To freeze or not to freeze?
More tips on how to get the best from your freezer...
What not to freeze...
Most individual ingredients can be frozen, and all BBC Good Food recipes are helpfully labelled with freezing instructions. However, some foods simply aren't freezer friendly:
- Raw eggs in the shells will expand and crack.
- Hard-boiled eggs go rubbery.
- Vegetables with a high water content, such as lettuce, cucumber, bean sprounts and radishes, go limp and mushy.
- Soft herbs, like parsley, basil and chives, go brown.
- Egg-based sauces, such as mayonnaise, will separate and curdle.
- Plain yogurt, low-fat cream cheese, single cream and cottage cheese go watery.
Great to freeze
All these everyday ingredients will freeze well.
- Butter and margarine can be frozen for 3 months.
- Grated cheese can be frozen for up to 4 months and can be used straight from the freezer.
- Most bread, except crusty varieties such as French bread, will freeze well for up to 3 months. Sliced bread can be toasted from frozen.
- Milk will freeze for 1 month. Defrost in the fridge and shake well before using.
- Raw pastry will freeze for for 6 months and takes just 1 hour to thaw.
Cooking from frozen
Freezer management is all about forward planning, but some dishes can be cooked straight from frozen. When cooking food from frozen, use a lower temperature to start with to thaw, then increase the temperature to cook. Foods include:
- Soups, stews, braises and casseroles.
- Bakes, gratins and potato-topped pies.
- Thin fish fillets, small fish, sausages, burgers, and seafood if added at the end of a hot dish.
Foods that should never be cooked from frozen:
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