To think batch cooking is awful

Batch Lady has some good tips, I will always make extras of the meat sauce parts of cottage pie, lasagne and mince stew/beef stew, chille and soups. Then I only need to prep the spuds or put the lasagne together in half the time.
I have also been known to freeze fish pie sauce or chickpea curry,
I tend to use good quality freezer bags and freeze flat to save space and to defrost quicker.

I've heard a youtube recipe developer say you need to taste after cooking and adjust herbs and spices because some go quite flat cooking them in slow/pressure cooker. I don't use either so I don't know if this solution would work.

I don't find batch cooking frozen food tastes like freezer but it does change the texture of some food. I only batch cook limited things because I don't like the texture of a lot of vegetables when they have been frozen.

A lot of offal, eg lambs heart or kidneys, say 'do not freeze' probably because it's been frozen before but it doesn't seem to come to, or do, any harm if you disregard the advice.

Since I learned the trick of taking the lid off the slow cooker for the last hour of cooking it’s been a game changer. It thickens up the sauce so it is similar to the hob

I also throw a spoonful of cornflour in near the end to which thickens sauces up

I can confirm that my lasagne I ate for lunch that I cooked, froze, defrosted and reheated was not sloppy. Well no more sloppy than it was when I made it because I went a bit OTT on the sauce.

I do struggle with slow cooker foods though, all of mine taste horrible. I can slow cook a bolognese in the slow cooker in the exact same way as the hob and it's much nicer on the hob. Not sure what I'm doing wrong!

I know exactly what you mean OP. I will eat a frozen meal but preference would be not. I am ND. Maybe there's something in that with regard to sensitivity as pp have said.

Some meals taste better after freezing. Things like casseroles always taste better the next day after the flavours have developed and IMO freezing can give the same results because you're reheating food.

I don't agree that vegetables don't freeze well. Sure, they may appear a bit less firm, but the actual difference in carrots, parsnips, onions, etc in a casserole is minimal. Some don't freeze well but you get to know which- mushrooms, cauliflower, green beans, all go too soggy, but IME peppers, squash, sweet potato (in veg curries ) are fine.

Interestingly very few posters are focusing on fuel costs. If you're using meat for casseroles, it needs a good 2+ hrs or more at a low temp to make it tender. It saves a lot of gas/ electric to do this once rather than twice.

Nonsense. Doesn’t take any time at all. Use the slow cooker for one thing, takes less than five mins to prep and get that going and come back to switch it off in 8 hours

When cooking a regular meal then stick an extra couple of chicken breasts (or whatever your preference is) and you have batched without even knowing you have done it

Or use the roast function on the air fryer. By the time you take a shower or have your breakfast it’s done, again with minimal effort

I would rather take a small amount of time on a Sunday to batch cook than waste precious evening time after work standing over the stove, using your words I have better things to do

Agree, I try to research as much as possible and would never buy supermarket baguettes etc.

A bigger pan perhaps? I double up on cooking for 5 regularly and don't find pan space restrictive.

If it's tasting of freezer then you're either leaving it in there way too long, or you're not storing it properly.
I don't do a 'batch cook' but I'll regularly make a big pan of soup or a large lasagne or a curry. I'll then freeze several portions of it as I don't want to eat chicken soup for 7 days on the trot. Cooking a large lasagne or a big pot of soup is not much more effort than cooking a small amount so it's a no brainer.
However, the food never tastes of freezer. I typically use frozen leftovers within about 6 to 8 weeks.

This is not true- some meat and fish products are previously frozen but certainly not all and definitely not from a traditional butcher.

I would like to batch cook but cooking for 5 every day means a batch cook has to be for 10. No matter what way I do it it means using the pan multiple times and takes twice as long to cook, eliminating any time saved. The only saving is wash up. If I was cooking for 2 or 1 I would absolutely do it.

I do freeze some stuff but mushy vegetables are my worst thing so never freeze anything with vegetables.

Can't afford a freezer. But can batch cook by having leftovers if more is made. So mince will be split and cooked separately. Or big batch cooked then eaten over few days via:pie,spaghetti b, in a tortilla layer cake etc. Or a stee will be had twice perhaps 2nd night with different side so jacket and then rice.
I have people I work with where it wpuld become another mental load rather than a help. So they'd have more mental pressure going over the list of what's in there, to use when. To the point I've had them actively going to look, everyday to see what's where and when to use it.
So each to their own.

But can we choose another harmless topic or item please. To see how a differing crowd can argue so much over it?

People need to read what they buy. Supermarket legs of lamb, beef etc have already been frozen and a lot of the stuff from butchers have. Some of 'the change in flavour' will be psychological.

But if you’re making something that does take ages, then surely it makes sense to batch cook it? I batch cook chilli, beef stews, pasta tomato sauce and soups. I portion it into freezer bags and lay them flat to freeze. Then they stack really well in the door compartments. Batch cooking also saves on energy bills.

I think texture after freezing has been mentioned, and I agree about that, which is probalby why curries, stews, bolognese sauce, etc are better to eat after having been frozen than other things. I think it's noticeable, and also, the longer I've left something in the freezer, the less good it tastes when I take it out to use it. But I don't "batch cook" as such, I just maybe cook twice the amount necessary for one meal and freeze the second half as I don't like eating the same thing two days running and I tend to forget things left at the back of the fridge (Alzheimer's Lite) until I find they've gone off a week later.

My DD has two children, who like completely different foods, both have additional needs. I'm her childcare. It's easier all round if my DD cooks two extra portions of chicken curry, scouse and bolognese, freeze it and I use it for the one who likes proper meals. My eldest will do a extra roast dinner and send it up, I serve that on a Monday. You just make it extra thick to freeze and use it within a couple of weeks, then there's no taste change. You do what suits your family/work/childcare set up.

As per freezing 'carbs' it changes composition/quality.

Some people prefer fresh food, not manky thawed out batch food slop.

If my food came out of the freezer as slop I wouldn’t do it but it’s entirely possible if you’re a good cook to know what will freeze well and what won’t, and to prepare food that comes out of the freezer well. It’s miles better than using UPF on busy days and considerably cheaper for people who don’t have an unlimited budget, not to mention saving on food waste.

When you deride a whole way of doing things then yes, people who do that thing are going to be defensive about it.

There was a thread similar to this the other day on 'what's the point of a slow cooker'
The answer is the same, if you are comparing batch cooked food to a freshly prepared home cooked balanced meal every night them it might not be as perfect.
But for most of us it is an alternative to eating ready meals (and they are way more shit than even the worst freezer meal I've made), highly processed crap, or takeaways. And I definitely eat better and healthier meals if I meal prep and batch cook. Last minute stress meals tend to be light on vegetables!
I usually prefer to freeze component parts, eg not a full plate with meat and veg sjd thaw it all together, but some elements work well frozen. So freeze chilli but coon fresh potatoes/rice. Freezer spaghetti bol with fresh pasta.
Chuck sausages in the oven and have them with home made frozen mash (ooh, havnt done a mash freeze for ages, really must!) And freezer braised cabbage.

I don't have strong feelings about what anyone else does, if it doesn't suit your lifestyle then don't do it. But making comments like 'it's all mushy slop and some of us have taste' is pretty shitty and narrow minded.
And sneering and calling it leftovers is rude. Leftovers is something left on a plate, or the last portion of something left in the dish. Making a meal ahead of time is not eating leftovers.

Have you defrosted your freezer lately?

I no longer have a freezer in the garage big enough to hide a dead body so now it’s double portions or leftovers that go into my 3-drawer freezer.

But when I did batch cook it was a parallel activity to a stay at home day (kids off school, waiting for a repair/delivery/meter reading etc). I would make all the mince-based dishes and even freeze individually wrapped slices of sponge cake which had no ill effects. My home cooking is mostly hands-off and not an all-consuming task.

You know the smell of the cardboard boxes fish fingers come in? IME that smell can transfer to food and give a “freezer taste”.