There are just a few principles needed to master the technique of cooking ahead, and once you know them, you'll have faster, better- tasting, healthier and safer meals to show for it.
The biggest boon to food preparation ahead is the freezer. Everything freezes from the point of view of food safety, but there's a lot of variation in palatability. For best flavor and texture, don't freeze the following foods in your home freezer: Milk products: they'll curdle. Boiled eggs: the whites get watery. Custards: they'll lose texture, get lumpy. Mayonnaise: it may separate. Most foods that you fry at home: (except french fries and onions) they can get an unattractive "warmed-over" taste. It's actually the fats turning slightly rancid. Cooked potatoes: they darken and get an unattractive texture. (If you're going to freeze stew, add cooked potatoes later on when you're reheating the stew.) Fresh greens, celery, and carrots: they get limp. Fresh tomatoes: their high water content causes them to collapse when thawed. (However, you can freeze tomatoes if you're going to use them in a cooked form, such as in a pasta sauce.) Gravy: the fat will separate out and puddle. (If you must freeze gravy, cut way back on the fat when you're making the gravy, and stir constantly when you're reheating it so as to keep the fat from separating.) Heavily spiced foods: most herbs, salts, onions, fade away, but garlic and cloves will seem more intense. Pepper has a tendency to turn bitter. Curry takes on a musty flavor. Synthetic flavors: use real vanilla rather than synthetic because synthetic vanilla can have an off-flavor after freezing. Highly salted foods: salt tends to attract moisture and uneven freezing may result because salt slows down the freezing process. Good friends are hard to find, harder to leave, and impossible to forget. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Access the Recipes And More list archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/recipesandmore%40googlegroups.com/ Visit the group home page at: http://groups.google.com/group/RecipesAndMore -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
