Frozen Food

I'm afraid there are many things I dislike from the freezer.  I think my main dislike is frozen bread - we just don't do that.  Frozen peas are OK, as is frozen mince and meals made from mince. I find chicken watery when it's thawed out, whatever you do to it, and many other meat stuff I really do prefer fresh.  Years ago, my wife used to make shortbread biscuits which for some reason she used to freeze.  We used to eat them straight from the freezer.... 🤣🤣  

The freezer is really useful for keeping tubs of Ben & Jerry's - although it's never in there very long.....  and I have been known to put a bottle of Prosecco in the freezer for a short time, for a quick cool down... 😀

David

We grow a lot of fruit and veg so continually freeze the surplus. Some things keep well, raspberries and gooseberries will last a year, runner beans go watery quickly. Just now I'll be picking and freezing peas and broad beans. In fact buying a large amount of freezable uk veg in season is good as most can be frozen. Tomatoes, peppers, courgettes etc are really good if roasted first, always handy through the winter to make soups and add to casseroles. Some "experts" will say nutritional values are lost through freezing, they probably are but good rotation works. Meat does deteriorate but if cooked as a meal and frozen it might survive longer. I think you just have to judge for yourself. Better than throwing leftovers away.

DSB we freeze bread, usually it's home made but I froze a huge tiger loaf recently and that was ok...heaven knows what the tiger bit is?!!

Freezers have been around for so long now I can't think you'll come to much harm with the contents. 

We have a lot of frozen food, including a large chest freezer in the barn (shared with our son and family) full of our own beef, and occasionally “too good to miss” items, like turkeys after Christmas.

And in the pantry another chest freezer, always nearly full, for homemade stuff (casseroles, soups, pies etc ) and general leftovers. Plus a few bought Ready Meals from https://www.cookfood.net/ for when I don’t feel like cooking, and taking away in the caravan.

And .... a small under counter one for ice cream and frozen veg.

And some days there’s nothing to eat.

But, come the apocalypse we’ll survive!

Don't ask what’s in the bottom - I can’t remember.

We have two freezers - a large upright one in the garage and a smaller under-counter one in the kitchen. Plus - we have been known to switch the caravan freezer on and use that for short-term storage over busy periods like Christmas. We always batch cook and put half-a-dozen or so meals in the freezer in one go.  Home made soups, casseroles, curries etc are easily stored and always come in handy - and there's always a selection in the caravan when we go away. Don't know how we managed when I was a kid - when the best storage we had was a meat-safe in the pantry and perhaps a 'cold' slab!! Actually getting a fridge when I was about 10 was a major milestone in our house

I know for a fact, that lurking somewhere in one of the freezer drawers is a selection of pheasant and venison from last winter!! It'll be fine

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We only try to shop every 2 weeks so our freezer is used for lots of things.  We have frozen bread for years now, never tastes any different.  My baker makes huge sourdough loaves so I could never get through one before it deteriorated, so it’s sliced and frozen.  We also freeze milk, always fine as long as bottle doesn’t split!!!   I have also found with Waitrose, apart from the timescales which we generally have ignored anyway, is that the items that aren’t supposed to be frozen - Charlie Bighams is one case in point - ‘do not freeze as the rice doesn’t like it’ - these meals have been frozen (ok by mistake the first time) and have tasted fine after cooking. I must admit to having some meat and ready meals since before Christmas and I’m not worried about using them. 

We regularly freeze rice, heddlo. Usually cook enough for two meals and then freeze half.  Five minutes in the rice cooker - from frozen - in the microwave and it's perfect.

We don't have a massive frozen food storage capacity in our house, the bottom half of a built in F/F and an undercounter freezer in the utility. My concern was that there seemed to have been an unnoticed change in the suggested recommendations for how long food can be left frozen which seems only to have happened fairly recently. Hence my extended correspondence with Waitrose and some reluctance for them to get off the fence!!! It took several attempts to get them to answer the question I posed which I felt was a bit unusual for Waitrose? I don't suppose we have anything in our freezers over six months old?

David

PS Re Charlie Bingham, I wonder it its the packaging that is the problem as he uses a lot of wooden containers. We no longer use them in the van because it makes the van smell like a BBQ

We like CB meals, good to hear they can be frozen successfully. There are a lot of good quality frozen meals around.

David I suspect Waitrose are cautious dealing with the general public, freezers with dodgy thermostats, ancient appliances etc. 

If a woolly mammoth can remain frozen in the Yukon permafrost for 30,000+  years there's hope for the odd sausage or pie. 

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