USING YOUR FRIDGE FREEzER
Freezing fresh foods
The golden rules
Use quality food and handle it as little as possible. Freeze food in small
quantities, it freezes faster, takes less time to thaw and enables you to
eat it in the quantity you need.
Freezing fresh foods
First, estimate the amount of food you will be freezing. Turn the
thermostat dial to the maximum setting which makes your freezer colder
(approx -28°C), it will therefore freeze quicker and keep in the goodness.
However you should use it sparingly to conserve energy. Remember to
reset the thermostat dial to the normal setting when you have finished
freezing fresh foods.
TO FREEZE
A loaf of bread not required.
A small casserole
Up to 2lb/900gm 2 hrs. before placing food in freezer
and 4 hrs. after placing food in freezer.
Over 6lb/2.7kg 6 hrs. before placing food in freezer and
12 hrs. after placing food in freezer.
Maximum of 22lb/10kg 24 hrs. before placing food in freezer
and 24 hrs. after placing food in freezer.
What not to freeze
Bananas, pomegranates, pears, carbonated liquids as they can explode
or anything in a glass container, as these may crack.
NOTE: Do not store inflammable gases or liquids in the freezer.
To thaw
1 Cover food loosely.
2 Thaw at room temperature. Don’t forget that thawing in a warm area
encourages the growth of bacteria.
3 Always make sure there are no ice crystals in the food before cooking,
particularly with meat. These crystals indicate that the food is not
fully thawed. They result in lower temperatures when cooking.
Lower cooking temperatures may not destroy dangerous bacteria.
4 Cook food as soon as possible after thawing.
5 Drain off and throw away any liquid lost during thawing.
Oven thawing
Many microwaves and ovens have thaw settings. To avoid bacterial build
up, only use these if you intend to cook the food immediately afterwards.
Safety tips
• Neverre-freezeanythingthathasthawedoutunlessyoucookit
again, to kill off harmful bacteria.
• Neverre-freezethawedshellfish.
Useful tip
Re-seal packs properly after removing items. This prevents drying or
‘freezer burn’ and a build up of frost on any remaining food.
Label everything
• Manyfoodslookthesamewhenfrozen,socarefullabellingwillhelp
avoid forgetting what an item is. Storage times being exceeded could
cause food poisoning.
• Youcanbuyspecialfreezertapeforuseinlowtemperatures
This tape is available in white, so you can use it to write the items
contents on. You can buy special freezer labels and pens. Labels come
in different colours which can help you use your freezer effectively.
For instance you could colour code meat red and vegetables green.
Using a different colour label for each quarter of the year will help
you rotate your frozen food more efficiently.
• Writethecontentsanddate.Ifyouarereallyorganisedaddthe
weight and notes on cooking such as ‘thaw first’, or ‘cook from
frozen’ and keep a separate ‘log-book’ of what is in each drawer.
This will save opening the door and searching around unnecessarily.
Recommended storage periods
(when frozen from fresh)
Fruit syrup or sugar packed fruit up to 12 months
Open frozen or puréed fruit up to 18 months
Fruit juices up to 6 months
Lamb up to 10 months
Beef up to 10 months
Pork up to 6 months
Veal up to 6 months
Minced meat up to 3 months
Cured meats up to 2 months
Sausages up to 3 months
Packed bacon up to 3 months
Smoked bacon/ chops/ gammon steaks up to 2 months
Unsmoked bacon/ chops/ gammon steaks up to 1 month
Chicken up to 8 months
Duck up to 5 months
Goose up to 5 months
Turkey up to 6 months
White fish up to 5 months
Oily fish including salmon up to 2 months
Smoked salmon up to 3 months
Caviar don't freeze
Shellfish up to 1 month
Butter up to 6 months
Cheese up to 6 months
Suet up to 6 months
Cream - double/ whipping up to 3 months
Eggs - only freeze separated up to 10 months
Milk up to 1 month
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