A freezer may be a couponer or impulse buyer’s best friend for its impressive storage capabilities, but it doesn’t make a suitable home for all types of food. In fact, it can have the opposite effect of preservation by inducing freezer burn or completely altering a food’s physical state after thawing.
To prevent a mass clean-out of expensive groceries, we’ve rounded up six common foods that should never, under any circumstance, be purchased in bulk and placed in the freezer. Enjoy these fresh or after some time in the refrigerator but not when exposed to the elements of extreme cold.
Milk and cream
Keep your dairy out of the freezer or it will separate and curdle.
Most dairy products can’t be frozen and will become inedible if they are. Milk, cream, yogurt and sour cream tend to separate when frozen. Once they do, there’s no returning them to their former state and the thawed result will be grainy, watery or even curdled. Nut milks, on the other hand, can be frozen more successfully.
Ice cream is the exception, of course, due to its high sugar content that lowers the freezing point and keeps the product soft and palatable.
Potatoes
Potatoes shouldn’t even be refrigerated, never mind frozen.
America’s favorite carb turns mushy and grainy when thawed, a physical state that is no bueno for use in anything from mashed potatoes to french fries. This is because the water separates from the tuber’s starch, resulting in a gag-inducing texture that not even trash-foraging critters like raccoons can stomach. That said, freezing cooked or partially cooked potatoes (typically parboiled) is a-OK, as much of the water content is extracted during the cooking process.
Cheese
There are ways to store all types of cheese that will keep them fresh for longer but the freezer isn’t one of them.
Pesky ice crystals form in frozen cheese, which completely changes its flavor and texture profile. This primarily applies to soft and moldy cheeses, though some hard varieties such as cheddar and jack can withstand the consistent blast of cold air if grated first and laid flat in a plastic storage bag.
Read more: Store Cheese Properly and You’ll Extend Its Life by Days, Even Weeks. Here’s How
Fried food
Unfortunetly, that leftover friend chicken can’t be frozen for later.
The best part of fried food is, of course, its crunchy breading. When placed in a freezer, this batter or crumb absorbs the appliance’s moisture and makes the food become soggy. Additionally, fried food is chock-full of — you guessed it — oil, which doesn’t freeze completely and can spoil before the meat or vegetable it has been cooked into. This can lead to foul-tasting meals but also an unfortunate and potentially dangerous bout of food poisoning.
Eggs
Eggs have a fairly long shelf life in the fridge so you shouldn’t need to freeze them.
If you enjoy your scrambled eggs rubbery, stick them in the freezer before preparation. This is due to a process called “gelation” where the yolk’s protein molecules clump and make the liquid harder. Egg content also expands when frozen, which causes whole eggs to crack and leak. Of course, avoiding eggs in the freezer means you must also avoid egg-based condiments, as well, such as mayonnaise, which get lumpy and unspreadable.
Salad-friendly fruits and vegetables
Leftover salad ingredients such as avocado, lettuce and cucumbers should never be frozen.
If it’s a fruit or vegetable and can go into a typical salad, it won’t hold up in the freezer. This includes any produce with high water content such as lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and celery. The beloved avocado will also not fare well in extremely low temperatures. As it thaws, it will immediately begin to brown. And nobody wants to dip their way through brown guacamole.
Citrus
Your best with an excess of citrus is to juice the fruit and freeze the juice for recipes and cocktails later on.
Some dense fruits such as berries and mango do well in the freezer, but citrus won’t hold form quite so well. Whole citrus fruit will become mealy after thawing it out. If you have an abundance of lemons, limes or oranges, your best bet is to juice them and freeze the juice for later.
Cooked pasta and rice
Leftover cooked rice and pasta can be frozen safely but they’ll lose much of their structure and toothsomeness upon reheating.
While you certainly *can* freeze cooked pasta and rice, it doesn’t mean that you *should*. The water content causes the cells in noodles and grains to literally burst, resulting in a pasty, gloopy leftover that can’t be salvaged with even the most delicious of sauces.
Bottled or canned beverages
We’ve all tried to quick-chill a beer or soda in the freezer before.
Who among us hasn’t tried to cheat time by chilling a lukewarm beer can or bottle, forgot about it and returned to find a frozen, bubbling disaster. If you’re going to use the freezer to chill canned or bottled beverages, you’d be wise to set a timer for 10 minutes so they don’t freeze solid and explode.
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