Putting Food By - Janet Greene [118]
Pack and seal. Fill rigid containers solidly with meal-size amounts; add no liquid, but leave ½ inch of headroom. Seal. Label; freeze.
Freezing Shrimp
As with other shellfish, shrimp you freeze must be absolutely fresh. They are best frozen raw, though they may be precooked as for the table before you freeze them.
RAW SHRIMP
Wash, cut off the heads and take out the sand vein. Shelling is optional. Wash again in a mild salt solution of 1 teaspoon salt to each 1 quart of water. Drain well.
Pack and seal. Pack snugly in rigid freezer containers without any headroom. Seal tightly. Label; freeze.
COOKED SHRIMP
Wash in a mild salt solution of 1 teaspoon salt to each 1 quart of water; remove heads. Boil gently in lightly salted water until pink and curled tight—average size for 1 to 2 minutes, up to 5 minutes for large to jumbo sizes. Cool. Slit the shell and remove the sand vein (for table-ready use remove shells and vein). Rinse quickly. Drain.
Pack and seal. Pack snugly in rigid freezer containers, without any headroom. Seal tightly. Label; freeze.
Freezing Oysters, Clams, Mussels, and Scallops
Probably the most perishable of the shellfish, these should be frozen within hours of the time they leave the sea or held at refrigerator temperature (about 36 F/2 C) during any waiting period. Cooked oysters, clams, and mussels toughen in the freezer: freeze them raw.
Wash in cold water while still in their shells to rid them of sand. Shuck them over a bowl to catch the natural liquid. Wash them quickly again in a brine of 4 tablespoons salt to 1 gallon of water.
Shucking is removing the shells. Since shucking bivalves (oysters, clams, etc.) involves severing the two strong muscles that close the two halves of the shell, you can cut yourself badly if you go about it wrong. DO NOT USE a sharp or pointed knife. Instead, use a dull blade with a rounded tip; insert it between the lips of the shell just beyond one end of the hinge, twist to cut the muscle at that point, and repeat at the other end of the hinge. A good shucker does it in one continuous safe motion: get someone who knows how it’s done to show you.
Easy alternative: put live, scrubbed, tightly closed bivalves in the freezer for 10 minutes or so, until hinges relax and allow shells to open slightly; then just insert the dull blade, etc.
Pack and seal. Put in rigid containers and cover with their own juice, extended with a weak brine of 1 teaspoon salt to 1 cup of water. Scallops are packed tightly, then covered with the brine (they have little juice). Leave appropriate headroom. Seal tightly. Label; freeze.
17
Freezing Convenience Foods
A well-managed freezer need not be the symbol of only a big self-reliant family that figures on a side of beef and half a pig and tiers of neat boxes filled with all manner of produce from the nearby garden. Nor, if it is the special freezer section of a modern refrigerator in a city apartment, need it be mainly the cache for ice cream, several TV dinners, anonymous leftovers, and an emergency supply of ice cubes.
If you already use freezing, generally the larger your family, the more likely you are to have a 15- or 20-cubic-foot freezer, and to have in it a greater proportion of raw materials than if your household is small. On the other hand, an older couple, or a single-member household, can get along fine with a 2½-cubic-foot freezing compartment. But the interesting difference is how these freezers are handled, not their sizes. If it is managed well, the little one will concentrate more on short-storage items like precooked heat-and-serve foods, or the prepared components of main dishes. And in both freezers will be a special place for those small packets of extras that can make a stolid combination sparkle.
CONVERSIONS FOR FREEZING CONVENIENCE FOODS
Do look at the conversions for metrics, with workable roundings-off, and for altitude—both in Chapter 3—and apply them. Note: this chapter involves some Canning. Make your altitude adjustments accordingly.
With microwave ovens so popular,