Freezing Vegetables - Freeze only fresh high- quality vegetables picked when barely mature. For best results, freeze no more than 2 to 3 hours after picking. Wash in cold water, sort and cut into appropriate srz’es. Blanch or scald. Pack in recom- mended container and freeze
Do not freeze lettuce, celery. carrot sticks. pota- toes or fresh tomatoes. All WII! become limp or mushy. Tomatoes WIII collapse when thawed
Freezing Meats -The meat you thaw can only be as good as the meat you freeze “Drugstore”
wrap In meal-size packages Flat cuts or patttes should be wrapped indrvidually or in layers sepa- rated by a double thrckness of freezer wrap.
Make sure store wrappings are moisture and va- por proof. If not, re-wrap meats with one of the wraps recommended under “Packaging”
Freezing Cooked Food-Prepare cooked foods as you would for the table; shorten cooklng time10 to 15 minutes to allow for additional cooking during reheating Omit seasonings and part of the Irqurd. Plan to add them at reheating time. Pota- toes should also. be added to soup and stew at heating time Add crumb and cheese topptngs at heating trme.
Cool as rapidly as possrble and freeze at once. Liquid or semr-liquid dishes may be frozen In rec-
ommended containers with head-spaceCasser- oles and other more solid foods may be frozen in the baking container. If you don’t want to leave your casserole dish in the freezer, line it with forl. Bake, cool, freeze, lift out the for package, bag it and return to freezer.
Freezing Baked Goods -Wrap baked breads In recommended material. Thaw In wrapping. Un- baked yeast breads can be frozen after the ftrst ristng. Punch down, wrap and freeze
Bake cookies as usual. Cool and freeze on trays.
then pack in recommended freezer bags or car- tons. Unbaked cookres may be dropped, molded or rolled and frozen on cookre trays Store in bag or carton, bake without thawrng. Refrigerator-type cookres can be wrapped and frozen in roll form. Thaw only enough to slice when ready to bake.
Fruit pies are best frozen unbaked. Bake without thawrng. Bake pecan and srmrlar pies before freezing ..rrch fillings do not freeze solid. Cut steam vents in top crusts when ready to bake
