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Michael Ruhlman has an interesting post today on the “freezer pantry” – things you keep in your freezer so you always have them on hand to add to dishes. I’ve been doing something similar for years now, although I had never thought of tomato paste as freeze-able. (I’ll certainly try it now, because I never go through a can of tomato paste – something I only use occasionally – before it passes its prime.)
Here’s my list of freezer staples, some of which overlap with his:
- Bacon. I buy a package, use what I need right away, roll up each individual slice, and bag them. Rolling them separately makes it easier to pull out just the number of slices I need, and they thaw quickly if you dunk them (in a plastic bag) in cool water because of all the surface area.
- Chicken stock. I freeze it in one-cup and three-cup containers. You can really never have enough of this stuff. I usually have at least one chicken carcass in my freezer for the next batch. Right now I have three. I also keep frozen bits of vegetables that might go into the stock – ends of celery, peppers, and onions that I wouldn’t include in a dish but that still have plenty of flavor for a stock.
- Oat bran. You should keep whole grains in your freezer, and mine is full of them: brown rice, barley, whole-grain coarsely-ground cornmeal (better for polenta than what’s sold as “polenta”), and whole wheat flour, at a minimum. I love the taste of oat bran and, given its nutritional benefits, like to add it to all kinds of baked goods. My wife was hooked on Trader Joes’ pumpkin bread in the fall, and I found that you could add 2 Tbsp of oat bran without affecting the texture of the finished product.
- Raw nuts. Again, like whole grains, they can go rancid. Toasted or roasted nuts can lose a little something in the freezer, but raw nuts need to be toasted before you use them, so the freezer is a great spot, and they never freeze together.
- Pancakes. Granted, not an ingredient, and more about feeding the toddler than about actual cooking. But pancakes, cooled on a rack, freeze beautifully and separate easily. For my daughter, I put two on a plate, microwave about 30 seconds, top with pure maple syrup, then nuke for about ten more seconds.
- Lemon juice. Buy a separate ice tray for this. You cut a lemon to get a bit of juice and have half a lemon left over. Squeeze out the rest, measure out 1 Tbsp increments, freeze each in its own compartment, pop them out and bag them. (Don’t leave them in the tray. I have no idea what the process at work is, but they shrivel and become gummy. It won’t happen in a bag with most/all of the air sucked out.) You can do the same thing with egg whites, although I don’t recommend freezing these for more than a few weeks.
- Legumes and corn. Right now, I have frozen peas, lima beans, and corn in my freezer, which is about my minimum. I never cook any of these on their own, but include them in all kinds of stews, soups, and rice dishes. If you have rice, an onion, peas, and corn, you have everything you need for a great and colorful pilaf.
I know a lot of people swear by food-saver devices; I bought the inexpensive Reynolds Handi-Vac, because I couldn’t bring myself to buy a $100 device (that’s eight pounds of coffee! nine or ten new books!) that would just take up more space. It works very well on dry goods, and it works quickly. I would link to Amazon, but you’re better off getting it at Target.