The Beginner's Guide to Preserving Food at Home - Janet Chadwick [13]
It is important to remove as much air as possible from packages of food before freezing. Excess air in the packages causes oxidation, which lowers the quality of the food, and vacuum-packed bags take up less freezer space.
If you plan to use a vacuum packaging machine, please review the information on freezing aids in chapter 1, and be sure to follow the manufacturer’s directions.
Accessories on the market remove air from plastic bags, but you can effectively remove air without investing any money, by pressing it out with a pillow or your hand. This method works best with boilable bags.
Fill the boilable bag with vegetables and distribute the vegetables evenly in the bag.
With a small pillow or your hand, press down gently, but firmly, on the bag to expel all the air you can.
Hold the bag closed between your thumb and forefinger. Press the sealing bar down and hold a few seconds longer than recommended. Move the bag ½ inch and seal again.
partially seal
remove the air
complete seal
If you don’t have an automatic bag sealer, use an electric flat iron, as follows:
Heat the iron on its cotton setting.
Place a filled bag on a heavy towel, and place a damp cotton cloth over the edge of the bag.
Partially seal the bag with an iron, leaving 1½ inches open.
Remove the air by pressing a small pillow or your hand on the bag, gently but firmly.
Finish sealing with the electric iron over the damp cotton cloth.
WASHING VEGETABLES AND FRUIT
Wash your vegetables and fruit in plenty of water. Use a medium-stiff-bristled brush or a plastic or nylon net scrubber that can get into crevices where the dirt is hardest to remove. Be especially thorough with root crops, since botulism bacteria may be in the soil and only thorough washing will remove them.
Always lift produce out of the water rather than letting the water drain off. Drain vegetables on a towel, patting as dry as possible.
REUSABLE ICE PACKS
It’s worth investing in a box of quart-size boilable freezer bags to make ice packs for freezing. Use those bags, instead of cubes or chunks of ice, to quick-chill blanched food (see pages 36 to 39). When you are through freezing for the day, remove the bags from the water, wipe them dry with a towel, and return them to the freezer to refreeze. This saves the fuss of making ice cubes and the frustration of running out of ice in the middle of a large freezing project, and the bags of ice last much longer than either ice cubes or chunks of ice. Here’s how you can make these ice packs.
Fill a boilable freezer bag three-quarters full of cold water.
Hold the bag over the edge of your shelf or counter.
Seal with electric sealer, or place the bag on a towel, cover with a damp cloth, and press with a hot iron. Freeze.
fill bag with water
seal with electric sealer
tips All vegetables that are blanched can be tray-frozen, then bagged. This step allows you to postpone packaging until the next day, when you may have more time. Also, it makes it possible to package vegetables loosely in large bags or containers. When you want some vegetables, they will pour freely from the bag.
Tray-frozen fruits and vegetables should be packaged as soon as possible, but if you are short on time, slip a large, food-safe plastic bag over the tray and tie it closed. Package as soon as you have a chance. Do not leave trays in bags longer than 24 hours.
UNBLANCHED FREEZING: FIVE QUICK STEPS
This is the fastest, easiest method of freezing. It was originally thought that this method was acceptable only for chopped onions, peppers, fresh herbs, or other vegetables that were to be stored for less than 1 month. But I have found that many unblanched, frozen vegetables can be stored for up to twice as long and still maintain good color, flavor, and texture. Try this method with onions, peppers, herbs, celery, corn in husks, cabbage, sugar snap peas, summer squash,