People have a tendency to purchase more food than they can eat in a single sitting so they
decide to simply freeze the extras.
But hold it, stop, freeze, and listen up: There are some foods you really shouldn't
shove into your freezer.
Here they are.
Mayonnaise a delicious combination of eggs, oil, and vinegar is known as an emulsion…
that is, a mixture of two liquids that don't normally combine.
"Which mayo?"
"I dunno… my wife buys this mayo."
"This mayo?"
"Kraft, well, er, no...No not that one, the other one—"
"So yah never tried this one?"
Those liquids, in case you haven't guessed, are oil and vinegar.
You see, vinegar is hydrophilic which means "water-loving."
Oil is hydrophobic which means "water-fearing".
An egg yolk works a bit like a magnet, binding the water and fat molecules to bring the vinegar
and oil together.
But, this bit of culinary magic only works at room temperature.
As soon as mayonnaise freezes, the emulsion breaks, and the individual components begin
to separate.
You'll see some liquid floating on top of the mayonnaise when it's thawed, and it may
taste more oily than the original.
It's still safe to eat, and you can try re-emulsifying it by whipping it in a high-speed mixer.
But the resulting mayonnaise will be much thinner, and it may have an odd texture.
The same thing applies to any mayonnaise- or egg-based salad dressings... so should
keep those out of the freezer, too.
It takes a really long time for a bottle of ketchup to go bad.
Between the acidity of the tomatoes and vinegar and the added sugar, ketchup is a well-preserved
product with a rather long shelf life.
An unopened bottle of ketchup will stay good for two years past the stamped-on expiration
date, and it'll last up to a year in the refrigerator after it's opened.
If you do happen to find yourself with a bottle nearing its expiration date, here's a word
to the wise: It won't freeze well.
Ketchup mostly freezes like ice, thanks to its high water content, but the individual
ingredients tend to separate as the product thaws.
"Wanda, are you crying?"
"No, no, no…
I just haven't opened up in awhile, and there's a tiny layer of water at the top."
If the ketchup is made with regular sugar, the thawed ketchup turns out thinner than
the original, but brands that contain high fructose corn syrup are especially problematic.
Corn syrup freezes at lower temperatures than the rest of the ingredients, creating a jelly-like
consistency.
Trust us … you wouldn't want to pour this stuff all over your french fries, so be sure
to keep your ketchup out of the freezer.
"That's a lot of cheese!"
Sure, you can freeze cheese… but don't expect the culinary experience to be a particularly
happy one.
"Knock, knock."
"Who's there?"
"Interrupting cheese."
"Interrupt—"
"CHEESE!
Heh heh heh."
"Should have seen that one coming."
According to the National Dairy Council, some cheeses freeze better than others, depending
on their moisture content.
Hard cheeses like aged cheddar or swiss will become crumbly when thawed … or sawed.
"Honey, this is wonderful cheese.
It comes from Switzerland.
Very hard to get."
"How can it be hard to get?
It's all here."
Softer cheese like young cheddar seems to do okay, especially if it's shredded prior
to freezing.
That's because the moisture can re-incorporate with the shreds upon thawing.
Unfortunately, really soft cheeses like cream cheese or ricotta cheese don't fare very well
at all.
These cheeses have a high water content, and like yogurt, the curds will separate from
the whey.
Frozen cream cheese loses all of its creamy texture and turns into a grainy, hard-to-spread
mess.
It might be fine for making casseroles or baked goods, but you wouldn't want to spread
this stuff on a bagel.
Dairy products have one very important thing in common: They're all highly perishable.
They need to be stored in the refrigerator at all times, and while yogurt and sour cream
have longer shelf-lives than milk, they'll all spoil sooner or later.
And while you can freeze these items, we really wouldn't recommend it.
When milk freezes, the fat separates from the liquid.
And although the fat can be incorporated back into the liquid by blending it with an immersion
blender, it's safe to say the milk will never be restored to its former greatness.
In fact, you can expect a rather grainy texture that's really quite unpleasant.
That grittiness is even more pronounced in processed dairy products like yogurt and sour
cream…
In a word?
Gross.
"Yogurt Boy…?"
Not only that, but milk products pick up other flavors really easily, so your frozen milk
might taste fishy if it's stored next to seafood.
Yeah, thanks but no thanks.
Hey, we love coffee as much as anyone… and we'd basically do anything to keep from running
out of our morning fix.
But take our word for it: You don't ever want to keep your coffee in the freezer.
Sure, it's tempting to stock up on your favorite beans when they're on sale… but it's best
to buy coffee when it's fresh.
Here's the thing: The quality of coffee beans and coffee grains start to suffer when exposed
to moisture, air, light, or heat.
That makes the freezer sound like a good place to store coffee after all, it's cold and dark
but no: It's just not the right environment to preserve the coffee's rich, nuanced flavor.
Trevor Corlett of the Madcap Coffee Company tells Bon Appetit,
"The cell structure of coffee is soft and porous, and likes to absorb aromatics."
That means if your coffee is sitting next to a hunk of frozen onions, it might start
absorbing the onions' heady flavor.
How decidedly undelicious.
"Oh what that aroma can do… Brighter day, for me and youuuuuuu…"
Do yourself a favor and store coffee in the pantry and in an airtight container.
Fried food is delicious, isn't it?
And it's nearly impossible to say no to a go-box teeming with french fries, onion rings,
and fried chicken.
Sadly, we strongly advise you to take a pass on the leftovers: They just won't live up
to your expectations once you get home.
As Reader's Digest reports,
"Foods that were fried will lose all their crunch if you put the leftovers into the [freezer]
and no one wants soft, mushy fried foods."
Meanwhile, Huffington Post reports that
"You may be able to revive the crunch on certain fried foods by sticking them in a really hot
oven, [but] by the time you do so the oil will have already seeped into the food."
It's gonna have to be a hard pass on that, right?
Eggs, eggs, eggs… would you just look at all the eggs.
These tasty breakfast staples usually stay good for three weeks after you bring 'em home
from the supermarket... and you can prepare 'em so many different ways to make a satisfying
breakfast.
What's more, there are dozens of recipes you can make in order to use up all of your eggs…
like banana bread and cookies.
Still, sometimes we wind up with a few more eggs than we know what to do with.
No matter what you do, don't pop those eggs into the freezer!
When you freeze eggs in their shell, the water content of the egg whites expand, cracking
the outer shell.
This exposes the liquid inside to bacteria.
Not only that, but the yolks can't be frozen intact.
They're too gelatinous, and they'd be impossible to use when thawed.
If you really need to freeze eggs, you'll have to crack them first.
Then, you can either separate the whites from the yolks whisking and storing each mixture
separately -- or blend them together before heading to the freezer.
Soup is a confirmed favorite at dinner parties.
"I am determined to enjoy myself and I'm very intrigued and oh my, this soup is delicious,
isn't it?"
It's super convenient to make a large batch of soup, portion it into individual servings,
and store it in the freezer for a later date.
When you're planning your meals for the week, simply pull out the soup, let it thaw overnight
in the refrigerator, and voila, lunch is served!
But unfortunately, some soups just don't thaw as well as you'd like.
Any soup made with grains think pasta and rice really won't turn out too great.
The grains will soak up the liquid as the soup thaws and become super soft and mushy,
ruining the texture of your once-perfect soup.
The same thing happens with vegetable-heavy soups: The vegetables turn grainy and stringy.
That's especially true of soups containing chunks of potatoes.
The potatoes lose their water content when they thaw, so you'll end up with a soup filled
with odd gummy bites.
Frankly, you deserve so much better.
Gelatin is a pretty amazing compound.
Its collagen molecules give products like Jell-O and marshmallows their bouncy texture.
"Grand creations made to squish."
Gelatin also gives body to bone broth and chicken stock.
But you'll want to skip putting extra panna cotta or gummy bears into the freezer... because
freezing anything made with gelatin isn't a good idea.
You see, when gelatin freezes, something rather bizarre happens.
Ice crystals form inside the gelatin-infused product, breaking the gel structure and damaging
the polymers and colloids that bind the product together.
A YouTuber named Jessica M Classen accidentally froze a batch of Jell-O, and she describes
the texture as being extra gelatinous, saying it almost felt like "snot."
It might still taste alright at the end of the day, but that consistency is enough to
ruin anyone's appetite.
It's not even a good idea to freeze gelatin combined with alcohol, which doesn't freeze
at regular freezer temperatures so definitely don't freeze those Jell-O shots.
The gelatin will still break, and those Jell-O shots will still obtain the same snotty texture.
This just in: Potatoes really don't freeze well.
According to Penn State University, the water in potatoes will separate from the starch
when they're frozen and since potatoes tend to be about 80 percent water, any dish containing
thawed potatoes will turn out watery… and with a mealy texture.
That's really not the dinner vibe you're after, is it?
"Here we go, I think the taters are just about done.
I'm just gonna give them one quick whisk here, mm-hmm."
So how do companies pull off frozen tater tots and french fries the ones you see lining
the frozen food section?
Well, it is possible to freeze potatoes, but they have to be cooked first.
Otherwise, they'll turn a rather unappetizing black color when exposed to cold temperatures.
These frozen food companies use industrial flash-freezing plants, which utilize ultra-low
temperatures and rapid movement of air to freeze individual pieces of food as quickly
as possible.
So, unless you've figured out a way to pull off this feat at home, we strongly recommend
leaving the frozen potatoes to the pros.
You'll find cornstarch in a great many recipes… including gravy and soup.
That's because it's a preferred method for thickening soups and sauces especially for
people on a gluten-free diet.
Unfortunately, any recipe that's been thickened with cornstarch doesn't have a place in your
freezer.
It's not that it won't freeze... the problem occurs when you thaw the dish out.
Soups and sauces thickened with cornstarch turn spongy when they return to room temperature.
Spongy isn't exactly the texture you're after when preparing a lusciously creamy bisque
and you don't want your gravy to be "spongy," either.
If you really need to freeze a dish that features cornstarch in the recipe, we have a work-around
for you: Try using arrowroot instead.
You can use a one-to-one ratio when substituting arrowroot for cornstarch, so you don't even
have to do any culinary math.
It will thicken the dish just as well as cornstarch and mimic cornstarch's glossy finish… all
without the spongy freezer results.
Have you ever defrosted more meat than you were able to eat?
Perhaps you expected a bunch of people to show up for a party and thawed too many burgers...
or perhaps you pulled out too many frozen chicken breasts for family dinner.
Maybe you expected people to come hungry.
"Ooh, on the regular Good Meals, I need two of the Good Burgers to have ketchup, mustard,
mayo, lettuce, tomato, but no onion, I've got an interview this afternoon, and that
takes care of everyone but Uncle Leslie..."
Well, you'll need to find something to do with all that extra meat… but you really
shouldn't put it back in the freezer uncooked.
Technically, it's safe to refreeze thawed meat.
The United States Department of Agriculture confirms that you can put thawed meats back
in the freezer… as long as they were thawed in the refrigerator.
But any meat that was thawed at room temperature is a no-go because of the potential for bacterial
growth.
And here's another thing: Even if the meat is safe to freeze, re-frozen items will experience
a noticeable drop in quality and taste.
According to Cooks Illustrated, that's because water freezes inside the meat, causing the
proteins to change shape and shorten.
Repeating the process also gives meat a tougher, dryer texture than meat that was only frozen
once.
That's not going to make for a very satisfying dinner, is it?
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