To think batch cooking is awful

I know what you mean OP. I can taste the freezer taste and whatever container it’s been stored in, and the washing up liquid or dishwasher tablet that’s been used to wash the container too. It’s faint but in completely ruins that taste for me. Also, I find anything reheated that contains chicken or turkey completely inedible as the flavour of the meat changes to a horrible rotting flavour for me. My dad experiences this too and I googled it and apparently you only some people can taste this in reheated poultry and to others it tastes exactly the same. I wish I couldn’t taste the weirdness in batch cooked food because it would save me time and effort. I don’t mind leftover spag bol or beef stew though, as long as they’ve been kept in the fridge in a glass or china dish so that the flavour of a plastic container doesn’t transfer.

My mum used to dish up food, I think it's the same but less fancy 🤣

I haven't got enough freezer room to do this either if I want other stuff in there and nowhere to put an extra freezer - as garage is converted - it's a rented house too (although lovely) so can't go round changing the fridge freezer which is fine but not amazing

I totally understand why people do it, personally I prefer fresh food and I don't think food that has been frozen and defrosted tastes as good. That said, if I went to a friend's house for dinner and they gave me something from the freezer and I didn't know I probably wouldn't notice the difference. I have emetophobia so that plays into it a lot I think.

I wondered the same. I do batch cooking and while some recipes are better than others for reheating, I wouldn't even know what a freezer tastes like, nor do I want to find out.

Also the way I do batch cooking doesn't take addition time to normal cooking. I cook for the evening meal and simply make multiple portions. I eat one and freeze the rest, so that I can save time on workdays when I am too tired to cook.

I am a single mum with a high pressure job. Is “batch cook babe” really a decent description?

i would love to cook healthy meals from scratch every day. But cooking on a budget (single mum who rarely gets maintenance but has high costs) while also staying healthy and getting time to unwind means something has to give.

If whenever I cook I make 3 meals then that saves me hours through the week.

generous use of herbs and spices and picking recipes that have rich flavour of their own is essential.

Plating up is a fairly recently emerging phrase meaning “serving food” - i.e. putting food on a plate. I wince every time I read it. Never heard it in real life!

Money has to do with people who budget. Meal prepping is 100% encouraged as a way to save money

Yes you could cook from scratch every night "just as cheaply" but that's not the case for everybody at all times alot of people who meal prep do so as apart of their budgeting

“plating up”.

what is this?

I cooked recipes for 4 people during October and feed 2 people, some times I would freeze the left overs - cottage pie, bolognaise, beef casserole, chicken casserole, that type of meal and then during December I ate these meals - was about 10-12 meals from the freezer. To me its not any different from eating a ready meal. Doesn't take any extra time, as id be cooking anyway and saves me time and money when im on my own needing to eat.

In say that though, I don't think food that has been frozen for 2 months taste of a freezer, I don't worry about eating frozen meat.

What I did find was that with some of the casseroles they tasted better than the first time and the flavours seemed to have more depth.

There's only DH and I here so we tend to cook enough of something for 4 then eat 2 portions on the day and freeze 2. We're teachers so I also batch cook stuff in the holidays to eat during term time. I don't find it tastes of freezer. We find it a good way of having something healthy to eat on busier days rather than having ready meals or takeaway although we do often do omelette, salads or jacket potatoes on busy days too.

Start as you mean to go on, I guess.

I’ve never seen the appeal of batch cooking, partly as it seems a bit boring to have exactly the same thing twice - and it’s easy enough to knock together a freshly cooked meal in half an hour (or something that’s maybe half an hour’s work and then can be left to cook itself).

Also, I don’t know where we’d fit it - and that’s with 2 upright freezers. They’re full of things like fruit, either from the garden or foraged, or homemade stock. Plus odd bits of bargain meat or fish/seafood. And peas and ice cream and the like.

It’s probably unfair but I always put batch cooking as a term in the same box as “plating up”.

I’ve just read the thread and I too can taste dish washer, silicone etc as well as glass. How odd.

If some people don’t like food that’s been frozen and reheated fair enough but using phrasing that makes it sound like it’s a disgusting thing to do is just needlessly unpleasant.

I agree. The texture is not the same.

Have a look at the Batch Lady on Instagram. Her way doesn’t cook the food before it’s frozen, instead your assembling food to then defrost and traybake etc. It’s changed my view on batch freezing although I still cook and freeze soups, bolognaise, chilli and ratatouille.

I love cooking, absolutely adore it but I can’t stand batch cooked food. I do it, for ease for my DH and dd to have Healthy means when I’m not home but I myself can’t eat left overs. They never ever taste as good as when they are fresh and piping hot. I feel queasy thinking about eating left over/reheated food even though I know 100% that is safe and been stored correctly as I used to run a commercial kitchen and my fit safety and hygiene is shot hot.

For me specifically I assume it’s related to my neurodivergence. I can’t drink from green glass bottles either as I can taste the glass 🤷🏼‍♀️😂. I have a very sensitive nose I guess I’d be classed as a super taster as I can literally pick out the most subtle flavours and ingredients when other people are like 🤨

Why?

I don't see the difference? I don't do batch sessions, just extra portions of what I am cooking anyway....and I have no idea what tasting of freezer means unless the cook isn't freezing stuff properly or is storing it for too long.

I hate batch cooking. Tbh I hate cooking full stop but batch cooking drives me insane. However I do it because of much reduced income and I would rather batch cook than give up other things. Everyone seems quite impressed when I whip something out of the freezer but I would much rather Marks and Spencer's had done the work for me.

See this is what I always assumed batch cooking was!

I got confused when people start complaining what a faff it is/how much planning it takes, or talking about taking whole weekends to batch cook multiple recipes, or differentiate between 'leftovers fine, batch cooking nope' as @jeaux90 has...

Perhaps it's because I started when I lived alone and most quantities (meat for example) are too large for 1 person anyway, so once I'd made a lasagne/curry/soup etc my choices were :
a) chuck 3/4 of it away (wasteful)
b) eat the same meal for 4 days in a row (fine but gets a bit boring)
c) eat the meal, take some for lunch the next day and freeze the rest

as a pp said, a no-brainer to me, and I've carried it on with a family. Essentially batch cooking to me = cooking a larger quantity of the meal you are making anyway, thus saving the need to make it twice, so of course it saves time and effort (and usually money as larger quantities are usually cheaper, you can buy things on offer or reduced to freeze)

Exactly this, and yes coriander is the devil's soapy herb for me

thats down to genetics https://www.news-medical.net/health/The-Genetics-of-Corianders-Soapy-Taste.aspx#:~:text=The%20reason%20behind%20the%20divisive,is%20still%20being%20researched%20upon.

so possibly freezer food tasting of freezer is also something in your genetic make up - so don't batch cook.

for many of us though coriander taste delicious as do slow cooking meals

Ok 😅 I do that too.

😂 Sorry-should have clarified-just the sauce-not the spaghetti!!!