course, desserts for
sweet cravings. (It also remains a smart place to store many ingredients.)
And it’s as simple to stack up dishes in your freezer as it
is to understand what keeps best and when to eat it.
What can I freeze?You can freeze anything, although some foods are better
suited and all start to diminish in taste, texture and scent over time. So it’s
not exactly a matter of can, but should.
How water turns into ice largely determines what freezes
best. As fresh ingredients with a lot of water freeze, their cell walls break,
altering their texture. Cooking does something similar, which is why, with
their broken cell walls, fully and partly prepared dishes maintain their
integrity in the freezer.
How long should I freeze something?The short answer is a year, maximum — not because the food
will spoil, but because it’ll taste sad. (The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention has a cold food storage chart, for more precise timelines.) Two to
six months is better for ensuring quality. So is wrapping the food tightly.
Exposure to freezing air causes food to dehydrate, making it tougher and more
bland (commonly known as freezer burn). The oxygen in that air can also cause
food to oxidize, causing fats to taste rancid. Follow these tips for ideal food
storage and be sure to label and date every item using masking or painter’s
tape and a permanent marker, so you’re never left wondering what you have.
How long is something safe to eat?As long as your freezer is at or below zero degrees,
bacteria can’t grow. The best way to tell if something seems fine to eat is to
smell and touch it after it defrosts. If it smells rotten or rancid, and
doesn’t feel the way it should — think mushy, mealy fish — trash it. If you’re
not sure, take a little nibble. If it tastes good, enjoy.
But remember: The freezer is not a time machine. If leftover
stew close to turning in the refrigerator is thrown in the freezer, it won’t
thaw into impeccably fresh stew. Once thawed, it’ll return to its iffy state.
What are the best prepared dishes to freeze?Soups, Stews and Braises: Anything liquid, soft or
stored in sauce stays intact in the freezer. Stocks, soups (creamy, chunky or
brothy) and stews of all kinds (from curries to chilies) can be ladled into
sturdy airtight containers with at least an inch of room at the top. Braised
meat or vegetables like collards should be smothered evenly in their sauce.
Meatballs hold up especially well if stored in gravy, and from-scratch beans
keep their creamy, tender texture when packed with their starchy simmering
liquid.
Ideally, thawing would occur overnight in the refrigerator,
but these dishes can be quickly defrosted straight from the freezer. Run the
sealed container under hot water until the ice block releases, then slide it
into a saucepan. Add a scant inch of water, set over medium-high heat, cover,
and simmer, occasionally breaking up the ice, until everything bubbles evenly
for a few minutes.
Casseroles and Sweet or Savory Pies: Lasagna and
anything like it — meat, vegetables or starch layered with sauce — are freezer
heroes. Fully cooked casseroles can be wrapped tightly in their dishes, then
unwrapped, covered with foil and heated in the oven. Leftovers can be portioned
and sealed into smaller containers, then popped out and zapped in the microwave
or baked until bubbling. A casserole with cooked components, such as
tomato-meat sauce or creamed broccoli and rice, can be assembled in the dish,
wrapped and frozen, then cooked through in the oven.
Double-crust pies should be assembled with raw dough and
chilled filling. The whole thing should be frozen uncovered until rock hard,
then wrapped tightly until it’s baked from its frozen state. Quiche should be
fully baked, then frozen whole or in wedges. Thaw in the refrigerator, then
heat in the oven.
All Manner of Dumplings: Any two-bite treat wrapped in
dough — pot stickers, samosas, mandu, pierogies, lumpia, phyllo rolls and the
like — falls into a special freezer-friendly category. All can be fully
assembled with cooked or raw fillings, then frozen uncovered on a tray until
hard before being transferred to airtight containers. Then, boil, pan-fry,
steam, deep-fry or bake them straight from their frozen state.
Dessert: Homemade sweets should complement your ice
cream stash. Meringue, gelatin, cream desserts like trifles, and delicate baked
goods like sponge cake or tuiles don’t hold up well, but nearly every other
sweet does. Cookies can be frozen as dough or fully baked. Dough balls and
slices should be baked from frozen; ready-to-eat cookies taste fresh when
heated in a toaster oven. Cakes and breads can be kept whole or wrapped in
slices, and those with a very fine-textured crumb keep especially well.
Cupcakes, brownies and other bars, waffles, unfilled cream
puffs (and their savory gougères cousins) keep well in airtight containers and
thaw quickly at room temperature. For goods meant to be eaten hot, a quick
blast in the toaster oven refreshes their crispness.
Stocking a freezer may seem like a task for vigilant
planners, but it’s especially helpful for those who don’t plot out a weekly
meal plan. Anytime you’ve made too much of a dish that freezes well, wrap
leftovers well and throw them in. And anytime you’re just too exhausted to
cook, heat them up and be delighted with the meal you so lovingly made.
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