Everytime you make an enormous batch of one thing, you most likely need to stick these additional servings proper within the freezer. And whereas that’s nice for some meals, different meals don’t fare fairly as nicely (like eggs, yogurt, and a few others). Typically the style or texture takes a success; in different instances it’s a full-fledged meals security challenge—so that you positively need to know the way a particular meals or dish will react earlier than you shut the door.
That is vital since you don’t need to take freezing off the desk totally. “As a result of it’s permitting us to retailer meals at subzero temperatures, it actually slows or fully stops the expansion of micro organism in meals and subsequently decreases the chance of foodborne sickness,” Vincci Tsui, RD, a licensed intuitive consuming counselor based mostly in Canada, tells SELF. Beneath the appropriate circumstances, freezing can considerably prolong the lifespan of your meal or particular ingredient, which may also help stop meals waste and prevent some severe money. “In a fridge, you’re speaking three to 4 days” earlier than an merchandise spoils, Darin Detwiler, PhD, a meals security professional and affiliate educating professor at Northeastern College’s Faculty of Skilled Research, tells SELF. Whereas “in most freezers, you’re speaking three to 4 months for sure meals.” Merely thaw your dish, reheat it within the microwave, and it’ll primarily be pretty much as good as new.
That stated, there are exceptions to that rule—and also you’ll need to know what they’re so your frozen leftovers don’t find yourself in your kitchen trash. To seek out out which of them ought to keep away from the large chill, we requested a number of consultants to share the meals that high their do-not-freeze record. Learn on to study extra about eggs, yogurt, and 6 different kinds of meals it’s best to by no means freeze.
1. Uncooked eggs…
Soda cans aren’t the one type of merchandise susceptible to exploding within the freezer, in response to Dr. Detwiler. Since shell eggs are liquid on the within, he explains, they increase once they freeze, cracking and probably creating “fairly a multitude.”
Disagreeable as it’s to seek out your freezer plagued by shards of damaged shell and splotches of yolk, that isn’t essentially the worst that might occur. Like uncooked meat and poultry, eggs can harbor salmonella micro organism, so an eggy explosion may put these bugs in touch with different gadgets within the freezer. In brief, a frozen egg isn’t solely a cleanup hazard—it’s additionally “a contamination danger,” Dr. Detwiler says. Even when it doesn’t explode, it nonetheless gained’t be all that usable: Frozen egg yolks have a thick, syrupy texture that stops them from mixing nicely with the whites or different elements, the USDA studies.
Nevertheless, egg costs are sky-high proper now (all because of fowl flu), so we don’t blame you for desirous to freeze those you could have available to protect them for the long run. Simply don’t freeze eggs entire. As a substitute, crack them and beat the yolk and whites collectively first. Plus, needless to say you may freeze liquid pasteurized eggs or egg substitutes for as much as one yr—so long as they’re unopened.
2. …and cooked eggs.
Equally, cooked eggs (like scrambled or omelets) aren’t tremendous freezer-friendly, however for various causes, Tsui says. On this case, she says, freezing doesn’t pose well being considerations, but it surely is “actually going to have an effect on the feel and the style”—and never for the higher. As an illustration, cooked egg whites turn out to be “smooth, robust, rubbery, and spongy,” in response to the Nationwide Middle for Residence Meals Preservation on the College of Georgia. Merchandise made from cooked egg could also be affected as nicely, like egg salad, mayonnaise (which separates), meringues (which toughen and shrink), and a few icings (which can flip frothy or sticky and weep).
3. Dairy
Freezing could cause a variety of dairy merchandise to separate, together with smooth cheeses like brie, ricotta, and cream cheese, in response to Dr. Detwiler. (Cottage cheese, too, in response to the College of Nebraska-Lincoln.) Then again, exhausting and semihard cheeses—assume cheddar, provolone, or Muenster—might be frozen, although not with out some deterioration in high quality, per the Nationwide Middle for Residence Meals Preservation.
