Putting Food By - Janet Greene [125]
Pies with gelatin-based fillings such as chiffon pies can be frozen; they should be thawed in the refrigerator. Pumpkin and pecan pies also freeze well for up to 3 months. However, custard pies and cream pies should not be frozen, as they will be watery and separated when thawed. Soft meringue toppings do not freeze well; add and bake them before cooling to serve.
Freezing fruits for pie fillings are mentioned in Chapter 14. If you plan to freeze prepared pie fillings, allow a good 3½ cups of the mixture for 9-inch pie, and 4½ cups for a 10-inch pie. Remember that custard-based fillings and cream fillings do not freeze satisfactorily.
Other Meal-Makers to Freeze
Thick Tomato Sauce “Stretcher”
About 8 Pints
“Oh, this is good!” Ruth Hertzberg wrote at the top of her recipe which calls for simmering leftover roasted meats or a small portion of ground beef in the following sauce. And it is! This basic rule is a starting point. Amounts of ingredients may be varied to taste and/or availability. It is intended to be frozen in convenient pints, but may be canned and processed in a Pressure Canner for the time recommended for the lowest-acid ingredient.
Ruth’s menu suggestion for two—1 to 1 ½ cups cooked meat simmered for 20 to 30 minutes in one pint of this tomato sauce, steamed rice, tossed garden salad, and crusty bread.
To Make the Sauce:
Wash thoroughly about 8 quarts of ripe tomatoes, remove skins (optional), stems, and cores. Cut crossways, and hand-squeeze most of the seeds and a bit of the juice into one bowl and put tomato pulp into another. (Later strain the juice from the seeds and use it instead of water in canned beef or vegetable soups.)
Dice 2 cups of onions, 1½ to 2 cups celery and 1 de-seeded green pepper; slowly sauté until soft in ¼ cup of vegetable-oil in a 6-quart stainless steel kettle. Add 10 to 12 chopped fresh basil leaves (or one tablespoon of dry), one bay leaf, and the tomato pulp. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and, stirring often, cook for 30 minutes or until sauce is of desired thickness. Add ½ cup bottled lemon juice or ⅔ cup white vinegar, 1½ tablespoons salt (optional), 3 tablespoons sugar, and 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce. Stir and simmer 5 to 10 minutes longer. Remove the bay leaf.
Fill rigid pint freezer containers, leaving ½ inch of headroom. Seal, label, freeze.
Or Hot pack in hot pint jars, leaving ½ inch of headroom. Cap with disc lid and screwband, and Pressure-process at 10 psig for 20 minutes (the same for ½-pints).
SANDWICHES
Filled sandwiches hold only for a week or so in the freezer; but, frozen, they beat last-minute hassles before a crowd arrives, or the chance of curled edges if stored ahead in the refrigerator.
These fillings do not freeze well: any “salad”-type combination that contains chopped egg whites (leathery), a great deal of mayonnaise or cooked salad dressing (they separate), lettuce or tomato or celery or cucumber (flabby and watery), jam and jelly (weepy).
These fillings are good for freezing: peanut butter, minced meat, poultry, or fish with chopped pickle and just enough mayonnaise or salad dressing to hold things together; sliced luncheon meat or meat loaf; slivered cheese and chopped olives.
Use bread at least one day old (a bite of thawed perfectly fresh bread can be a wodge), and spread both slices with butter or margarine to prevent the filling from soaking in. Mayonnaise and the like can make frozen bread soggy.
Wrap each cut sandwich closely in plastic freezer wrap, then package or overwrap in moisture/vapor-proof material. Label and freeze.
Freezing Gelatin Salads
Experiment to arrive at your best combinations before trying these out on guests. Here are some basics to keep in mind:
Use only ¾ of the TOTAL liquid called for in your recipe, whether the salad calls for a prepared sweet gelatin as the vehicle for fruit, minced celery, cucumbers—yes! these fresh salad vegetables keep crisp in a gelatin salad—or you are using unflavored gelatin and, say, Tomato Cocktail (in Chapter 12, “Canning Convenience