Give thank you to your freezer, particularly in summer time. From ice cubes to ice cream, Popsicles to frozen pizza, pieces saved on this sensible equipment save you house owners from dropping their cool.

“You’ll be able to freeze the rest,” says Lizann Powers-Hammond, a meals preservation skilled at Washington State College Extension. “It’s now not a security factor.”

Nonetheless, now not the whole thing must be saved for your freezer.

Thawed-out meals won’t make you ill, however some meals don’t defrost in an appetizing means, Powers-Hammond tells Cash Talks Information.

The next are pieces that she says are at an advantage unfrozen, or that a minimum of require some technology when freezing.

1. Milk supposed for ingesting

This will likely wonder you, however you’ll be able to freeze milk for as much as a month. On the other hand, the result’s best possible used for cooking, now not for ingesting. That’s since the fats separates from the remainder of the milk when frozen.

In a similar way, cream-based sauces and gravies can clump and thaw in tactics you won’t revel in, Powers-Hammond says.

When you don’t have room for milk for your refrigerator or freezer, believe purchasing powdered milk and making it in small batches as wanted. Powdered milk is a stockpile-friendly choice, as we element in “15 Sorts of Groceries That Can Stay for Years.”

2. Leafy vegetables

All of us must most likely devour extra leafy vegetables, comparable to lettuce and endive. However don’t take a look at freezing them.

The prime moisture content material that makes them so crisp and scrumptious when contemporary turns them soggy and limp when thawed.

3. Salad greens

Talking of lettuce, the uncooked veggies that liven up tasty salads — comparable to cucumbers, tomato, celery and radishes — aren’t freezer-friendly, both.

When you will have to freeze those, Powers-Hammond recommends first blanching them via immersing them in short in boiling water. This information to freezing meals contains directions for blanching.

However, for a fast and simple means to make use of up salad greens, take a look at “This Selfmade Meal Is Affordable, Wholesome and Calls for No Cooking.”

4. Russet potatoes

Know your potato earlier than popping it into the freezer. The preferred russet, so great and fluffy when ready contemporary, has a tendency to show mealy when frozen. When freezing a stew, as an example, be ready for the potatoes to lose their form.

Easiest for freezing are the waxy little crimson potatoes. However even the ones must be blanched earlier than freezing.

5. Fried meals

It’s exhausting to overcome a just right, crisp dish of french fries, served sizzling with salt and ketchup.

However don’t freeze your leftover fries. They get soggy after they’ve been frozen after which thawed.

6. Cooked pasta

For best possible style and texture, freeze home made pasta and the comfortable, contemporary pastas discovered within the refrigerated house of a grocery retailer best earlier than — and now not after — cooking.

Pasta this is totally cooked can flip comfortable and comfortable when it’s reheated, handing over an unappealing “warmed-over” style, Powers-Hammond says.

Right here’s a tip: When you’ll be making additional lasagna or different pasta dishes to freeze, undercook the pasta. Purpose for a vintage “al dente” (moderately company) texture.

7. Mayonnaise and mayo-based dressings

Mayo and mayonnaise-based dressings “get kinda gross” with freezing, Powers-Hammond says.

Mayo received’t pop out of the freezer the similar means it went in. It’s an emulsion — a mix of substances (oil, egg yolks and lemon juice or vinegar, on this case) that don’t usually combine simply. The emulsion has a tendency to split when thawed.

That rule holds two times for potato salad, since potatoes, eggs and mayonnaise all are freezer-unfriendly. It’s now not that frozen potato salad is unsafe. It simply received’t be very yummy or interesting.

8. Arduous cheeses in block or wedge shape

You can freeze exhausting cheeses, comparable to elderly cheddar. Simply don’t depend on the usage of it later in a tray of sliced cheeses.

Freezing exhausting cheese makes it crumbly. Ahead of freezing, plan the way you’ll use it. Crumbly frozen cheese will also be nice in a recipe.

Powers-Hammond recommends grating a block or wedge of exhausting cheese earlier than freezing.

9. Cream or custard fillings and puddings

Ah, candy custard and cream fillings, so exhausting to withstand. However do face up to freezing them.

“Custards generally tend to weep,” Powers-Hammond cautions. “The water squeezes out of them.”

And don’t depart frosted cake within the freezer very lengthy for a similar explanation why. Possibly it’s time to reconsider the custom of saving a slice of wedding ceremony cake to your first anniversary.

Watch the seasonings

Right here’s an added tip: When you’re creating a highly spiced dish to freeze, move simple at the seasonings. Some seasonings develop into more potent within the freezer.

Powers-Hammond says that once she made two pans of enchiladas, serving one for dinner and freezing the second one, the freezing dialed up the warmth of the spices within the frozen dish such a lot that her partner couldn’t consider the 2 dishes had been from the similar batch.

“Season frivolously earlier than freezing,” she concludes.