Today’s installment from the Home Economics front is about maximizing the freezer’s potential. The object is NOT to store large lumps of frosty things. I used to fall prey to “out of site, out of mind” but, not any more. The trick to making your freezer work for you requires a $5 investment: white board contact paper.
I promise you, it’s that simple. Buy a roll and slap a piece on your freezer. Write down everything that is inside. When you remove something, wipe it off. When you add something, write it down. You will no longer stand in front of the freezer filling a trash bag with expensive chunks of mystery meat.
Now, about filling that freezer… You don’t need to buy expensive gadgets for preservation preparation. What do these gadgets do? They put plastic right up against the food so that there is no air pocket. We can do that with plastic wrap, folks. And then just put the food in a freezer bag (but take the air out of that, too).
Do you buy ground meats in bulk? 1 pound fits nicely in a quart sized freezer bag, flattened out to about 12” thick. These freeze quickly and stack awesomely.
To preserve food quality, get the food as cold as possible before putting it in the freezer. Hot food makes steam as it cools, which turns into water, which turn into ice crystals, which affect the texture of the food. Likewise, when defrosting food, keep it in the wrapper and defrost in the ‘fridge so that you don’t get the reverse effect.
p.s. Do NOT put contact paper on your wall and let it live there for a few months. I did and ended up spending some serious time with the sander…
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