What Not to Freeze: 8 Foods to Avoid

Freezing can be a comfortable, inexpensive way to reduce waste, save money and store meals or ingredients. Freezing food stops the watch when spoiling and is often more convenient for home chefs than conservation techniques such as canned food, drying or fermenting.

“Freezing is incredible because it preserves the safety and durability of food and enables us to keep food for the prerequisite and to have the seasons an impression of the seasons all year round,” says Ali RosenAuthor of the cookbook Modern freezer meals: simple recipes for cooking and freezing for later.

However, after thawing, the false foods of less than zero can lead to a moist, unpleasant mess. This is usually due to how freezing affects moisture. “When food freezes, the water inside turns into tiny ice crystals that stretch the cell walls and change the texture of the food as soon as it is thawed,” says Rosen. “The less water and the possibility that food becomes mushy, the better it will freeze it.” Here is a list of eight foods that you should never keep in the freezer, as well as tips for successful freezing and thawing that you can use in your kitchen.

1. Salad vegetables

Fresh vegetables such as salad, celery and cucumbers get their crispness from flood content, but freezing makes them over, mushy and incapable of their salad bowl. Avoid freezing this for anything but smoothies, says Rosen, where you do not notice structural problems.

2. Citrus fruits

The same applies to citrus fruits. You won’t keep well after freezing, but like with salad vegetables you can peel, cut and freeze parts to use them later in smoothies. And you can freeze your juice. Press lemons, lime, oranges and grapefruits together and use ice cube shells for a simple portioning, then keep the cubes in a zipper bag or an airtight container for the long -term freezer.

3. Yogurt and sour cream

Although dairy products such as butter and ice freeze well, others are better in the fridge. “It’s about fat content and water,” says Rosen. Cultivated dairy products such as yogurt, sour cream and créme fraïche contain higher amounts of moisture than fat. The large ice crystals formed during freezing affect the protein structure of the food, which divides the moisture and creates a granular texture after thawing. It is possible to use frozen and thawed sour cream or yogurt in recipes or smoothies, says Rosen, but they are not so tasty when they eat alone.

4. Craftsman cheese

Freezing will damage the sensitive textures of cheese specialties such as Brie, blue cheese and Taleggio. Low temperatures also deactivate advantageous microbes and enzymes that develop the flavors in fine cheese. Some fixed or semi-firm styles that are relatively low, such as Parmesan, Pecorino, Block Cheddar and Part Skim-Mozzarella with a low moisture, can freeze surprisingly well as long as they are properly sealed. “The lower the moisture of the cheese, the less they will notice a difference, especially if they cook it and change the texture anyway,” says Rosen. If possible, thaw hard cheese in the refrigerator at least a few days before use. This enables moisture to redistribute evenly throughout the cheese and improve the texture.

5. Eggs in the bowl

Vermolier eggs freeze in preparations such as breakfast burritos, but raw eggs in the shell are ruined below zero at temperatures. This is because the water in eggs extends when freezing, the shell cracks and the risk of food safety increases. Instead, remove eggs from the shell, beat it to combine the white and the egg yolk, and freeze it in airtight containers. If you are ready to use them, thaw the frozen raw eggs in the fridge overnight. They are best used in recipes with other ingredients and not cooked alone.

6. Defrosted meat and seafood

It is completely safe to freeze freshly bought meat-just make sure that it is well wrapped to prevent the freezer from burning. However, it is best not to fill frozen and thawed meat or seafood again. After preparing, a dry, unpleasant texture in these foods can create a dry, uncomfortable texture.

7. Raw or boiled potatoes

The high water content in raw potatoes makes them a bad candidate for freezing – they become mushy, watery and not worth it when they thaw them. You will achieve better results with cooked potatoes, but your texture will not be as tasty as with freshly produced. If you decide to freeze cooked potatoes (or other cooked foods), make sure that the food has already been cooled, which leads to a shorter freezer. “The ice crystals are larger, the longer it is freezing. Therefore, they hear the term” flash frozen “with regard to freshness-like speed keeps it better preserved,” says Rosen. “If you don’t have time to cool something, just put it in the fridge overnight before freezing.”

8. Provisions

It is never a good idea to put doses in the freezer (or another storage space in which the temperatures fall below freezing). Since the moisture in the food extends below zero conditions, the DO seal can be damaged, which creates a potential danger to food safety. “You don’t want to freeze anything that is recorded, like an egg or an egg or canned manner,” says Rosen. Transfer canned food that you would like to freeze in airtight, freezer-proof containers before you freeze according to the best results, just do not fill them too high, or the lids could dive off after freezing.

The end result

Freezing is a great way to get a lot of food for later use, but certain objects are not recommended for the freezer. Foods with high moistures such as salad vegetables, citrus fruits and raw potatoes become mushy after freezing. Yogurt, sour cream and manual cheese develop an aqueous, granular or unpleasant texture in any other way. Since freezing leads to the moisture expanding into food, avoid storing entire eggs in the shell or in the canned cupboard. For the best results, the cooked food in the fridge in front of the chill, store food in airtight packaging or freezer containers and avoid that overfilling tanks are determined for your freezer.