In Help Me Make a Better Lasagna, Angua asks if it’s possible to freeze a lasagna. It is, if you wrap it carefully in plastic wrap and make sure to keep it level. But it occurred to me there’s lots of foods that can be frozen if properly prepared. So please ask your freezing questions and share your freezing tips.
I’ll even go first.
Question: Can you freeze a half full bottle of wine without affecting the taste? Does it matter if you use one of pump things to remove most of the air first?
Tip: You can freeze unopened bags of potato chips.
Yes, and yes. But why? Wine will last quite some time in the fridge with the air pumped out of it. No real reason to freeze it. I would recon that freezing the wine would be akin to bruising it. You tend to seperate stuff when you freeze stuff and wine is the fine art of blending different things over time. Allowing the different parts of the wine to age together makes it all the better. So, I would like to say No don’t freeze the wine.
To what benefit? Hell, you can freeze anything, but lots of stuff you have to ask - Why?
Herbs freeze well. Chop coarsely and pack in an ice-cube tray with enough water to cover, then transfer to a freezer bag. Drop a cube or two into soup or stew.
My mom froze chips, I think to prevent us from eating all the chips at once. She’d buy a lot of sale, you see, and the freezer “hid” them from view. I found later that it reduced the slight “off flavor” of rancid oil you get when you keep chips too long at room temperature.
I was wondering about the wine because I normally freeze herb cubes with water to add later to soups and things. Last year I started trying to use broth, wine, *whatever * instead of water for all cooking projects. Broth works ok for the herb cubes but I wasn’t sure if freezing would damage the wine. WIll wine freeze all the way through or will I have a little core of brandy?
Most people don’t know that you can freeze live clams. When you decide to use them, remove from the freezer, put in a pan of water and steam them open as you would if they were fresh.
One thing my mum does is to finely chop thin green chillies and corriander, mix them together, and freeze them in ice cube trays. Quick and easy spice mix for curries, stews, soups, anything.
And thank you Devil’s Grandmother for the lasagne tip.
Like a specialist’s Jeopardy? I’ll take animal parts for $100, Alex.
Hey Chefguy! Should I wash the clams first or should I just drop their sandy little butts into a bag?
If you rub the dirt off oranges and lemons you can freeze them whole in thier skins. It seems to work better if they are not touching each other while freezing.
Really? That’s going to be so handy - I’ll walk by the seafood display, but if I"m not in the mood for clams that night, I won’t buy them. Then, when the seafood special is gone from Costco, I’m craving clams. Next time I’ll pop them in the freezer. Thanks!
If you’re planning on shellfish, check they haven’t been frozen during the transportation process - refreezing thawed seafood is a good way to increase risk of all sorts of nastiness.
I freeze berries (strawberries, raspberries, etc.). Rinse them and pat them dry. Spread them out in a single layer on a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper. Freeze until solid, them slide them into freezer bags.
I also cut green peppers and jalapeno peppers into strips and freeze them the same way. Them I always have some around when I want them, and can pull out just what I need.
When bananas get a bit too ripe to eat I just chuck them, still in their skin, into the freezer. The skin will turn black but that’s ok. They’ll be goopy when you thaw them out but they make simply fantastic, fragrant banana bread. Or muffins. Or cake. Or even a banana lassi.
My sister used to freeze 7-up, and then eat it. It was a like a popsicle, but with small holes (i.e. bubbles) and without a fruit flavor of any kind. Big waste of time…
Bread
Pasta Dough (egg)
Muffins
Butter
Stock
Duxelles (Mushroom paste)
Rosemary
Parmesan cheese (only use melted)
Lemon Juice (As ice-cubes)
Orange Segments (Eat frozen)
Things I have heard freeze well but haven’t frozen:
Bread Dough
Pie crust (short and flaky)
Wine (see here, very wierd)
Basil in Olive Oil
Citrus Zest
Coconut Milk (look for frozen coconut milk at ethnic grocers, it’s slightly worse than fresh but better than canned)
