Freezing meals is one of the best ways to maintain good meals and drinks from going dangerous together with raw beef, extra herbs or wine that you simply could not end.
Unfortunately, not all of your groceries are match for the freezer. Some meals simply do not deal with these subzero temperatures and needs to be preserved one other manner, similar to pickling, vacuum-sealing or just consuming them earlier than they begin to flip.
To forestall a mass clean-out of costly groceries you would be clever to study which meals do not belong there within the first place. Below, we have rounded up eight frequent meals you must by no means freeze.
1. Milk and cream
Keep your dairy out of the freezer or it can separate and curdle.
Most dairy merchandise cannot be frozen and can develop into inedible if they’re. Milk, cream, yogurt and bitter cream are inclined to separate when frozen. Once they do, there isn’t any returning them to their former state and the thawed outcome can be grainy, watery and even curdled. Nut milk, alternatively, might be frozen extra efficiently.
Ice cream is a identified exception to the dairy rule as a result of its excessive sugar content material lowers the freezing level and retains the product mushy and palatable.
2. Potatoes
Potatoes should not even be refrigerated, by no means thoughts frozen.
America’s favourite carb turns mushy and grainy when thawed, a bodily state that’s no bueno to be used in something from mashed potatoes to french fries. This is as a result of the water separates from the tuber’s starch, leading to a gag-inducing texture that not even trash-foraging critters like raccoons can abdomen. Freezing cooked or partially cooked potatoes (usually parboiled) is a-OK, as a lot of the water content material is extracted in the course of the cooking course of. Bagged potato merchandise from the freezer part of your native grocery retailer are handled with chemical compounds, preservatives or different specialised preparation strategies to make sure taste and texture are preserved when frozen.
3. Cheese
There are methods to retailer all sorts of cheese that may maintain them recent for longer however the freezer is not considered one of them.
Pesky ice crystals type in frozen cheese, which utterly modifications its taste and texture profile. This primarily applies to mushy and moldy cheeses, although some laborious varieties similar to cheddar and jack can stand up to the constant blast of chilly air if grated first and laid flat in a plastic storage bag.
Read extra: Store Cheese Properly and You’ll Extend Its Life by Days, Even Weeks. Here’s How
4. Fried meals
Unfortunetly, that leftover buddy rooster cannot be frozen for later.
The greatest a part of fried meals is, in fact, its crunchy breading. When positioned in a freezer, this batter or crumb absorbs the equipment’s moisture and makes the meals develop into soggy. Additionally, fried meals is chock-full of — you guessed it — oil, which does not freeze utterly and may spoil earlier than the meat or vegetable it has been cooked into. This can result in foul-tasting meals but additionally an unlucky and probably harmful bout of meals poisoning.
5. Eggs
Eggs have a reasonably lengthy shelf life within the fridge so that you should not must freeze them.
If you get pleasure from your scrambled eggs rubbery, stick them within the freezer earlier than preparation. This is because of a course of referred to as “gelation” the place the yolk’s protein molecules clump and make the liquid tougher. Egg content material additionally expands when frozen, which causes complete eggs to crack and leak. Avoiding eggs within the freezer means it’s essential to additionally keep away from egg-based condiments as nicely, similar to mayonnaise, which get lumpy and unspreadable.
6. Salad-friendly fruit and veggies
Leftover salad elements similar to avocado, lettuce and cucumbers ought to by no means be frozen.
If it is a fruit or vegetable and may go right into a typical salad, it will not maintain up within the freezer. This consists of any produce with excessive water content material similar to lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and celery. The beloved avocado can even not fare nicely in extraordinarily low temperatures. As it thaws, it can instantly start to brown. Nobody desires to dip their manner by brown guacamole.
7. Whole citrus
Your greatest with an extra of citrus is to juice the fruit and freeze the juice for recipes and cocktails afterward.
Some dense fruits similar to berries and mango do nicely within the freezer, however citrus will not maintain type so nicely. Whole citrus fruit will develop into mealy after thawing it out. If you’ve got an abundance of lemons, limes or oranges, your greatest wager is to juice them and freeze the juice for later.
8. Cooked pasta and rice
Leftover cooked rice and pasta might be frozen safely however they’re going to lose a lot of their construction and toothsomeness upon reheating.
You definitely can freeze cooked pasta and rice, nevertheless it doesn’t suggest that you simply ought to. The water content material causes the cells in noodles and grains to burst, leading to pasty, gloopy leftovers that may’t be salvaged with even essentially the most scrumptious of sauces.
Pasta is sort of definitely going to emerge from the freezer in tough form. Rice is a bit more sturdy however think about vacuum-sealing it to maintain moisture out earlier than popping it within the freezer for preservation.
9. Bottled or canned drinks
We’ve all tried to quick-chill a beer or soda within the freezer earlier than.
Who amongst us hasn’t tried to cheat time by chilling a lukewarm beer can or bottle within the freezer, solely to neglect about it and return to discover a frozen, effervescent catastrophe? If you are going to use the freezer to sit back canned or bottled drinks, you would be clever to set a timer for 10 minutes so they do not freeze stable and explode.
