Home freezers a blessing

Press, 14 August 1978, Page 12

Home freezers a blessing

FOOD AND RECIPES

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Celia Timms

I regard the introduction of the home freezer to our domestic lives as one of the best things that has happened for the home cook. If used to its full advantage it provides freedom from the repetitive daily grind of preparing meals for a family.

A well-stocked freezer should be able to supply ready-cooked meals for days on end. This stockpiling can be achieved by two methods. Every time you cook a dish, a cake or whatever, make sufficient for two or more meals, freezing the extra in portions suitable for your particular requirements. You also save on fuel costs as two or more foods can be cooked in the oven for the same cost as one.

The second method is to have a big cook-up at suitable intervals — fortnightly or monthly, depending on the quantity of food required, with the additional advantage of buying in quantity when a particular food is being sold at a special price. A side of lamb, instead of being frozen raw can be cooked in a variety of dishes at the same time and frozen in the required portions. Chickens are frequently offered as a special at supermarkets, also is minced steak and other beef. Instead of buying 900 g of mince, get 4 to 5 kg and cook it in four or five different ways. Several small chickens can be treated in the same way.

A friend in America tells me that this method of “feeding-the-freezer” is

turned into a light-hearted domestic exercise with friends helping with the cook-up. There are very few foods that do not take to freezing but I have found some are unsuitable. Hardboiled eggs become tough; boiled frostings on cakes become sticky but butter icing is all right.

Gelatin dishes tend to become “weepy” and egg custards are not successful. Unless the bird is

very small, I do not like to freeze stuffed poultry as 1 doubt whether the inside of the large stuffed bird would freeze solid and consequently bacteria could form. I therefore freeze stuffed poultry only for two or three days. If freezer space is limited the following tips are helpful. When a casserole-type of meat dish is to be frozen, cook as usual — slightly undercooking to allow for re-heating — in a baking dish lined with heavy duty foil. Freeze solid then remove the contents wrapped in the foil. Enclose in suitable wrapping and seal.

This returns the casserole to circulation and makes a smaller, neater package. Uncooked pie crusts if made in quantity can be

frozen flat. Make the pastry as usual, roll out into circles a little larger than the pie plate it is to fit. Place foil between each circle and enclose the stacked circles of pastry between stiff cardboard.

The required number can be removed when needed and they will defrost in half an hour. When soft enough place in pie plate and flute as usual.

Soups, stock and madeup sauces freeze well in glass jars providing you leave an inch or more of headroom. The freezing will not break the glass. Crepes or pancakes also freeze very well by using the same method of storing as that suggested for rounds of pastry. Steamed puddings can be cooked in quantity — depending on the size of your boiler’— turned out of their basins, cooled and frozen wrapped. After defrosting they can be reheated in the basin in which they were originally cooked, in 15 to 20 minutes.

It has always been said that entertaining should be fun, for the hostess as well as her guests. But this was not always possible until the freezer came along. I wonder how many women have been on the point of exhaustion when they greeted their guests!

Now all last-minute worries and most of the work can be eliminated as entire party menus can be frozen weeks' ahead of time, if necessary, and on the day of the party you should be able to spend as long as you wish in the

bath and under the hairdresser’s dryer. For a tea or coffee party the freezer really comes into its own as everything can be stored in it, except the tea and coffee. Cakes, biscuits, pastries and sandwiches freeze well. Sandwiches can be frozen for up to six weeks.

Open-faced, pinwheel, checkerboard, rolled, ribbon and ordinary andwiches are all equally successful. Open-faced sandwiches should be flash-fro-zen on trays and then packed into containers or freezer bags; other sandwiches should be wrapped before freezing. Each slice of bread should be spread with butter to prevent the filling making the bread soggy. Cakes and biscuits ■ can be stored in the freezer for up to 12 months (sponges for 6 months). Uncooked frozen food should be thawed before cooking, with the exception of vegetables and unbaked pies. Thawing is more satisfactory if done in the original freezer wrapping in a refrigerator — providing time permits, as it takes two to three times longer than at room temperature.

A rougn guide to the time needed for defrosting could be helpful. A general rule is that, it takes five to six hours a pound in a refrigerator and three hours a pound at room temperature for meats. Most cakes will defrost at room temperature in 1 to hours: small cakes, | hour; biscuits 1 hour; sandwiches two to three hours; bread one hour.