Putting Food By - Janet Greene [99]
Never refreeze melted ice cream. Never refreeze cream pies, eclairs, or similar foods. But you can refreeze unfrosted cakes, uncooked fruit pies, bread, rolls, etc.
Freezer-Packaging Materials
Although a manufacturer might not say on the label that his product is not for the freezer, he surely will announce, loud and clear, that it is “ideal for freezing” because it has been passed by the FDA as food-grade.
The prime purpose of freezer packaging is to keep frozen food from drying out (“freezer-burning”), and to preserve nutritive value, flavor, texture, and color. To do this, packaging should be moisture/vapor-proof—or at least vapor-resistant—and be easy to seal. And the seal should do its own job too.
And Don’t Be Sad If . . .
Don’t expect perfect results from all your work if you package the food for your freezer in household waxed paper or regular aluminum foil or wrappings that are intended for short-term storage in the refrigerator.
And don’t expect perfect results if you make do with those coated-paper cartons that cottage cheese or milk or ice cream came from the store in.
And don’t expect perfect results if you seal your good food with the sticky tape you use on Christmas parcels. The adhesive used on made-for-the-freezer tape remains effective at temperatures well below Zero F/–18 C, and the stuff on regular household tapes does not.
Rigid Containers
As the name implies, these hold their shape and may be stood upright, and are suitable for all foods except those with irregular shape (a whole chicken, say); and they are the best packaging for liquids.
Made of aluminum, glass, plastic, or plastic-coated cardboard, these boxes, tubs, jars, and pans come fitted with tight-sealing covers. If the rims and lids remain smooth they often may be re-used; however, the aluminum ones have a tendency to bend as the packages are opened.
Some modern glass canning jars may also be used for freezing most fruits and vegetables. The wide-top jars with tapered sides are advised for liquid packs: the contents will slide out easily without having to be fully defrosted.
Non-Rigid Containers
Non-rigid containers are the moisture/vapor-resistant bags and sheet materials used for Dry pack fruits and vegetables, meats and poultry, fish, and sometimes liquids. They are made of cellophane, heavy aluminum foil, plio-film, polyethylene or laminates of paper, metal foil, glassine, and rubber latex.
The best ways of using sheet wrapping are the butcher wrap and the drugstore fold—both shown in the Freezing Roasts subsection of Chapter 16.
Usually food in bags, and sometimes sheet-wrapped foods, are stored in a cardboard carton (re-usable) for protection and easier stacking in the freezer.
And then there are the so-called “cook-in” or “boil-in” pouches or bags. Made of a tougher plastic to withstand hard boiling for up to 30 minutes, they are a good deal more expensive than conventional freezer bags; in addition, they come only in relatively small sizes. Also, because they’re too stiff to twist and tie tight like the regular bags, they must be heat-sealed with a special appliance. Cook-in-pouch foods are described at the end of Chapter 17, “Freezing Convenience Foods.”
Well established are the self-sealing plastic freezer bags of extra-thick plastic. The seal occurs when the ridge-in-groove closure is pressed together or, in zipper types, when the bag is zipped.
Sealing and Labeling
The packaging is no better than the sealing that closes it.
SEALING RIGID CONTAINERS
Some rigid freezing containers are automatically sealed by their lids, or by screw-type bands, or by flanged snap-on plastic covers.
Then there’s the waxed-cardboard freezer box with a tuck-in top that is sealed tight with freezer tape. If the contents are already sealed in an inner bag, though, you don’t have to seal the