Freezing stretches the food dollar

Press, 17 August 1987, Page 10

Freezing stretches the food dollar

When certain foods are only available for a limited season New Zealand home makers like to preserve a supply for out-of-season use. It is good management of the food dollar to buy when a glut in supply lowers prices.

While summer and autumn are usually thought of as the preserving season there are several winter fruits and vegetables which, if frozen now, can be served over an extended season. The Home Science Information Service staff at the University of Otago are often asked if specific foods can be deep frozen. At present the request usually includes one or other of the following fruits or vegetables.

Fruit Kiwi Fruit: freezing is the preferred preserving method as the fruit tend to lose flavour and colour when heated. Peeled, sliced ,fruit can be frozen in syrup. Lemons: grate the rind and freeze in a container. Squeeze the juice and freeze in ice cube trays. Remove from the tray and place in a plastic bag for freezer storage. Lemon juice may lose flavour after 6 months storage.

Marmalade pulp: prepare the pulp by cutting finely or processing in a blender or food processor. Add some of the water from the recipe. Freeze and label with details of the quantity of water and sugar to be added to that amount of pulp when making it into marma--lade.

Persimmons: freeze wbole, unpeeled, and wrapped in foil. Tamarillos: bPMiCh, peel and slice, sjjjjpkle

with sugar, stand until the juice forms a syrup and freeze.

When selecting vegetables for freezing do so when they are at their best.

Brussels Sprouts: soak in a saline bath to remove insects, rinse, blanch, drain and cool before packing and freezing. Leeks: these do not freeze well.

Parsnips: as frost improves these they can be frozen for up to six weeks without blanching. Pumpkin: cook and mash before freezing, or prepare puree for pumpkin soup. Yams: cook and mash, reheat as required. For further detail, and in some cases alternative methods of preparing these fruits and vegetables and other foods for the freezer, The Home Science Information Service publication “Preserving Food” is suggested. This book costs $7.24 including GST and postage, from the Home Science Information Service. University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, or is available from some bookshops.

Three other foods on which information on storage or preserving is often sought are eggs, fish and fruit cakes.

Eggs: as egg preservative is no longer readily available deep freezing is an alternative preserving method. Details are given in “Preserving Food.” Fish: home bottling or canning of fresh or salt water fish is not considered a safe preserving method. It is recommended that surplus catches of fish are deep frozen.

Fruit Cakes: when baked in advance these

can be frozen until required. Tiers of wedding cake can be frozen for long storage after the event. Wrap in greasepr6of paper and place in a suitable container to protect the icing from damage.

A considerable amount of capital is invested in a deep freeze. By including a selection of winter produce in the freezing programme the rate of turnover of food will be increased, thus lowering the storage cost per kilogram of food, and making more effective use of your freezer.