

Also, they are freezing food very fast at very low temperatures that create very small crystals and prevent mushiness and texture changes that may occur during home freezing. This is always best, though not always possible when you are waiting for your garden to produce enough green beans to make the job worth it. Unless you have a blast freezer in the basement! The frozen foods you buy in the grocery store is often picked and processed the same day. But, it is less time consuming and most folks prefer the flavor and texture of frozen foods.Īnother thing to keep in mind is that you may not be able to reproduce the commercially frozen products that you are used to. It requires that you have a freezer that can hold all of the food you want to freeze at 0☏ and, if you choose single use plastic freezer bags, they can be expensive. Keep in mind, though, that freezing can be a more costly way of preserving than canning. It can be a little scary if you do not know what you are doing. Many people do not want to use a canner or pressure canner. IF DONE RIGHT.įreezing is easy, requires no special equipment and is often the home food preservation method of choice. If done right, freezing can preserve the flavor and health-giving benefits of summer fresh fruits and vegetables. Freeze your local produce, whether it is from your garden or the farmer down the road. There is a way to fix this–without turning to imports from China or Chile or even the well-traveled produce from California, which begins to lose nutritional value as soon as it is picked. But, soon it will all be gone and we will be wishing that we had stashed some away for the long winter. A trip to your backyard vegetable garden, local farmers’ market or maybe the nearby pick-your-own orchard, even late in the season, will attest to this: bins and shelves are still overflowing with beautiful tomatoes, raspberries, green beans and corn. It has been a wonderful year for growing fruits and vegetables in Connecticut. However, the main concern in freezing and thawing coffee is that coffee beans are highly porous and that the change in temperature may redistribute moisture from the inside of the bag into the beans themselves, adding unwanted odors.How to save summer flavor for winter: freezing fruits and vegetables That's not the same thing, as the temperature range doesn't usually include freezing, but it is an example of how shifting temperatures can change the flavor and aroma of a food or beverage.įreezing and thawing coffee could cause substantial shifts in the placement of oils and water in the coffee, and may encourage oils to move to the surface of the bean during freezing, and then dissipate when the coffee is thawed. In pu-erh tea, the shift between hot and cool is desirable, as it causes a natural fermentation that adds depth to the tea's flavor. Freezing and thawing foods multiple times is almost never a good idea, as it can impact the flavor and aroma.Īlso, heating and cooling foods repeatedly tends to introduce moisture into the food and then allow it to condense or evaporate, depending on the temperature. Freezing and thawing coffee may damage the essential oils.Be sure to wrap or store odor-causing foods in tightly sealed containers to control recurring odors." You may have to thoroughly clean both food compartments to eliminate unwanted odors. As the Whirlpool site points out, "food in the refrigerator and freezer can lose its flavor and even take on the flavors of other food being stored, such as fish and onions. The distinctive odor of "freezer burn" is a prime example of a freezer adding odor to a frozen food. When they do this, they can also suck up odors because. When freezers get moist and the coffee is not tightly sealed, the beans will suck up the moisture readily, as they are hydrophilic (water-loving). Although the air will generally be at the appropriate temperature to prevent vapor from forming, opening and closing the freezer door (especially for longer periods of time when you're reaching for that bag of summer berries in the very, very back) introduces vapor and changes the temperature, as does the air transfer between the fridge and the freezer (albeit to a lesser extent). Although stand-alone freezers do not hold moisture, most refrigerator-freezers have air transfers between the freezer and the refrigerator. Freezers are not always moist, but they can get moist.
