Author Topic: Freezing Potatoes for Storage (Read 5405 times)

xillent · « **on:** August 03, 2014, 06:21:23 pm »

Is there a good way to freeze tatties for storage. Interweb seems to say that boiling and then freezing is a good idea but i'm not so sure

regen · « **Reply #1 on:** August 03, 2014, 09:54:57 pm »

Why freeze spuds when they will keep perfectly well in a cool dry place with out all the additional costs! Without heat treatment to deactivate the enzymes and gell the starch you will end up with a black soggy mess.

Regen

pgkevet · « **Reply #2 on:** August 03, 2014, 11:24:54 pm »

oddly enough I was thiking about this just now too. Last eyar i stored 9 hessian saxkfulls of spuds and they kept really well...except we had that gap period whe the spuds in stre were sprouting and the new ones werent grown. that and my OH irritates the heck out of me by buying oven chps and wedges when she feels lazy instead of peeling a spud - so if there;s a way of making my own oven chip style frozen stuff in bulk I'd be interested

Lesley Silvester · « **Reply #3 on:** August 04, 2014, 12:11:29 am »

You can freeze mashed potato in small quantities, such as scoops full. I think you have to be careful about mashing butter into it though.

pgkevet · « **Reply #4 on:** August 04, 2014, 07:44:04 am »

Google has quite a lot of info on spud freezing.. but it looks as though for things that I was looking at it's only good for a couple of months (which rpobbaly measn that with an efficient low temp freezer it's 4 or 5 - stil not long enough to be worth it).

It's also time v effort v cost. I've got a couple of kilos of peas frozen - but that is a whole large bucket of pods and several hours shelling then the costs of blanching etc for soemthing you can buy cheaply. A bit ike runner beans .. to do a neat destring and slice manually takes time (yes there are little machines). French and climbing beans are a lot easier to process in bulk - got about 8 kilos done.

The first 20 sweetcorn cobs are in too. I don't bother blanching those and plan on about 100 total if I have the room.

I might doa bag f carrots for convenience..but last year i left them in the ground as lifted as needed..although they did start getting holes chewed in them.

Practical approach is to make sure there's plenty of winter brassica, leeks, parsnips, carrots and then less need to have frozen apart from stuff you might fancy - and fruit. I like stewed apples..so lots of bags of those..

cans · « **Reply #5 on:** August 04, 2014, 05:24:37 pm »

pgkevet . . . you dont need to blanche peas. Just pick, shell then freeze. Makes life so much easier.

pgkevet · « **Reply #6 on:** August 04, 2014, 05:35:58 pm »

Actually didn'tblanche the peas, sorry... was thinking about the beans and calabrese etc that i had and my fingers ran away from my brain :-)

suziequeue · « **Reply #7 on:** August 04, 2014, 05:36:14 pm »

I'm currently doing a bit of research into freezing aubergines.

All the advice says to blanch them with a bit of lemon but I am trying one set just sliced and put straight into the freezer, one set salted and then a third set blanched.

I only use them make moussaka but I just don't have time to process them at the moment and we've still got loads of spicy aubergine chutney from last year.

pgkevet · « **Reply #8 on:** August 04, 2014, 07:10:28 pm »

I don't know how come your aubergines are ready now..must be the 30miles further south

...mine are just forming. But I do have lots of homegrown lemons...

OH used to buy a frozen chargrilled mix of aubergine, courgette, pepper etc and i think she's planning on trying something like that to try freeze.

(a lot of stuff she cooks comes out charred....

)

regen · « **Reply #9 on:** August 04, 2014, 08:27:26 pm »

"pgkevet . . . you dont need to blanche peas. Just pick, shell then freeze. Makes life so much easier. "

Depends on how long you want to store them- without enzyme deactivation off flavours will develope with time. Secondly depends upon end use - out of freezer into boiling water fine but using unblanched peas which have not been heat treated is asking for a stomach upset!

Regen

regen · « **Reply #10 on:** August 04, 2014, 09:14:02 pm »

"so if there;s a way of making my own oven chip style frozen stuff in bulk I'd be interested"

Depends on your idea of bulk! A batch style process of about 1kg max at a time is possible but, bearing in mind the expected yeild of around 50%,the time and the power used I doubt it is really worth it.

Commercially the process envolves
1 steam peeling which blows off the minimum skin - not to be matched with a hand peeler.
2 Cutting into chips by firing them through static blades - could simulate with a knife
3 immeadiate transfer to a blancher where they are heated at about 80 degrees for about 90 secs in a solution of sodium di hydrogen orthophosphate to prevent the chips going black. May work in a pan on stove with citric or ascorbic acid
4 transfer to a dryer which blows hot air through them and removes about 15% of the moisture- could be done in oven
5 Pass through oil bath at about 350 deg F for around 90 secs to seal the skin- could use conventional deep fat fryer but dont over load or temp will drop too much
6 cool rapidly to ambient in air blast
7 freeze to minus 18 deg in about 8 mins and store at minus 18 degrees C.

Personally i would always go to Tescos!

Regen

cans · « **Reply #11 on:** August 04, 2014, 10:00:23 pm »

Quote from: regen on August 04, 2014, 08:27:26 pm

"pgkevet . . . you dont need to blanche peas. Just pick, shell then freeze. Makes life so much easier. "

Depends on how long you want to store them- without enzyme deactivation off flavours will develope with time. Secondly depends upon end use - out of freezer into boiling water fine but using unblanched peas which have not been heat treated is asking for a stomach upset!

Regen

Have not blanched peas for at least 20 years. keep some especially for Christmas/New Year lunch no problem with flavour. Peas are always cooked before eating. I find that some shop bought frozen veg can be a bit dodgy though after a while.

suziequeue · « **Reply #12 on:** August 17, 2014, 04:33:43 pm »

Quote from: suziequeue on August 04, 2014, 05:36:14 pm

I'm currently doing a bit of research into freezing aubergines.

All the advice says to blanch them with a bit of lemon but I am trying one set just sliced and put straight into the freezer, one set salted and then a third set blanched.

I only use them make moussaka but I just don't have time to process them at the moment and we've still got loads of spicy aubergine chutney from last year.

Well - we had a taste test today with moussaka and - to be honest - there was no difference in texture between fresh or frozen, pre-salted or unsalted. The blanched ones were definitely squishier with a rather mucousy mouth-feel though.

Verdict:

Sliced aubergines are freezable if all you are going to do is make them into stews/moussaka/chutney. Whether you salt them first or just freeze straight away doesn't seem to make much difference.

Personally I think I will stick to salting first to draw a bit of the fluid out.

Lesley Silvester · « **Reply #13 on:** August 17, 2014, 09:22:03 pm »

That's useful info, Suzie so thanks for posting. I'm going to have a load of beans, both French and runner, to freeze and I'm wondering if they need blanching first.