How do I batch cook for the freezer properly?

Batch cooking succeeds or fails at the storage stage. Food frozen in one large unlabelled container gets thawed reluctantly and eventually thrown away; portioned, labelled, flat-frozen food actually gets eaten.

Safety

What you'll need

• Freezer bags or containers
• Marker pen
• Baking tray (optional)

Step by step

1. Choose things that freeze well.Stews, curries, chilli, bolognese, soups, cooked pulses, stock, bread dough. They are all as good or better after freezing.
2. Avoid freezing the things that do not.Cooked pasta and potatoes go grainy, cream and yoghurt split, salad and raw vegetables collapse, fried food goes soft. Freeze the base and add these fresh.
3. Cool it quickly before freezing.Within two hours, and within one for rice. Spread it out, or stand the pan in cold water. Hot food in a freezer also warms everything around it.
4. Portion before freezing, not after.Single or double portions. A large block has to be thawed entirely, which is why big containers stay in the freezer for years.
5. Freeze flat in bags where possible.Flat packs stack efficiently and thaw in a fraction of the time a block takes. It is the single most useful freezing habit.
6. Label everything with contents and date.Frozen food is unrecognisable within a month. Unlabelled containers are what makes freezers fill with things nobody will eat.
7. Keep a list on the freezer door.What is in there and roughly how much. It turns the freezer from a mystery into a resource you actually use.
8. Rotate — use the oldest first.Most cooked dishes are best within three months. Putting new items at the back keeps the rotation working.

Tips

• Freeze in the shape you will use. Soup in a flat bag, sauce in a tub, stock in ice cube trays for small quantities.
• Leave headspace in containers. Liquids expand when frozen and a full sealed container splits.
• Defrost in the fridge overnight rather than at room temperature. Plan the night before rather than at six o'clock.

Common mistakes

• Freezing in one large container — It must be thawed entirely to use any of it, which is why large blocks stay in the freezer indefinitely.
• Not labelling — Everything looks identical when frozen. Unlabelled containers accumulate and are eventually discarded.
• Putting hot food straight into the freezer — It cools slowly, which is a food safety risk, and it warms everything around it. Cool it quickly first.

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