I really ought to start freezing milk! I find my milk consumption varies significantly, particularly since if I may bake something one weekend but not the next. So sometimes I have leftover milk – even if I buy the (expensive) 600mL carton!

Then I have the second carton/bottle at uni, which I regularly don’t finish! :(

I keep nuts in my freezer. I buy local walnuts in bulk when in season and freeze them in smaller bags, taking out what I need for baking/eating. It is a perfect way to store them and to make sure I can have the best of the local produce.

I store chillies too, in ziplock bags. They dont defrost very well, but can be thrown straight from the freezer into your dal or curry. Also the can still be made into wet curry pastes, direct from the freezer.

Most normal bread doughs will freeze well. I buy organic pizza dough in bulk and freeze it.

Milk was usual for me when my family was young. I could buy milk once per week and freeze it for later use.

Curry leaves and kaffir lime leaves freeze well.

I also freeze dals for those busy nights when all I can manage is to turn on the rice cooker, and heat a dal in the microwave.

And when I visit my daughter in Sydney I make big batches of everything, for her freezer. Once when she was in London, we made about 12 large tubs of Tomato Urad Dal – enough for one meal per month for a year. :) We had to borrow space in a friend’s freezer to fit it all. Her current fav frozen dish is the slow cooker black turtle bean stew.

Soups are another constant in winter in the freezer.

Love the idea about the kaffir lime leaves. I have some right now that need some attention. I’ll freeze them, thanks! The only things I keep in the freezer are bottle of gin and martini glasses. Oh, and some chicken stock for when I want to be responsible.

Thanks for that extra information on freezing bread dough Ganga – much appreciated.

And Kelly, I’m stunned by the idea of a freezer that’s empty apart from gin, martini glasses and chicken stock. Mine is absolutely crammed with all of the stuff above, plus leftover meals, cooked legumes, breadcrumbs, frozen peas . . .

Kathryn you are a genius – I’ve never thought to freeze houmous and yet it’s often a struggle to get it eaten before it goes off.

Our freezer is bursting with good homemade leftovers at the moment plus all kinds of random odds and ends (I can’t bear to throw away either). There’s something really reassuring about having a well stocked freezer!

I freeze unused half glasses of wine in plastic freezer bags, just for cooking. Roast chicken carcasses in a tupperware box, ready to make stock when I have rainy afternoon at home. Boxes of roast squash to make squash and lentil dahl. Lime leaves and lemongrass as they’re not always available when you want them.

Not unusual, but there is always a bag of frozen peas and some good quality, sustainably sourced prawns in there.

great stuff! love ganga’s idea about chillies and i’ve just started doing the wine thing sophie recco’s. there’s white fish in mine, too, to make fish cakes with.

cheese!! such good thinking – yeah, we do that too, i.e. rush through the cheddar just to get to the end of it.

have been freezing passata since the last ed. of AHK, too.

well, my freezer at the ’mo is mostly full of film…especially since i found a stash of my fave expired ones…but i think i can make room for some cheese and milk, as well.

(apologies for silly italics up there)

Sophie – wine of course. And so useful. The number of times I miss out the glass of wine from a recipe, because I don’t want to open a bottle. Aaand I’ve never thought to freeze roast squash – would have thought it too watery. Would also be useful for all those north american recipes which call for pumpkin puree.

And Lucy – you’re right, I also have a freezer full of little containers of passata, specifically to make that AHK pizza.

Oh yes and I fixed up the italics thing – it was continuing the silliness down all the comments!

Good topic! I do not know we can freeze milk!

I am not much of a freezer fan. I normally freeze only ingredients that can be used to cook quickly…

Stuff I freeze are chilli, lime leaves, curry leaves, pesto, chicken stock, cooked beans… Lemon grass is great too.

Anh, I have never thought to freeze lemongrass. Do you freeze the stems whole, or sliced up in some way?

I have all the things Kathryn mentions in my freezer at the moment, except bread dough! I only freeze mozzarella cheese because freezing changes the texture a bit – no problem for mozzarella but unpleasant with ricotta. Speaking of cheese, I’ve started freezing whey after cheesmaking – it is god’s gift to home-made bread.

Other things that are handy to have in the freezer are breadcrumbs and pre-made crumble topping (but don’t confuse it with the breadcrumbs!).

Having said that, following a recent twelve hour power outage, I bought a pressure canner and intend to can some things that I currently freeze – stock, pre-cooked legumes, tomatoes, some soups and so on. At least if the freezer goes we’ll still have a pantry-full, plus I’ll be expending energy once to preserve the items rather than continuously for as long as it’s in the freezer. With the way electricity costs are going up that’s becoming a consideration.

Parmesan cheese freezes brilliantly and thaws in a couple of minutes. In Adelaide we have a glut of cherries at Christmas time and a friend of mine said he freezes them. They freeze a treat, let them thaw slightly and they are a fruity, icy explosion in the mouth. Don’t leave them out too long as they deteriorate over the day.

Hiya, I’m new here. I keep milk, and grated cheese in my freezer. Also ham and other cooked meats. Pizza dough. Home grown chillies. Prune puree. And fresh herbs out of those packets you get at the supermarket that are always too large to get through. Oh, I currently have red thai curry paste in an ice cube tray.

Great tips here as I often need to rely on the contents of my freezer to get through the busy week. I alo freeze cooked rice to make a quick fried rice…no defrosting time required. Bananas also freeze well that are over ripe for a banana bread or smoothie fx.

My freezer used to be full of stock and yeast and dough and stew… What happened?? Reading this has made me realise how organised I used to be in terms of food preparation and how chaotic food/meals/life is right now.

My mom also told me about freezing milk. I have a litre in my freezer at the moment. And next to the milk – cheese, coffee, spices and walnuts.

I also have several tubs of frozen vegetable trimmings. I generate too much for my own small compost container so I freeze the excess and every month or so take it to my mom’s large compost bin.

I’m thrilled to hear limes, pesto, hummous and dahl freeze well. Never tried to freeze them before but certainly will now.

The suggestions just keep on getting better and better. Tracey – I also have breadcrumbs in my freezer, in fact I also have breadcrumb and herb mixtures I’ve made to turn into pangritata, but I’ve never thought to freeze crumble mixes. Brilliant.

And Trish your cherry experience sounds wonderful. I’ve frozen grapes before, but not because I’ve had a glut of them, simply because they’re fabulous!

Sarah – prune puree?!? Genius.

Anna – I also freeze bananas, but to turn them into ice-cream. It’s delicious.

Such great ideas! If I have quite a lot of veg, i’ll make a big batch of soffrito/mirepoix, then portion it up and freeze. It’s very easy to then grab one out for a quick soup – lentil, lemon and spinach soup in particular – or a pasta sauce, dahl etc. It saves a lot of time then on busy days. I finely chop 2-3 onions, carrots, half a bunch of celery and a few cloves of garlic (I use a food processor for speed) and sauté it all, then freeze.

Yet another great idea. De I have never thought to freeze soffrito, but love the idea. Gives you a real head-start on your cooking then doesn’t it. Thank you.

Such great ideas here! In my freezer (I did end up buying a freezer after reading Charlotte’s post on your blog) are chillies (from the garden), berries (from the markets), homemade stock, pesto and a lentil dip, flours, and Naturis buckwheat bread. I hope I don’t experience a power outage like Tracey…and freezing cheese – brilliant!

I have no idea why I haven’t frozen milk before. I’m not much f a milk drinker so I tend to buy it by the quart and that costs more per ounce than larger units do. I know milk freezes, because my parents will often freeze milk they have around when they go on vacation (either for the purpose of keeping it around for the week they’re gone so it is good when they return, or freezing it and putting it in an ice chest to take with them) and have never had trouble with that. I should start freezing milk.

I freeze sauces a lot, since I’m single and only cook for one or two, it allows me to save the rest for later.

I freeze high-fat stuff like nuts, unsalted butter, and whole wheat flour to prevent the oils from going rancid (I often have to take the flour out of my little freezer, though…

I read once that freezing regular flour for a day or two will kill off weevil eggs and prevent them from hatching out and getting into all your dry goods. Not sure if it is true but I do freeze my non-whole flours as well for a couple of days when I buy them on the off chance that this is true.

Oh, another thing I freeze often is bananas when they’ve gone totally brown and I don’t want to eat them. I’ll pop them in a ziplock bag and freeze them until I’m ready to make banana bread.

About freezers: If you have the space for it a chest-style freezer is good for storage. It has more space than the over/under the fridge type, and if the power goes out it will stay cold longer and will save a bit of power when it is on. When you open a side-opening freezer all the cold air goes out and the freezer has to regenerate it. If the power is out then the cold air only regenerates through heat exchange from the food in the freezer. With a chest style freezer the cold air stays in the freezer when you open it and the warm air (which rises) stays out.

A trick I learned a while ago: If you go on vacation for an extended time you can leave a cup of ice cubes in the freezer. If, when you return, you have a solid block of ice then you know your power was out long enough for your freezer to defrost and you should probably toss out any perishable items.

Hi kathryn, I puree them normally. The fat ends I mean.
i also collected all the leafy ends as well, and throw them in soup/stew and remove them before serving. No waste!

^ the above comment is about freezing lemongrass.

Cooked brown rice. Little hot red Thai chilis, cooked bacon, sauteed shiitakes, shredded cheese, tomato paste and the sauces I make using it. Uncooked shrimp. Wheat germ. I tried avocados once, didn’t work well, neither did hummous. Pesto, herbed butter, other flavor things I make.

I freeze berries, overripe bananas, dried chiles, flaxseed meal, chia seeds, nuts, brown rice, wheat flour, ginger root, and sandwich bread because it takes me a long time to eat a loaf.