I just brought home a big assed jar of minced garlic in water.My question is Can i freeze some of this without it getting too funky?
I’d guess you can, but my first hand experience with freezing garlic is with whole bulbs.
Generally, freezing differs from refrigerating in the following ways:
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While microbes grow slowly in the frig, they don’t grow at all (or hardly at all) in the freezer. For many foods, therefore, freezing is the only practical long term storage option.
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All chemistry happens slower in the freezer. So non-microbial breakdown processes (ie oxidation) will occur more slowly in the freezer as well
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Freezing disrupts cells. The ice crystals that form are hell on wheels cellwise. This is the main downside of freezing. Many foods, when defrosted, will have significant changes in texture and possibly flavor. Try freezing lettuce sometime for a good example of a non-freezer hardy food. Your garlic, however, is already disrupted, so no worries. I would drain it and freeze it in small clumps (maybe use an ice cube tray).
Just FYI, fenrir, we bought a jar of minced garlic from the supermarket two years ago. We just keep it in the fridge and it’s still perfectly fine. (We only use it when we run out of the fresh stuff)
Thanks for your answers.I’ll freeze some of it to see how it works.
I’ve never put lettuce in the freezer, but it was one of the only things in my garden that survived the frost last fall, and it didn’t seem to have any noticeable effect on the flavor or texture.
There’s a big difference between a little frost on the pumpkin (or lettuce, as it were) and a head of lettuce that’s been completely frozen solid. Yuck.
Frozen lettuce is…mushy? As I recall, since it’s something that I try to avoid at all cost, it’s as if the structure breaks down with the expansion.
You can have frost at temperatures above freezing 
Ever seen the Albert Brooks movie, ‘Mother’? There’s a great scene where he finds out she freezes her salads. Very funny stuff.
Arken beat me to it.
I was thinking of the frozen salads as I was reading through the posts.
That is one of the funniest scenes in a movie!
Slight aside: There’s evidence that storing garlic in oil at room temperature for more than a few hours can cause botulism. However, I’ve often kept minced garlic under oil in the refrigerator for several weeks with no problems.
Also, make sure you store minced garlic in a glass jar with a tight metal lid. Tupperware-type containers will let the essential oils out, and you’ll end up with a refrigerator or freezer full of garlicky-tasting milk, cheese, vegetables, ice cream, etc., plus the garlic will lose its zing.
And foithermore, I have recently experimented with slicing garlic instead of mincing it, and it works well in everything I’ve tried so far. In fact, some people will tell you that mincing the garlic lets too much of the oils escape when you saute it, while slicing it thinly helps it retain some flavor. As long as you don’t mind little garlic slices in your dishes (cooking takes the harshness out of them), there’s really no need to mince it. Plus, whereas mincing garlic can be labor-intensive (need to get the food processor out) and therefore worth storing, if you slice it, you can do it on a fresh clove every time. I don’t store garlic at all anymore.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Chronos *
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Hey man, maybe I’m wrong about the lettuce. But I don’t think so. Anyway, I don’t currently have any lettuce in the house. I have fresh spinach, though. I put a few leaves in the freezer. I’ll report back on the results when I defrost tomorrow.
If I’m right, though, expect much gloating. Finally, proff that I am smarter than Chronos.
Journal of Cryogenic Vegetarianism 1(12):23-28
May 1, 2001
D. Spud, I. M. Goober, R. T. Choke, and Choosybeggar*
Abstract: Leafy green vegetables (LGVs) purportedly resist frost damage in the Montana autumn. This has led to wild speculation that these crops might be good candidates for subfreezing storage. Clearly, such a notion flies in the face of good reason. The structural components of the LGVs are fragile and easily disrupted by ice crystals. We test this notion directly using Spinacia oleracea (common spinach, Andy Boy Farms, Salinas, Ca.) as the test LGV. The spinach was stored at -10[sup]o[/sup]C in a General Electric minifreezer until frozen. Control samples were maintained at 4-8[sup]o[/sup]C in a General Electric minirefrigerator. Subsequently, the LGV samples were transferred to a room temperature (20-22[sup]o[/sup]C) environment. Samples were maintained at room temperature until they had reached a minimum temperature of 18[sup]o[/sup]C, at which time they were compared for texture, mouthfeel, and taste. Scoring was based on criteria established by Popeye et al. We conclude that LGV storage in subfreezing temperatures followed by defrosting results in foul-tasting mush.
[sub]*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed[/sub]