Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

@ DAFOXFL - In my research I've read and heard plenty of stories of grandmas canning everything in a water bath, or not canning at all - just heating the food up, screwing the lid and rings on tight, and hoping for a good seal. Many people say they never had problems, but I follow the new guidelines which say that low acid foods (corn and beans) require 240 F which can only be reached by creating steam under pressure. Better safe than sorry.

LABEL & DATE ! LABEL & DATE ! LABEL & DATE ! I can't stress it enough. I learned my lesson after too many tossed mystery packages! You may think as I did 'oh, I can tell what it is just by looking and/or feeling, but much to my surprise time and time again freezing does something to the visual and tactile senses percieption so I open it up and smell it then taste it and so on freezing temp's mute flavors and smells. Duh to my surprise is it a marinara, a hearty tomato base stew, chili w/ tomatos or just plain tomato sauce and so on. I reiterate, LABEL & DATE ! LABEL & DATE ! LABEL & DATE ! the rest is up to you great post thanks.

Freezing is such a quick, easy, time saving, and inexpensive way to enjoy the fruits of your labor [no pun intended] in the middle of winter, or anytime you want to take advantage of good price deals. I have pick-your-own peaches & sour cherries in my freezer now, for midwinter pies & cobblers. Also have sweet peppers that I got @ a steal from our local farmers market. It seems I never have peppers on hand unless I'm making sutffed peppers. They're an ingredient in so many recipes, and this way I always have them available. The other really nice feature of freezing is that you can do it in a few minutes on a daily basis, as opposed to all the equipment you need to drag out for canning, & having to wait for a huge amount of edibles to work with make it worthwhile. I grow Roma tomatoes, and currently have about 8 Ziploc quarts in the freezer, from just a single plant [I have 2 plants]. I just rinse them, quarter, put in the vacuum Ziploc bags and that's it. I don't bother peeling.....skins are good for you, but like Lemonfair said, they come off easily when thawed. I will try her suggestion of just cutting in half with my next daily harvesting. I don't core them or take any juice/seeds out however........ they are all natural/organic and edible parts!
I will add for the novice freezeperson, as Tressa stated.........DO MAKE SURE YOU LABEL........you won't remember exactly what you did in January. Also, with fruits, you will want to jot down the NUMBER OF CUPS and whether you added SUGAR or not. I try to freeze the amounts used for my average pie or cobbler recipe, it makes it a whole lot easier.
I hope a lot of people get inspired.........it's a way to "put up".

What a wonderful and informative post! Taking air out with a straw!!! You ought to get a Nobel prize for that. I saw on TV they have a little air-withdrawer (or whatever you call such a thing) like a large pen.

I've been freezing pesto for years and it's great. Ditto anything home made (like tomato sauce) in small quantities. Never thought of muffin tins, I use ice cube trays. Lately I'm hooked on Thai food, and so when I open a can of coconut milk (be sure to shake it beforehand), I immediately freeze in ice cube trays all but what's needed for dish I'm making then, because I cook for just me.

Awesome post... I feel so inspired!

Thanks!

I've been freezing lots of stock, sauces, beans, tomatoes, etc. since reading Mark Bittman's article on freezing foods (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/06/dining/06mini.html). I tend to fill recycled glass containers with my goods, but a few have cracked. Now I make sure I cool the foods completely in the fridge before transferring them to the freezer, and I leave at least a half inch space in the jar--which has prevented cracking thus far.

Great pictures.

Tomatoes also do not need to be blanched. If you're cooking down sauce, you've done that anyway, but tomatoes can just be put into the freezer. I freeze in bags or jars, only removing the cores (maybe cut in half and remove some seeds and jelly). I don't try to keep them whole, but squish them together to help eliminate air/freezer burn. No need to peel, either, as the peel will come off in sheets when it's thawed. I don't know if this is the optimal way to freeze tomatoes, but it sure is the easiest. You can freeze just a couple of tomatoes if you want. 30 seconds. no fuss. Best of all, although they will be very watery when they've thawed, they'll still taste absolutely fresh.

The exception to squishing the tomatoes together is cherries (there's nothing like sun golds mid-winter. In fact, there's nothing like sun golds mid-summer). I freeze them IQF (if they're dry they'll freeze separately in a bag without having to tray them) so I can put a few into a salad, where the texture won't be wonderful, but they'll bring a great taste. You want to leave the skin intact so it contains the interior, and you don't want them to thaw completely before they're eaten.

Hot peppers are terrific to freeze, since you can just take a pepper out, take a few slices from the bottom, and put the pepper back in. No need to thaw or use the whole pepper.

When I freeze in glass jars I use the wide-mouth jars, and if you're buying to freeze these are the ones to buy. You minimize the possibility that freezing liquids will break the jar, as they might if they're forcing their way into the narrower neck of a standard jar if you've misjudged the space you need to leave. Broken glass in the freezer is no fun.

If you've got one, a spaghetti cooker is a great help in blanching veggies, as you can lift all the veggies out at once to get them in the ice bath. At least up north you can use a sink full of cold tap water rather than dealing with ice to cool your blanched veg. Don't try to blanch a whole lot at once. You want every piece of vegetable to have full content with a lot of boiling water. I typically blanch about a pound at once.

i've started to freeze brussel sprouts, cooked sweet potatoes, berries, cut cantaloupes, and even dim sum, :)

@Michele Humes, you are just as incorrect as gschaefer.

o raise the boiling point of one liter (34 ounces) of water by 1°C (1.8°F) requires about 58 grams (2 ounces) of salt.

Thank you all for entering, and congrats to our winners!

drunkenchef
icanhascheezburger
Carioca
stewmeat
burgerluver

Winners have been contacted through email with more info on how to claim their books.

too many to choose from but, blue cheese, bacon, caramelized red onions are a perfect start

has to be a tie between goat cheese + homemade guac + roasted red peppers OR raclette cheese and caramelized onions! mmmm.

Grilled onion and jalapenos, avocado, and mayo