Freezing Vegetables - Freeze only fresh high-
quality vegetables picked when barely mature.
For best results, freeze no more than 2 to 3 hours
after picking. Wash in cold water, sort and cut into
appropriate sizes. Blanch or scald. Pack in recom-
mended container and freeze.
Do not freeze lettuce, celery, carrot sticks,
potatoes or fresh tomatoes. All will become limp or
mushy. Tomatoes will collapse when thawed.
Freezing Meats - The meat you thaw can only
be as good as the meat you freeze. “Drugstore”
wrap in meal-size packages. Flat cuts or patties
should be wrapped individually or in layers sepa-
rated by a double thickness of freezer wrap.
Make sure store wrappings are moisture and
vapor proof. If not, re-wrap meats with one of the
wraps recommended under “Packaging:’
Freezing Cooked Food-Prepare cooked foods
as you would for the table; shorten cooking time 10
to 15 minutes to allow for additional cooking dur-
ing reheating. Omit seasonings and part of the liq-
uid. Plan to add them at reheating time. Potatoes
should also be added to soup and stew at heating
time. Add crumb and cheese toppings at heating
time.
Cool as rapidly as possible and freeze at once.
Liquid or semi-liquid dishes may be frozen in rec-
ommended containers with
heud-space.
Cas-
seroles and other more solid foods may be frozen
in the baking container. If you don’t want to leave
your casserole dish in the freezer, line it with foil.
Bake, cool, freeze, lift out the foil package, bag it
and return to freezer.
Freezing Baked Goods- Wrap baked breads in
recommended material. Thaw in wrapping.
Unbaked yeast breads can be frozen after the first
rising. Punch down, wrap and freeze.
Bake cookies as usual. Cool and freeze on trays,
then pack in recommended freezer bags or car-
tons Unbaked cookies may be dropped, molded
or rolled and frozen on cookie traysstore in bag or
carton; bake without thawing. Refrigerator-type
cookies can be wrapped and frozen in roll form.
Thaw only enough to slice when ready to bake.
Fruit pies are best frozen unbaked. Bake withoui
thawing. Bake pecan and similar pies before
freezing...rich fillings do not freeze solid. Cut steam
vents in top crusts when ready to bake.
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