Sweet Kitchen Tips 18

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Let’s talk about storing food shall we?  

With the last hurrah holiday coming up in a week! (Wow A WEEK GUYS!) You probably are prepping ahead of time for those fancy dinners with the familia.  And of course with prepping comes the dreaded storing.  So, let’s talk about storing food shall we?  

Some foods are excellent for storing, other not so. Here are eight of those that you need to avoid freezing:

  1. Cooked pasta or rice – when reheated, it will turn to mush or grainy, not good.
  2. Fried Food – the coating will no longer be crispy, and meat or fish will be tough and dry.  If you happen to have some, don’t try to reheat it by frying it.  Thaw and bake at 400oF.
  3. Breaded raw meat or fish – again, uncover and thaw it on a rack to keep the coating drier.  Bring it to room temperature before frying; otherwise, the coating will burn before the inside is done.
  4. Sauces and dressings thickened with egg, such as mayonnaise, hollandaise or custard.
  5. Gravy or other fatty sauces thickened with flour – they will get gluey and separate.
  6. Sauces with lots of milk or cheese – they will curdle.
  7. Leftover canned vegetables and legumes – some will become spongy and inedible and some will turn to mush.
  8. Corn tortillas – they puff, separate and crumbed when thawed.

Here are some bake goods and desserts to avoid freezing:

  1. Thin cookies such as tuiles – way to fragile
  2. Boiled icings and glazes – they become frothy and weepy
  3. Custards, creamy pies, some pumpkin pies – they get watery and lumpy, and the pasty gets soggy.
  4. Meringues – they turn rubbery.  Also apply meringue after a dessert has thawed.
  5. Gelatin desserts
  6. Jelly preserves – they get weepy, but jams are ok.

Here is a rule that I learn about freezing – Freeze sooner rather than later.  Freeze quickly, defrost slowly. Seal it well, use it soon.  If you can stir it (soup), reheat it from the frozen state.  If you can’t stir it (casserole), thaw it in the fridge first, so it cooks evenly.

So you froze it well… how about reheating it well?  Here are some tips to do that:

Always rinse ice crystals off frozen food. They taste bad.

Speed the reheat in the top of a double boiler, if the dish would defrost haphazardly in the microwave, leaving some parts cooked and others still frozen.

If a dish is saucy or creamy, reheat it in the microwave.

You can reheat frozen food more evenly in a heatproof dish set inside a larger pan of hot water in a 350oF oven.

Don’t put a cold glass dish in a preheated oven. Preheat the dish and the oven together.