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Storing food in your freezer
Meat, poultry and game
Do not try to freeze more than 1kg meat per 25L freezer capacity. Meatmust be frozen quickly
in order to maintain its texture.
Do not stuff poultry before freezing.
Red meat can be cooked from frozen, or from the partly or completely thawed states. Remember
to allow extra cooking time if cooking fromfrozen.
Always thaw poultry completely before cooking.
Fish
Fish is best frozen commercially. If, however, you do want to freeze fishathome, make sure the
fish is very fresh and of high quality.
Clean, scale and preferably leave whole. All fish should be wrapped in twolayers of packaging as
depending on the type of fish, odours and flavours can be readily transferred either to or from it.
Seal well.
For best results, cook from either the frozen or partly thawed state.
Vegetables
Most vegetables freeze well, although ‘salad’ vegetables lose their crispness. Other vegetables, eg
celery, onion and tomatoes, should only beused in cooked dished as they soften on freezing.
Freeze only high quality, mature, ready-to-eat vegetables.
Sort and discard any that are damaged.
It is necessary to blanch most raw vegetables prior to freezing.
Blanching involves a short cooking period during which vegetable enzymes are destroyed. If
these enzymes are not destroyed they cause undesirable physical and chemical changes during
freezer storage.
Vegetables can be blanched in boiling water, steam or in a microwave oven. Ifusing boiling water,
boil vegetables for 2 – 4 minutes and cool quickly.
In general frozen vegetables are best cooked from their frozen state.
Prepared and cooked foods
Most cooked foods can be frozen but it is not recommended to freeze thefollowing: Cooked egg
white, custards, cream fillings and milk puddings, gelatine or jelly-like dishes, mayonnaise and
similar salad dressings, meringue toppings. These tend to separate on thawing.
Fruit
Choose high quality, mature, and ready-to-eat fruit. Preferably select varieties recommended
forfreezing.
Avoid unripe and over-ripe fruit.
The way fruit is packed depends on how it is to be used. Fruits packed in syrup are ideal for
desserts, whereas fruits packed without sugar are better used for cooking. Most fruits can be
stored for 8 – 12 months.
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