CHAPTER 1: HOW TO STORE FROZEN FOOD PROPERLY
Keeping frozen food frozen is the main purpose of a freezer. This sounds obvious, but you would be amazed at how many people do not get the most out of their freezer because they are using it in less than optimal conditions.
Let’s start by taking a look at several of the most important aspects of properly storing frozen foods in your freezer.
+ The Location of the Freezer
Your freezer should not be in any area that is too hot or too cold. Do not put it too close to your stove or boiler or outside in a shed or in an unheated basement or storage room. Read your instruction manual carefully, or go online to do some research about your model to determine the best place to put your freezer or chest freezer.
People who live in an apartment will have much less space to play with, naturally, but we have found that a chest freezer can work very well almost as an additional countertop if you put a protective cutting board on top of it and never put anything hot directly on the lid of the freezer.
The main thing to remember about your refrigerator and freezer is to keep them as far away from heat sources like your stove as possible so they can work at peak efficiency. If you are going to keep your freezer in the basement, for example, avoid boilers or clothes dryers. If you do keep it in the basement, make sure it is a reasonably heated area, as the unit will not be able to work well if the location is too cold either
+ Situating Your Food Inside
As you go through this guide and indeed start to cook your own recipes and freeze them, you will want to keep track of what is in the freezer so you can do efficient meal planning and make the most of what you have on hand. A list on the outside of the freezer can help. We have created a list of the recipes in each of our guides for you to download, edit as needed, and print out to post on the outside of your freezer. Go to:
http://EternalSpiralBooks.com/even-more-freezer-recipes
password: fastandtasty
Another way to store wisely to make the most out of your freezer is to store and stack food items in the order in which they will be used, if at all possible. If you are using a side door unit, remember that food close to, or on the door will not stay as cold as the food located in the back parts of the freezer. This can lead to freezer burn, so store your most valuable items like meat in the depths of your freezer. Smart stacking will help improve your end results, because one of the main contributing factors to freezer burn is the constant thawing and re-freezing of foods (more about freezer burn later).
If you are using a chest freezer, the items closest to the top will be the most at risk of thawing, so get in and out quickly if you can each time you open the door. You can do this in a number of ways. The best way is to be sure everything has a label on top to say what it is, or you have written the contents on the lid of the container in erasable marker.
Another great way to target your dinner, grab and go is to color code your containers with particular lids, such as red for meat, green for vegetables, blue for fish and so on. You can also stack your food in quadrants or sixths:
+ Breakfast
+ Lunch
+ Dinner
+ Desserts
+ Side Dishes
+ Snacks
would work well, for instance, with differently colored containers for each, depending on how many categories you want to create in your freezer.
Being organized no matter which configuration of freezer you own can help you save time and money and keep foods frozen in optimal conditions to avoid freezer burn.
+ Full versus Empty
Your freezer has to work hard to keep all the food cold. Think of it like a portable cooler full of food. The fewer items in the cooler, the more ice you must put in to keep it cold. When the cooler is full, the cold food helps keep the inside temperature cold, and thus you need less ice. Your freezer works the same way. Keeping a full freezer means less work keeping everything else frozen. Plus it will stay cold longer if your power goes out. We will discuss this more in a moment as we discuss how to maintain a proper freezer temperature in the next chapter.
One final point is what to do when you initially freeze you recipes. Do not stack them then if you can help it. Try to spread them out flat as much as possible for fast freezing. Then stack them once they are solid. If you are cooking large batches of make and freeze recipes, this might be a challenge, in which case, you will want to either stagger the cooking or make a range of things with different cooling times.
Remember, always let your cooked food cool fully before trying to freeze to avoid condensation and your food getting watery. Also remember to seal everything well to avoid freezer burn.