Quote:
Originally Posted by 4X4
Pfft. There's no room in my freezer with all the human heads in there. But thanks for the trick. Does it still taste good? I'm a bit picky about frozen stuff as well..? Freezer burn tastes worse than green meat.
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Things along the line of salsa, sauces, broth freeze well because they do not contain many air particles. A large frozen piece of meat like a roast will freeze and last longer than cut up chunks of stew. The chunks of stew have air spaces, and that is what will cause freezer burn. Of course, if things are properly wrapped, and if you actually use what is in your freezer instead of looking at it or forgetting about it, then they will last well. There is of course a shelf life on anything in your freezer just like there is a shelf life on fresh food products and canned food products.
Now if Ken is freezing his salsa and then just rewarming enough to scrape some off for his tacos and fajitas, not too much problem with returning the rest to the freezer as long as he does not repeat that process for a long time frame. He is not completely thawing the whole product. Of course, I would never advocate this procedure for any meat product, nor do I think Ken would do that.
Now what you can do, to make anything freeze better, is get rid of as much air as possible, air that would be exposed to food. So Ken, when you freeze that salsa, get some plastic wrap and press it down on the surface and then put the lid of the container on. Now your air space is touching the plastic wrap, not the salsa, see the difference? Also, if you allow half to three quarters of an inch head room, most things that are of the liquid nature will not swell too large and break your container when you freeze them.
Here is how I freeze some items. Take for instance if you buy a fresh bunch of parsley, cilantro or mint. Usually you need it for a few recipes but you won't use all of it at once, So I use whatever the recipe called for. Then I rinse the portion left over, shake out as much water as I can, chop or mince it and put it in a
freezer type plastic bag and no, that does not mean a bag that you put your apples in when you purchased them at the grocery store. Freezer bags are made specifically for freezing food products. Now before I freeze my minced parsley, I take a straw, put it in the bag and suck out as much air as possible. So your minced parsley is now all snuggly and cozy with the other parsley, all scrunched and sucked together. Then I usually put that bag inside some plastic container and freeze it. It retains almost all of its flavor and color, no comparison between the dried stuff and frozen stuff. And because it has already been minced, you can add it to whatever and it cooks almost instantaneously. Parsley by the way also will last quite well in a glass of cold water in your fridge, inside a plastic bag to prevent dehydration. And here is what I learned in the Thai cooking class I took. Put your cilantro in a flat plastic container and put a raw egg in with it. Cover and refrigerate. It will last a couple of weeks this way. Your egg will turn green though and I don't advocate eating that egg
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The trick is to remove as much of the air as possible and then wrap it and containerize it so air can not come in after either.
What can you do with some other products, say icecream? Take out whatever portion of icecream that you require, cover with plastic wrap and push it down on the icecream, now put back the cover of the icecream container and return your icecream to the freezer. And if you want your icecream to last even longer, don't dig out a hole in the middle. If you dig a hole in the icecream, then you are increasing the amount of air that comes in contact with your icecream and it simply will not last as long and soon you will see those ugly ice crystals on top your icecream.
EDIT: Before anyone puts an egg in with cilantro as I mentioned above, I will add that the egg is kept in its shell!!! Do not break open egg and put in with raw cilantro. I guarantee the latter will result in spoiled egg and spoiled cilantro!!!