Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Eating and Drinking => Cooking, Storing and Preserving => Topic started by: Plot94 on October 05, 2018, 08:50
-
On Tuesday this week my freezer stopped working. I have a lot of veg stored in there that I don't want to lose. My new freezer is turning up today and was wondering if anyone can advise if there is anyway of saving my produce. Can I just re-freeze or re-blanch and freeze or is it destined for the compost? :wacko:
-
The advice is not to refreeze defrosted food. So I would cook it and then freeze.
-
Did you leave it shut up tight? If so you might well find that most of it is still frozen, particularly anything in blocks.
Anything you lose might be covered on your house contents insurance - worth a check!
-
Yes it was left shut but it has been 4 days so even tho some of it is still cold it has mainly defrosted. Oh well I suppose i'll have to go on a marathon cooking session. French bean & sweetcorn curry anyone? :tongue2:
-
The re-freezing rule makes sense as a public safety thing as it is clear, easy to understand and stops people taking chances. In our house it applies to meat and fish, but not produce. You also have to be very careful with ice-cream and of course anything pre-made - sauces and soups need reboiling before re-freezing. I had a freezer disaster last year, so I was in the same dilemma. I choose the re-freeze route and lived to tell the tale.
Some stuff to consider:
Once its defrosted, normal spoilage rules apply.
Pre-prepared veg spoils faster than whole veg.
Re-blanching will clean up the exterior of your veg, but if it looks or smells dodgy, its already too late - bin it!
You might find the texture deteriorates a bit - its been frozen and defrosted twice, so you have to expect a bit of that.
Good luck with it all Plot94 :)