Essential items in the freezer

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boufa06

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Location
Volos, Greece
Having lived in a tropical country where there are no seasons for most of my life, it was quite a change when I made the move here. I found myself saddled with a lot of summer clothes that will last me for many years to come. When it comes to the kitchen, the freezer had to be cleared out of certain items in preparation for storing new seasonal stuff. I have since found out that it is necessary to stock up the following:

1. Chopped tomatoes as I do not trust off-season ones that may be loaded with hormones.
2. Chilli sauce
3. Herbs like basil, dill, etc
4. Lamb meat
5. Prawns (available as fresh only in winter)
6. Wild asparagus (which grows only in spring)
7. French beans
8. Cranberry beans (fully grown and shelled but not dried)

There may be the occasional fish, fruit, fruit juice, or local greens but my mainstays are the ones above. The reason for having to freeze is that all of the above are available only during a single season of the year. What is your experience? Do you store seasonal produce when in season or do you rely on the supermarket alone?
 
With fruits and vegetables I mostly use what is in season. I like to keep a variety of meats in the freezer because at the local grocer the meat is very expensive. When I go do my major shopping, every couple of months or so, I stock up. Here is what I consider essential items for my freezer:

Ground beef
Stew meat
Chicken breasts
Pork chops
Pork roasts
Tri-tip
Lamb chops
Whole wheat bread

I like to buy my vegetables fresh, but I do have some frozen:
corn
green beans
broccoli
 
I keep a variety of meats also:

Chicken Leg Quarters
Whole Chickens
Boneless/Skinless Chicken Breast
Chuck Roast
Pork Chops w/bone
Boneless Pork Chops
Ground Beef

Other Items:
Frozen Corn
Frozen Peas
Cheese Filled Raviolis
 
We keep mainly what ever is on special at the supermarket meat wise and then some corn, beans and mango from their seasons.
Most importantly is the bottle of Scotch Whisky, they tell me that for every week in the freezer it ages one year, and that's important :)
 
I always have

Bacon
butter
lamb
chicken
ground beef
home grown herbs
beef and chicken broth ( homemade)
and leftovers that can be thawed and warmed up for quick dinners.
 
pdswife said:
I always have

Bacon
butter
lamb
chicken
ground beef
home grown herbs
beef and chicken broth ( homemade)
and leftovers that can be thawed and warmed up for quick dinners.

I've never even thought about freezing bacon before......will have to do that next time its on sale.
 
There are a lot of things that I always keep in the freezer if I have them, but I'm trying to thinkg of just the things I try to always have on hand and that would call the freezer home.... :ermm:

Butter (buy it on sale)
Nuts
Kenya Coffee (it's sometimes hard to find, and it's my favorite!
Whole Wheat flour,
Rye Flour
Chicken Stock
Rennet (for cheese making)
SAF dry yeast, both for sweet and "regular" baking
Basil in olive oil (beginnings of pesto or pistou)
Lemon Zest

oops! forgot the leftovers or rather extras... I try to make recipes for 4 even tho there's usually only one or two for dinner, then I can pull out the extras on "those" nights. Also always try to keep a pint of Doxsee Clam Chili for the "in case."
 
There are just two of us, and Cris has this tendency of shopping as if there were 10 ravenous mouths to feed. Also some items like cheese, nuts etc. can be bought at much better prices when bought in bulk. Plus we have problems with mothes, so we must keep things like extra flour, grains etc. in the freezer, too. So our 1 meter (1 yard+) wide big freezer is always full!!

Aside from the above mentioned items, there are always

veggies, fruits (either bought fresh in season, or bought already frozen)
various sauces prepared as extra
bacon/pancetta/speck
homemade guacamole base (tomatoes and coriander to be added)
puff pastry sheets
chicken breast
pork chop
minced beef
prawns
and of course, homemade ice cream!
 
Well we have a smallish freezer. I generally have:

a few farm chickens
pork chops/roast
steaks
ground beef
roast or two
carcasses of chickens past for soup
a few salmon fillets
perohe
bags upon bags of diced rhubarb for pies
bags of frozen fruit (black/rasp/blue/strawberry) for smoothies
blocks of butter or marg
bags of veggies (garden or store bought)
 
What is your experience? Do you store seasonal produce when in season or do you rely on the supermarket alone?
I rely on the supermarket for produce. Seasons don't seem to matter there.

There are certain fruit and tomato varieties that appear in the summer at my local farmers market which would never make it to a chain supermarket. These I can (using a boiling water bath) so I can enjoy them in the winter but don't have to dedicate limited freezer space to them.

Freezer is dedicated to sale items - poultry/meat/butter - and homemade basics. Homemade chicken stock and tomato sauce. Doughs, since it is easy to make extra and freeze the excess (bread dough, pizza dough, pastry dough, pasta dough). White sauce and cheese sauce. Rendered fat (chicken and pork fat)
 
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Everything sounds great....we have 3 freezers now...one deicated to game...the other two ....most of the stufff everyone else has mentioned however the most essential? I can't beleive ya'll have missed it!!!

Chocolate icecream!!!!!!!!!!:D
 
There is never any meat, poultry or fish in my freezer! There was a time when it was fully stocked...but I taste the difference in something that may have only been frozen for two days. That leaves plenty of room for some of the other more essential stuff:

ice
booze
nuts
cheese rinds
chestnut flour
pasta dough
homemade pesto
phyllo sheets
puff pastry
crepes

Indeed...the essentials:-p
 
I basically freeze the following:

boneless, skinless chicken breasts
boneless center cut pork chops
sometimes ground beef 90% lean, but we dont use red meat too often

Always have frozen pasta (tomatoe) sauce in the freezer
Frozen veggies usually are peas, corn, broccoli, spinach

As for fruits I have bags of cranberries, and blueberries
 
Here's a tip if you are freezing bacon. Roll up individual rashers and place in a square or rectangle container. By rolling the rashers you can take out as many out as you to cook, they break away from each other very easily. As the bacon rasher cooks it is easy to unroll.

Saves having to use go between or foil between the rashers.
 
Another item that freezes well is cream. The only thing is you have to whisk it before freezing. Then it is simply a matter of scooping out the amount you want to use.
 
Benni said:
Here's a tip if you are freezing bacon. Roll up individual rashers and place in a square or rectangle container. By rolling the rashers you can take out as many out as you to cook, they break away from each other very easily. As the bacon rasher cooks it is easy to unroll.

Saves having to use go between or foil between the rashers.
Good tip Benni. Thanks!
 
Rasher

Benni said:
Here's a tip if you are freezing bacon. Roll up individual rashers and place in a square or rectangle container. By rolling the rashers you can take out as many out as you to cook, they break away from each other very easily. As the bacon rasher cooks it is easy to unroll.

Saves having to use go between or foil between the rashers.

Benni--
I just GOOGLED RASHER and came up with:

The term rasher can be confusing. It can mean a single strip of bacon, or it can mean three or four strips of bacon, especially when it appears on a restaurant menu.

You must be referring to one slice of bacon to roll up for freezing.

I too freeze my bacon but, I lay out a piece of foil and place 4 slices on the foil and roll over and continue placing 4 slices and rolling to cover. This way they are flat. I will "nuke" them to seperate the slices and then pop them into the pan or the to griddle.

TIA,
Charlie
 
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