What and how can you freeze? The freezer is our friend and helper. Complete freezing: how and why to freeze food

In this article we will talk about how to prepare vegetables and fruits for the winter by freezing, how to rationally distribute storage space and other secrets of freezing.

What vegetables can be frozen for the winter: list

I want to enjoy the generous gifts of nature in the form of vegetables, fruits and berries not only in summer, but also in winter. In supermarkets in winter, of course, you can buy, if not all, then almost all types of fresh vegetables, berries or fruits, but their quality will not be the best.

You can also prepare pickles, compotes, jam and other types of preparations in jars for the winter. However, this option is not suitable for everyone. Some housewives do not like to tinker in the kitchen for a long time, others do not have time. Also, pickles may not work out; many people know that cans of preserves sometimes explode. In addition, many simply do not have space to store cans of preserves. And the very last argument is that it will not be possible to preserve all the vitamins in their original form.

Many housewives prefer freezing vegetables. Having a large freezer, you can prepare a lot of healthy and tasty vegetables. However, it would be a good idea to learn about the tricks of freezing, so as not to accidentally end up with an unappetizing mush instead of healthy vegetables.

So, list of vegetables that can be frozen:

• Black Eyed Peas
• Broccoli
• Pumpkin
• Cauliflower
• Zucchini or zucchini
• Brussels sprouts
• Sweet and/or bell pepper
• cucumbers
• Tomatoes
• Corn
• Green pea
• Eggplant
• Mushrooms

Turnips, radishes, and lettuce cannot be frozen.

Most vegetables need to be blanched before freezing, that is, immersed in boiling water for a short time and then cooled quickly. For example, zucchini, Brussels sprouts, eggplant, green beans, green peas, corn needs to be blanched.

Tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, mushrooms no need to put it in boiling water. Little ones Cherry tomatoes You can store them whole, just make a few punctures so that the fruit does not burst from frost. Large tomatoes can be cut into slices or pureed. Cucumbers should also not be stored whole; cut them into small cubes or strips.

You can also freeze potatoes, onions, carrots, and beets. But it’s worth thinking about, will this be rational? The freezer is usually small in size, and seasonal vegetables cost mere pennies and are stored for a long time without refrigeration. It's better to freeze what you can't buy in winter.

Vegetable mixtures for the winter in bags: recipes

Vegetables must be washed and dried before freezing. Sealed containers or bags are suitable as containers. The seal will prevent the absorption of foreign odors from nearby products. For example, dill gives off a strong odor that can be absorbed into other vegetables or berries.

It is convenient to freeze vegetable mixtures so that you can prepare different dishes later. It is better to freeze mixtures in small portions, so as not to break off a piece from the frozen mass later, but to take the finished portion at a time.

Vegetable mixture options:

1. Corn, peas, bell pepper.
2. Carrots, peas, green beans, red beans, corn, celery, peppers, corn.
3. Onions, mushrooms, carrots, potatoes.
4. Tomatoes, onions, peppers.

Important: Frozen vegetables and fruits can be stored in the freezer for no longer than a year.

Vegetable seasonings for soups, salad, pasta, main courses: recipes for the winter

You can also freeze greens, which you can then add little by little to soups, salads or main courses.

• Wash and dry the greens thoroughly beforehand.
• Then finely chop it.
• First, freeze the greens in bulk, that is, spread them in a thin layer on the surface and freeze.
• Once the greens are frozen, place them in a tightly sealed bag.

Greens can be frozen in a combination of several types. For example:

1. Dill+parsley for soups
2. Dill+sorrel+onion feathers for green borscht
3. Cilantro+parsley+basil for salads

Important: Greens should be stored separately. Do not mix greens with other vegetables, otherwise the smells will mix.

For soups The following vegetable mixture will work:

• Green peas, carrots, onions, potatoes
• Carrots, onions, potatoes, cauliflower
• Cauliflower, corn, potatoes, carrots, onions
• Sweet peppers, carrots, potatoes, onions

The same mixtures can be added to other dishes, such as risotto, stew, vegetable casseroles.

Video: How to freeze greens for the winter?

Freezing Vegetable Mix for Stew: Recipe

You can enjoy this healthy stew by freezing it:

• Zucchini, zucchini
• Bell pepper
• Green pea
• Cauliflower
• Tomatoes
• Greenery

Potatoes, onions, carrots, and white cabbage must also be added to the stew.

A stew is a mixture of different vegetables, so you don't have to stick to a strict recipe. If you don't have one ingredient, you can easily replace it with another. The main thing is that the dish contains several types of vegetables.

Important: Many people are interested in the question: Do you need to defrost vegetables before cooking? No, you can't do this.

If you defrost vegetables, they will lose their shape when cooked and turn into mush. Therefore, place vegetables from the freezer into the pan immediately. This way they will remain fragrant, beautiful and healthy.

Recipes for borscht dressings for freezing for the winter

Borscht in winter will be much tastier and healthier if you take care of the dressing in advance.

Recipe for borscht dressing:

• Sweet pepper in thin strips
• Onion diced
• Carrots, julienned or grated
• Beets in strips
• Tomato puree

It would be useful parsley And dill as spices, you just need to store the greens separately.

Wash all ingredients, dry, cut, grate and mix. Pack the dressing into separate bags for one use.

This method will help not only prepare aromatic borscht in winter, but also save the family budget.

How to freeze stuffed peppers with vegetables?

Stuffed pepper- a tasty and healthy dish, but you can fully enjoy it only during the season, that is, in the fall. But if you freeze peppers, you can prepare your favorite dish at any time of the year.

Some housewives stuff the peppers and then put them in the freezer. This method is good, but it takes up a lot of space in the freezer.

There is another way:

1. Wash the peppers and dry with a paper towel
2. Remove the stem and seeds from the fruit
3. Insert the fruits one into the other
4. Place the peppers in columns, carefully wrapping them in bags.

Pepper slices are suitable for salads, stews, soups and other dishes. It is much more convenient to store it in this form than whole.

What vegetable mixtures can be frozen in the freezer to feed a baby for the winter?

If there is an infant in the family, or a new addition is expected, the young mother should consider preparing homemade vegetables for complementary feeding.

Complementary feeding should be introduced at 5-6 months of the baby’s life if the child is breastfed. If the child eats an adapted formula, then complementary foods should be introduced earlier - at the 4th month of life.

If this period falls in winter or spring, then frozen vegetables will become a lifesaver during the introduction of complementary foods.

To feed your baby you can freeze the following vegetables:

1. Cauliflower
2. Zucchini
3. Broccoli
4. Pumpkin

After the baby begins to eat pureed vegetables, light vegetable soups can be introduced in small quantities. To do this, freeze in advance:

• Potato
• Carrot

Vitamins and naturalness - this is the most important advantage of freezing vegetables for complementary feeding. Provided that you are sure that the vegetables have not been treated with chemicals, or that you grew them in your own garden.

What fruits and berries can be frozen in the refrigerator freezer and freezer: list

You can freeze any fruits and berries:

• Strawberry
• Strawberries
• Blueberry
• Blackberry
• Cowberry
• Plums
• Apricots
• Peaches
• Apples
• Currant
• Gooseberry

Do I need to wash fruit before freezing?

In addition to vegetables, you can freeze fruits and berries. Before putting them in the freezer, thoroughly wash and dry the fruits and berries.

Fruits and berries cannot be re-frozen. Firstly, they will turn into mush, and secondly, they will lose all their beneficial properties.

How to freeze fresh fruits and berries for the winter?

You can puree the berries and freeze them as is, with or without sugar - your choice.

Another way to freeze is dry. Place the prepared berries or fruits in a thin layer on a surface, for example, on a board. Freeze this way, then place the berries in a bag, releasing the air from it.

It is advisable to store delicate berries such as strawberries and raspberries in a container so that the berries are not damaged.

Apples can be cut into slices. Store small and fleshy fruits (plums, apricots, cherries) whole and with the pit.

Recipes for mixtures of fruits and berries for the winter

From frozen fruits and berries in winter you can prepare aromatic compotes, fruit drinks, or add fruit to yogurt or porridge.

Remember that ripe and undamaged fruits should be frozen. Make small portions of berries and use one bag per preparation.

Mixtures of fruits and berries:

• Strawberry, blackberry, raspberry
• Plums, apricots, apples
• Apples, apricots, raspberries
• Cherry, apple, strawberry
• Cherries, currants, raspberries
• Strawberries, currants, cranberries

Important: Most modern refrigerators do not require defrosting, but if you need to do this, wrap the container with frozen vegetables and fruits in a thick blanket so that the products do not have time to defrost. In winter, the freezer can be taken outside or onto the balcony.

Freezing fruits, berries and vegetables is a profitable and quick way to get all the healthy vitamins in winter and enjoy the taste of summer. But do not forget to follow the rules of freezing in order to preserve vitamins and taste. You can watch a video on this topic and learn a lot of useful information about freezing vegetables and fruits.

Video: How to properly freeze greens, vegetables and fruits?

about storing in the refrigerator, we learned how to arrange jars correctly. And if a refrigerator is just a way to preserve food for several days or weeks, then a freezer involves storing supplies “for centuries.”

When it comes to order in the freezer, I always remember our old Soviet refrigerator, which had to be defrosted manually, and at the same time an audit of everything edible was carried out there. I collected a whole bag to throw away - stale greens, a wasted piece of lard, 5 dumplings... Have you looked in your freezer lately? What is usually stored there?

The freezer is a super thing! It is needed not only for preserving food, but is also a wonderful recycler of everything that has a short shelf life and is impossible to eat right now.

You can freeze everything! Well, raw meat/fish/vegetables - that goes without saying. And what else?

• Broth for soup (vegetable, meat and fish)
• Frying for soup or cutting vegetables (mono or mix)
• Herbs and herb butter
• Tomato juice and tomato paste
• Milk
• Dough

All kinds of preparations for soup and tomato paste are the most common products frozen in a special way. Each housewife comes up with her own way to make it convenient to store and use. Bags, molds, containers, universal mixtures - let's look into other people's freezers?

Yaroslav: “One of the compartments in my freezer is filled with ready-made soup mixtures - a bunch of bags in the form of rolls. Each package is for one soup, and it doesn’t matter if it’s borscht, pickle soup or soup with meatballs, the dressing is universal!”

Elena: “I have different mixtures for soups in the freezer - I choose them according to purpose or mood, and there are separate bags with herbs or some specific vegetables.”

Sveta: “If you get into my freezer, you can immediately put together soup - there’s meat, different dressings, and broth.”

Olesya: “I use tomato paste a lot, so I always buy it in large jars. But to prevent it from spoiling in the refrigerator, I put it in plastic cups and freeze it. There are regular ones for 200 ml., or for 100...”

Oksana: “And sometimes I need to add 1-2 tablespoons of tomato paste to a dish, then open the jar, wash the spoon... I immediately lay out “piles” on the board and freeze them, then pour them into a bag and know for sure: one “ball” - one tablespoon!”

You can freeze not only semi-finished products, but also ready-made dishes:

• Stuffed zucchini and peppers
• Ratatouille
• Cutlets and meatballs
• Chicken and fish in batter
• All kinds of pates
• Stuffed cabbage rolls
• Pancakes with filling
• Lasagna
• Vegetable soups and puree soups
• Sauces for meat and spaghetti
• Cupcakes and oatmeal cookies

Can you imagine how convenient it is to always have a strategic reserve for any occasion - guests are on the doorstep, and you have a “freshly baked” cupcake, heated in the microwave. The husband and children are not full of dinner, or they are simply too lazy to cook - you can find pancakes or a ready-made cutlet.

Svetlana: “In general, almost every time I cook, I put something in the freezer for an emergency, all I have to do is reheat it.”

Kate: “I cook specifically for freezing. I choose a quiet day, shop, cook and really fill the freezer with ready-made and semi-ready dishes, but then I’m free for two weeks from active cooking.”

You can also freeze everything that your family hasn’t eaten and isn’t going to finish eating yet. It happens that there is a portion of pasta or a couple of cutlets left in the pan - everything goes into the freezer! It has been verified that there will come “hunger times” when such reserves will be very helpful.

Here's my experience:“My dearly beloved vegetable soup, minestrone - there is no point in cooking it in small portions, I cook 7 liters at once, but the family will eat it once or twice and they are tired of it. Therefore, I immediately pour the soup into half-liter plastic glasses, it cools faster in them, and I pack it and freeze it.”

But if it were all that simple, I’d throw it in the freezer and it’s beautiful. No, there are some tricks here too.

Safe storage

The ideal (non-hazardous) temperature is considered to be storage at -18 degrees Celsius. At this temperature, the vital activity of bacteria and microorganisms almost completely stops.

Important! Low temperatures do not kill bacteria, but only slow down their reproduction! Therefore, it is necessary to observe the shelf life for various products. In the instructions for each refrigerator you can find the manufacturer's recommendations, and in many models, icons and temperature conditions are drawn on the drawers.

To summarize:

• Chicken and other poultry pieces, beef, pork, lamb, lean fish - can be stored for 6 months.
• Semi-finished products (dumplings, dumplings, cutlets, cabbage rolls, pancakes and cheesecakes), minced meat, seafood, fatty fish - 3-4 months.
• Ready-made dishes, broths and soups, sauces, fried cutlets - 2-3 months.
• Almost all vegetables, fruits, berries and mushrooms are home frozen - up to a year, tomatoes - 2 months, peppers - 3-4, zucchini and pumpkins - a month, apples and peaches - 4-6 months, greens and herbs - 2-3 months, berries - six months, nuts - up to two years.
• Bread, muffins, puff pastry - 2-4 months

The faster the better

When storing food, average temperatures from +65 to +5 degrees Celsius are very dangerous - it is in this range that bacteria multiply especially intensively.

Certain studies have proven that if the temperature drops to +3 degrees Celsius in 90 minutes or less, then such cooling processes will not affect the quality of the product, and bacteria will not have time to do their “dirty work.”

Therefore, the faster the product is cooled and frozen, the less likely it is that you will have digestive problems.

Enterprises use shock freezing - when a very low temperature (down to -40) is constantly pumped into the chamber, which is maintained until the required -18 is reached inside the frozen product.

Some household freezers have an analogue of QuickFreeze or SuperFreeze blast freezing, of course, not as powerful as in special factories, but you can quickly freeze several kilograms of minced meat.

Thinner and smaller

The smaller the volume you freeze, the faster the product/portion will freeze to its full depth, and the temperature inside will reach a safe -18 degrees. For example, chopped vegetables in a briquette 2 centimeters thick will freeze twice as quickly as the same briquette 4 centimeters thick. But there is a catch - if you put two two-centimeter briquettes on top of each other, then in the end we still have the same 4 centimeters!

For example, a two-centimeter briquette with meat or fish will freeze in 2-3 hours; if we increase the thickness to 4 centimeters, the time will also increase to 4-6 hours.

With berries, fruits and vegetables it is even sadder: 2 centimeters - 3.5-4 hours; 4 centimeters - already 8-10 hours.

And mushrooms are generally “out of competition”: 4 and 12 hours, respectively!

Rosalia: “Before freezing, I form everything into a rectangular shape, be it berries, cottage cheese, butter or meat - this way it saves a lot of space than just haphazardly putting it in a bag and throwing it in the freezer. And then such a product can be defrosted faster.”

Luda: “We recently visited my grandfather in the village, and I spied on him. He stores all frozen food that can be shaped (chopped vegetables, herbs, minced meat) this way: he inserts a bag into a juice box, fills it with what he needs, and freezes it. And then he takes out the “brick” and stores it without a box, just in a bag.”

Alyona: “By the way, this is how I freeze many berries: I beat them several times with a blender, but not until smooth, and so that there are pieces, I transfer them into rectangular portioned containers and freeze them. Once everything is thoroughly frozen, I shake it out into bags and put it in piles and rows. Due to the fact that the berries are frozen in the form of bricks and stored without containers, a lot of space is saved in the freezer!”

Portion packaging

Because The thinner the layer with the product to be frozen, the faster it will freeze, then freezing in small portions will occur on its own. The second indisputable advantage of such packaging is that it is convenient for further use when cooking (there is no need to defrost the entire kilogram of minced meat, or a whole container of soup).

Elena L.: “I freeze the minced meat like this: I put it in a bag, give it a flat shape 2 centimeters high (it’s convenient to do this with a rolling pin), and then with the blunt side of a knife or a chopstick I divide the minced meat into squares directly through the bag. After freezing, it’s convenient to break off the required amount, and such a thin layer defrosts very quickly!”

Elena: “My personal multi-mom life hack “Fed baby” - prepare children's lunches and dinners once or twice a week, pack them in 10*15 (servings!) and freeze them in layers (saving space, convenient to open and defrost).

Do not refreeze!

We often see such inscriptions on store-bought frozen semi-finished products. Such temperature fluctuations, plus or minus, greatly affect the taste of the product, its texture and color may change, but the worst thing is that at -10 degrees Celsius, the product is still hard, and the bacteria inside are already multiplying at full speed.

Order and markings

It is advisable to sign all products indicating the name, volume and date, because... It is impossible to distinguish between frozen chicken and fish broth, boiled carrots and pumpkin, and cherry jam and liver. You can write notes directly on the packaging, stick pieces of masking tape, or use special ones.

Firstly, these are minimum sanitary standards; secondly, protection against confusion in products, because Sometimes it is difficult to determine in a frost-covered package what is there (if it is not signed).

Also, this sorting into boxes will prevent the mixing of odors.

My experience:“In the top drawer of the freezer, I keep a small supply of prepared meals (usually those that are not eaten right away) and vegetable side dishes. The middle drawer is for fish and meat, and the bottom one is for small containers with sauces and salad dressings, berries, and frozen baked goods. Anything that cannot be clearly identified at first glance - I glue pieces of masking tape with marks on everything.”

Airtightness and what to freeze in?

Some people probably already have the sad experience of how one poorly closed bag of fresh dill “infected” everything in the freezer with its smell - from dumplings to ice cream.

Use for storage:

• all kinds of containers (disposable and reusable),
• regular bags and ziplock bags,
• plastic bottles,
• cling film,
• foil,
• jars of baby puree.

Containers from the list below require additional packaging in bags:

• various forms of foil and paper,
• plastic cups of different sizes (+ volume is immediately known)
• any other disposable plastic tableware
• silicone muffin tins
• ice containers

Saving

• Time:

You can cook a lot at once - we’ll eat some for dinner, and freeze the rest.

It takes about the same time to fry 1 or 2 onions, chop a couple of carrots or a dozen, roll up a kilogram of minced meat or all five. But cooking the same dish from scratch several times takes a lot of time and effort. And how many dishes to wash!

For example, almost any borscht, rassolnik or cabbage soup is cooked for 2-3 hours - because... you need to cook the broth. And if you have it ready-made frozen, then the soup will cook for half an hour! And if you have a universal dressing/frying for the soup in the freezer in advance, then the time is reduced to 20 minutes (peel and cut the potatoes, bring to a boil).

And if there is ready-made frozen soup in the refrigerator, then you only need 10 minutes to warm it up, hehe...

My experience:“When I cook chicken, I always have broth left over - I pour it into half-liter glasses, freeze it - the base for the soup is ready, you can throw in a handful of dried vegetables and pasta - that's it! Or you can make it more complicated and add dressing. Or even freeze the already prepared soup right away.”

• Money:

In summer, greens cost pennies or grow for free in the garden, but in winter, any decent twig is worth its weight in gold. Most types of frozen greens are no different from fresh ones if they are used in chopped form.

It has long been known that it is more profitable to buy whole chicken or fish, divide it into portions and use some for the main dish and some for the broth.

It is also convenient to store meat trimmings and bones in the freezer, so that later they can be used as a base for soup (you can get a special bag for this), all root trimmings (carrots, celery, green leaves of leeks and hard stems of dill and parsley, “butts” of tomatoes ) - freeze everything, and then into the broth!

My experience: “In addition to the main refrigerator, our family also has a chest freezer, which is located in the basement (we live in a country house). When the gardening season comes, I fill the freezer with all kinds of containers with berries, soup dressings, make salad sauces (greens + butter + garlic), there are also vegetables and semi-finished products from them (stuffed peppers, cabbage rolls, ratatouille). A supply of bread is also stored right there - no, not in such quantities in case of war, but so that you don’t have to run to the store for a loaf of bread if there are unexpected guests. And of course, everything is marked so that without me my family won’t die of hunger.”

Well, I’ll also share my freezing life hacks:

1. Greens with olive oil.

This is perhaps the most famous “freezing” advice from social media newsletters. I took it and did it!

1. Egg whites.

For some reason, it always happens to me that I need either yolks or whites in my baked goods. In order not to think about how to dispose of unnecessary things, I came up with a container for proteins - I pour the “unnecessary” into it and make notes on how many proteins were added there. But! Yolks cannot be frozen!

1. Lemonade preparations

We have a small refrigerator in the bathhouse, which usually works in the summer. In one of the drawers we set up a “lemonade corner” - here you can find different containers of ice, frozen whole oranges, limes and lemons. Simply chop the required amount with a knife (they are cut with little effort) and pour in mineral water.

There are also lemons twisted with sugar and mint - a 200ml glass for a three-liter jar.

And frozen chokeberries can be used instead of ice cubes in drinks!

1. Mimimi-Ice

By the way, in the bottom glass there are just chopped citrus fruits from the previous picture, and on top there is frozen wine - sangria light.

1. Ice stack

And this is a real man's life hack that my husband shared. There is a small container in the freezer drawer that holds two sets of shot glasses. No matter what temperature your hot drink is, an ice pack will fix it!

What are your proven freezing secrets? Share your experience in our groups

What do we store in the freezer? Usually this is raw meat, frozen vegetables and fruits, and herbs. But you can freeze a lot more food. Knowing this, you can extend shelf life food and do not throw away leftovers.

Your products will retain their taste and all the nutrients after freezing. We have prepared for you a list of foods that should be frozen.

Foods that can be stored in the freezer

1. Egg whites
For homemade sponge cake or ice cream, you may need a lot of yolks. But where should the proteins go in this case? They can be stored in the freezer for up to 12 months. During this time, you will definitely find a use for them. You can do the same with the yolks.

2. Bread
The bread can be stored for up to 3 months in the freezer. This is better than storing it in the refrigerator, because after storing it this way the bread becomes dry. Add a little water to the bread and heat it in the oven or microwave before eating.

3. Nuts
In peeled nuts, the process of fat oxidation occurs faster. After 2 weeks of storage at room temperature, the nuts may spoil. This product will last much longer in the freezer. Just don’t store a large number of nuts in one container that you will often open and close.

4. Milk
This perishable product can be safely stored in the freezer for up to 3 months.

5. Whole wheat flour
Just like nuts, whole wheat flour contains oils that begin to spoil at room temperature. Store flour in the freezer for up to 2 years.

6. Smoked salmon
Salmon, trout and mackerel meat is sold in vacuum packaging. After opening the package, it is better to freeze the fish and store it for no more than 2 months.

7. Tofu
This soybean product can be stored in the freezer for up to 5 months.

8. Cream
Of course, they are best consumed fresh, but you can freeze the cream for long-term storage (4 months) without losing quality and taste. This option is suitable for heavy cream.

9. Mexican tortilla
Flour tortillas are also best stored in the freezer and then defrosted in the refrigerator.

10. Ham
Ham can be stored for no more than 3 days. To extend shelf life and preserve taste, freeze ham. Cut it into portions, wrap it in cling film and place it in the freezer. Just let the meat thaw before serving.

For several years in a row, I have preferred freezing vegetables, fruits, berries and other delicacies for the winter in the form of vegetables, fruits, berries and other delicacies: the freezer helps preserve the maximum amount of nutrients, and the technology of cooking at home helps save the family budget. Let's talk about how to properly freeze food for the winter, and what you can put in the freezer to enjoy delicious, colorful food on cold evenings.

What can you freeze in the freezer?

The list of winter preparations in the freezer can be made endlessly. However, not all housewives are happy owners of a freezer, limiting themselves to four drawers in the refrigerator.

Before deciding what to freeze for the winter, decide:

• what is in great demand in your family (maybe you can’t live without broccoli or mushrooms);
• what products are available in the winter season (for example, I do not recommend freezing carrots or beets);
• how much space are you willing to allocate for vegetables and fruits?

To prepare, buy seasonal products, the prices of which are lower than ready-frozen ones. For example, frozen sea buckthorn and blackberries in our region are cheaper than fresh ones, which means there is no point in freezing these berries yourself.

Freezing rules and technology

Basic cooking requirements frozen vegetables, herbs and berries:

Freezing vegetables for the winter will be of better quality if you blanch them before going into the freezer. To do this, place a colander with pieces in boiling water for 30-60 seconds, and then dry.

Try to pack food in portions so as not to break the seal of the package and not expose an extra portion of fruit to defrosting.

Shelf life

By observing frozen storage times, you maintain your health.

Frozen fruits and vegetables can be stored for no more than a year at temperatures below - 18 C, up to – 8 C no more than three months.

Re-freezing is excluded: if you have thawed a bag of mushrooms, use the entire volume of products.

What is frozen for the winter?

Almost any fresh food can be stored in the freezer without loss of vitamins and taste.

Vegetables

You can freeze any vegetables for the winter. It is not recommended to store in the freezer only:

• cucumbers;
• rutabaga, turnip;
• lettuce leaves;
• raw potatoes.

What vegetables can be frozen?

Tomatoes. It is better to take fleshy, non-watery fruits (for example, lady fingers) or cherry tomatoes. Small tomatoes are frozen whole, after removing the skin from them. You can make tomato puree (useful for making pasta, soups, sauces).

If you prefer to freeze tomatoes sliced, place them in a sieve to drain excess liquid into a tray.

Broccoli and cauliflower. Disassemble the heads of cabbage into small inflorescences, rinse and blanch for 1 minute. Place into bags and place in the freezer.

Pepper. Cut into half rings and freeze in small portions (useful for soups, vegetable stews).

Zucchini, eggplant. Cut into circles or cubes, removing the skin. You can blanch vegetables, freeze them in trays, and then carefully place them in containers or bags.

Vegetable mixtures. We take peas, corn, cut peppers, zucchini, tomatoes and eggplants - pack them in portions and freeze them.

Berries and fruits

According to research, frozen berries contain only ten percent less vitamins than fresh ones, which means that delicacies collected in summer can benefit the body in winter.

It’s easy to freeze berries by following simple rules, which I already talked about in the article about how you can store in the freezer:

• blueberries;
• blueberries;
• strawberries and strawberries;
• apricots and peaches;
• melon;
• plums;
• cherries;
• black and red currants;
• gooseberry;
• pears;
• grape;
• blackberry;
• chokeberry.

You can include any seasonal berries and fruits in the list of winter preparations in the freezer, the main thing is that they are fresh, without mold or rotten fruit. However, I would not recommend freezing:

1. Watermelon - when frozen, it becomes watery and tasteless.
2. Bananas: I find that they are more expensive in the summer, but the yellow treat is available all year round. However, chopped frozen bananas can be blended into ice cream (by mixing them with berries or chocolate), and it is worth freeing up space in the freezer for this purpose.
3. Kiwi and apples. Just like bananas, they are affordable all year round, and it’s not worth wasting your freezer space on green fruits.
4. Citrus. When defrosted, they lose their taste, becoming sour and watery. The exception is frozen lemon, which is easier to grate when cold, for example, if you need the zest or pulp for a lemon pie.

Milk products

I like to freeze butter (I usually don’t use a whole packet at once) and fresh country cottage cheese. It is recommended to store dairy products in the freezer for no more than two months.

Mushrooms

Greenery

The technology for freezing greens in the freezer is simple - parsley, dill, basil, cilantro should be washed and finely chopped.

I use special scissors for cutting greens. These can be bought with three blades and five. The tool allows you to carefully and quickly prepare seasoning for the winter.

Greenery scissors are easy to clean, do not damage the skin of your hands and are safe to use.

greenery scissors

Greens should be frozen in small portions so as not to open the bags, breaking their seal: dill and parsley quickly absorb foreign odors and begin to emit an unpleasant aroma.

Blank ideas

Experienced housewives know that you can save time and not harm your family’s health by using home-cooked semi-finished products:

1. Preparation for borscht or cabbage soup. Finely chop onions, carrots, peppers, beets, potatoes, blanch and freeze in small bags. We store no more than a month.
2. Stuffed peppers. We clean the peppers, wash them, stuff them with minced meat and put them in containers. All that remains is to simmer the almost finished dish.
3. Meat and fish products. We form cutlets and meatballs from the minced meat, cut the pieces into goulash and freeze them first on trays, and then put them in bags for freezing.
4. Casserole
5. In my family, I’m the only one who eats cottage cheese casserole, so I usually freeze half of it, cutting it into portions. I heat it up for 2 minutes in the microwave and get a delicious dish for breakfast or afternoon snack.
6. Pancakes and dumplings
7. We bake pancakes, wrap the filling in them (it is better to use ready-made minced meat or cottage cheese), freeze them on a tray, and then put them in freezer bags.

Semi-finished products at home may also look like:

• cooked rice;
• boiled vegetables;
• barley;
• frozen meat or vegetable stew;
• boiled buckwheat.

When there is no time to cook, such preparations for a month in the freezer help out the housewife. Hurry up to stock up on healthy vegetables and fruits: frozen foods in supermarkets are several times more expensive than homemade ones.

I consider the purchase of the freezer very successful! At first I thought that I couldn’t fill it halfway, but now there is no free space in it, everything is so crammed with food, preparations and other useful things. I’m sharing my experience in freezing food, and I’ll also show you where and what I have in the freezer.

Storing food in the freezer. Examples

In addition to a separate freezer, I also use a freezer in the refrigerator. In it I store the products that I use every day, so as not to have to go to another room where the freezer is located.

Typically, modern refrigerator models have a fairly spacious freezer compartment and consist of three deep compartments and a tray for freezing flat foods and ice cubes.

I find it more convenient to store the products I use most often in the top compartment (1) – these are frozen meat, lard, bacon, minced meat, meatballs, dumplings, dumplings, spring rolls, frozen cabbage rolls and stuffed peppers, broth, soup and the like.
In the middle compartment (2) – all kinds of vegetables, fruits, milk, hard cheese, tomato paste.
And products such as mushrooms, fish, seafood, etc. are in the lowest (3) .

So, let's look into my freezer (it consists of 6 trays).

The first two trays are all kinds of meat products and preparations.
Having a one-year-old child in the house, it is very convenient to freeze different types of meat in advance. I have chicken, rabbit, beef and fish balls (cod and hake). On the shelf nearby are homemade dumplings, as well as ready-made minced meat.

Let's see what's underneath? And there they lie. It is very convenient to freeze them in such foil forms, alternating with vegetable dressing and tomato juice. I have 14-16 cabbage rolls in this form. All you have to do is put them in a hot oven and dinner is ready.

The next shelf contains the same meatballs, only “adult” ones (with spices and black pepper, more salty), as well as mountains (with meat and mushrooms). I freeze pancakes in zip-lock bags of 8-10 pieces. I heat them either in a frying pan, in the microwave, or in the oven. My household doesn’t have to ask me where the filling is, because on each bag it is written with a black marker what the pancakes come with.

Behind the pancakes and meatballs lie layers of homemade lard, as well as a slab of bacon. Lard is stored at low temperatures just fine, it does not lose its properties and does not turn yellow. I have had this lard for 4 months now and, based on my experience, it will last the same amount of time without loss of taste.

When I fry pancakes, I cut off a piece of frozen lard and grease the pan.

In general, frozen lard can be used in the same way as fresh: cut into strips or cubes, fry with onions and serve with potatoes.

I make pea soup from frozen bacon, season the potatoes and serve with it. All you need to do is put the bacon in the refrigerator and let it defrost overnight.

The next compartment I have is reserved purely for meat. Here is everything your heart desires: homemade chicken, cut into pieces, pork (neck, rib, shoulder), rabbit parts, as well as whole duck carcasses to cook for the holidays or with prunes.

Look on our website for how to properly cut and freeze, as well as for portioned pieces.

All pieces of meat are in tight bags (parts such as wings and spine, as well as ribs - I put them in two bags), each of them has a label indicating the type of meat, part of the carcass and the date of freezing.

The next two shelves are filled to the maximum with frozen vegetables and fruits. Of course, a lot has already been eaten, but I also have something to show.

Green beans have been lying around for 6 months now, they don’t turn black and they don’t lose their properties at all. And all because I froze it correctly. Find out exactly how by reading our freezing recipe.

The only vegetables left are zucchini and eggplant. The cutting was different: cubes, strips, slices, grated vegetables and even puree. All vegetables look fresh, nothing has darkened or become covered with ice crusts.

Many housewives complain that raw carrots in the freezer turn gray, spoil and are not suitable for consumption. Look at mine. She looks like fresh. And all because I adhered to the required temperature regime and freezing rules. Pay attention to the month of freezing. I have had it for 6 months now. This supply will last me for another two months.

Not a single soup or borscht is complete without generous bunches of dill and parsley. I froze as much as I could, which was about 3-4 kilograms of each green. I also store it in zip-lock bags. For convenience, I use bags of different sizes and so that the greens do not freeze in one large lump, I freeze them in thin layers.

My favorite shelf in the freezer is the fruit compartment. It's just a holiday. There is such an abundance of berries and fruits here that not a single supermarket can compare with my freezer.

All berries are separate from each other, there are no layers, frozen blocks of cherries or currants.

The main rule for freezing berries is to dry them well from moisture and first freeze them on a flat tray, and then put them in bags or trays. In the summer I froze black, red, and white currants and stocked up.

In addition to my favorite zip-lock bags, I often use boxes or trays for freezing berries. Here they are protected from mechanical damage and getting berries out of them is a pleasure. The photo shows your favorite berries for making vitamin compote. By the way, be curious about how I froze, and.

I try to freeze seasonal vegetables and fruits on time, at the peak of their mass appearance in markets and stores. At this time, such products are the cheapest, and you can choose the best from a variety of fruits and berries.

I also freeze products such as meat in large quantities. I order poultry, pork, rabbit, etc. from farmers, I buy 40 kilograms, I freeze it and I can not think about the meat shelf in the freezer for 2-3 months. When I see that we have enough meat for a week, I order ice cream again and again. It's easier for me to spend one day freezing different cuts and parts of meat than to buy a little every couple of weeks and freeze them.

I don’t have a lot of fish in the freezer; I buy it once a month, no more than 1-2 kilograms. These are mainly fresh pike perch, mackerel and herring.

I try to make prepared preparations (such as cabbage rolls, dumplings, dumplings, filled pancakes, cutlets and meatballs) in large batches, but not all in one day. I break it down into groups. For example, on Saturday I decided to make dumplings and dumplings. Already on Thursday-Friday I start preparing: I make minced meat, boil potatoes and liver for filling, and stew cabbage. I hide it all in the refrigerator. On Saturday morning I knead the dough in the bread maker and finish preparing the filling. Well, then I turn on my favorite TV series and make dumplings and dumplings. It turns out 200 pieces of both. This way I don’t get tired in the kitchen and don’t wash mountains of dishes until 12 am.

The same is true with spring rolls - you can prepare the filling in advance or bake the pancakes, and then just roll them up and freeze them.

How to keep records of freezing

I showed you the bins of my freezer, and now I’ll tell you how I keep track of all this stuff.

I used a spreadsheet to make a list of all the foods I freeze throughout the year. I divided all the products by season. For example, SPRING: spinach, wild garlic, strawberries, rhubarb, SUMMER: raspberries, blueberries, etc. Filled out the required fields, namely the freezing date and shelf life. Well, then the smart program, using a formula, itself shows me how many days are left until the final date of use of the product or even writes that the product is expired.

When I see that a product will expire in 2-3 weeks, I put it in a visible place in the freezer and plan a menu using this product.

Naturally, in addition to the program, labels help you navigate the expiration date of the product.

Example of an accounting table

(tables + tables of shelf life of products are received by participants of the training “ “)

An example of an accounting table (Procurement).

The freezer is my faithful assistant. It stores so many products, vegetables, fruits and semi-finished products that I don’t have to think about cooking and devote more time to my family.