Written by Shirley Parker
Freezable recipes will be a high priority for the personal chef, since he or she prepares at least a week’s worth of meals at a time, leaving a home full of so many different cooking aromas. Obviously, many of the meals have to be packed in freezer-proof containers, but what of the contents? How long can they be safely frozen? Will they turn to mush after even a short freezing time? Of course, none of the meals should be reheated too long or they’ll dry out.
Everyone knows beef, chicken and pork, for example, can be frozen when brought home from the market. But what happens if instead, it has been sliced, pounded on, cooked down and mixed with sauces and other ingredients? Does it freeze well then? Freezable recipes aren’t the same thing as whole chunks of frozen meat.
For those who are not vegetarians, turkey and chicken dishes can be prepared in advance and frozen. They reheat very well and retain their flavor. The same can be said of ham. Pork sausage and ground beef in meat loaf recipes is as tasty as it gets. Fish and potato dishes can satisfy the taste buds. Vegetarian recipes that freeze well include squashes, spinach and cheese dishes, and beans, lentils or rice, breads, macaroni, certain sauces, and so forth.
Freezable Recipes on the Internet
Many newer cookbooks now identify which are the freezable recipes. This is very handy, if a new chef does not already have an extensive list of meals that have proved successful when frozen. If a new idea is needed in a hurry, an internet search will bring up many, though there may not be hours enough to search through them. Sometimes, time is the critical factor in deciding what to prepare, especially when a client calls at the last minute.