Cheese rinds, heels of bread, onion trimmings, celery leaves, ....

[Seafog]

What's in your freezer for stock? Am I the only one saving all the bits?
Sometimes I feel like a weirdo saving all the trimmings, but I use them up with sauces and stocks.
Is it just me?

Has anyone made the feisty tapas veg stock paste? Vegetable scraps, salt, turmeric, garlic, blitzed into a paste, cooked at some point (can't remember when), keeps a couple of months in the fridge or in indefinitely in cubes in the freezer.

Areas where I could cut down on waste are lemons and limes that sit too long in the fridge. But I throw out very little generally and all the bits end up in my chest freezer.

One thing that is useful is that bagged salad can go in the freezer and get used in the same way as spinach in curries etc. I've never noticed any difference in taste.

@silentpool lemons and limes do hang around and dry out. Now I slice/quarter and freeze them as soon as I get them, unless I've something else in mind. Just get out the slice I need.

“Fermenting the scraps makes good vinegar.“
Can you elaborate on this please @picklemewalnuts ?

@halfsiesonapotnoodle

I think boiling up stock from these bits is a false economy. The lengthy heat you need for a chicken carcass etc will cost far more than buying a cube or using bouillon powder. That's why I just don't bother.

But it doesn't need anything additional. It just goes in the oven when something else is cooking. Or in the sloco.

We keep every on your list plus soft tomatoes and peppers for soup.

Onion skins and rooty bits to put under a roast - the skin turns the juices a nice gravy brown.

Overripe bananas for banana bread.

Bread for breadcrumbs. I manage to forget them for long enough to make a couple of tarts. Always have stuffing balls for Sunday.

If we have mozzarella, feta, any cheese really, we keep that too. It all goes well with Mediterranean veg or in a moussaka or lasagne.

I keep leftover Sunday lunch meat and chop it up small for chilli or Bolognese.

We have one deep drawer that we put all our odds and ends in. There are only the two of us, so we often save half a something. It means we can usually eat out of the freezer or finish a meal out of it.

For example tonight we are having tacos. I have bought guacamole, salsa, sour cream, spring onions, lettuce and cherry tomatoes. We have taco shells double bagged in the biscuit box (also keeps ginger baskets and ice cream wafers well for ages), half a tin of refried beans and taco beef in the freezer.

The leftover salad and salsa stuff will keep until Monday, when I'll make quesadillas, with the tortillas that are in the freezer.

Thinking about it I also have one more portion of chocolate brownie in there. We can have that, warmed through, with ice cream and some soft fruit. A whole pudding from the freezer without having to think about it.

And rhubarb. I always have rhubarb, often given by people with a plant that is too big for them. Stewed down in orange juice, no added sugar, it goes well in sweet or savoury dishes. I freeze it flat so I can snap bits off. Defrosted and stirred through yoghurt 🙂.

There is probably more, but I'll sound like a prepper!!

Oh yes! Herbs. All sorts of herbs. Thyme is so much easier to get off the stalk when it is frozen. And ginger root. Some of it sliced and kept in a separate bag, along with lime peel for

I used to do this but the resulting stock was always underwhelming. Clearly I did it wrong...

@halfsiesonapotnoodle

I think boiling up stock from these bits is a false economy. The lengthy heat you need for a chicken carcass etc will cost far more than buying a cube or using bouillon powder. That's why I just don't bother.

Absolutely agree. The poster who is freezing potato peelings.... I honestly think that the energy cost of the freezer combined with the energy cost of boiling the stock must outweigh the cost of a stock cube.

It's not the money but taste. Stock cubes have their place, a small one, mind, in some dishes - but as salt substitute, not as broth. Home made chicken bouillon is glorious thing to enjoy 🤓

Cheese rind? I only ever buy cheddar in a block so have never had a cheese rind in my life!!

I get fewer now Tesco sells good enough parmesan in rectangles not triangles. The top of the wedge is/was the rind.

If we go posh and get Waitrose or cheese shop parmesan we make a big point of saving the rind.

I don't tend to keep old manky food. Just buy stock cubes!

Most of our veg peelings and ends get fed to our guinea pigs so aren't wasted :)
Bread can be whizzed up to breadcrumbs and frozen but I don't do it every time as we don't use breadcrumbs that often so don't need a freezer full!

Make sure you label your frozen lemon juice. I got it mixed up with frozen egg white once…
I make chicken stock in the pressure cooker with a whole chicken and fresh ingredients (onion, garlic, carrots, thyme, white wine, rosemary, Maggi stock cube).
I’m about to do that now so we can have tortellini in clear chicken broth tomorrow and skimming the cooled stuff is fundamental. Then we’ll have the boiled chicken for dinner tonight with Modena-style mustard candied fruits for DH and Dijon for me. Or sandwiches.

I buy frozen minestrone mix and add any sad looking veg bits to that. The only thing I consciously save for soup is peeled broccoli stalks

Heels of parmesan go into the freezer for when I make minestrone.

We don’t often have stale bread as I freeze portions on the day it’s bought. 30 seconds in the microwave is enough to bring it back to life.
Unsliced loaves.
Breadcrumbs are made from little packets of crackers, crushed with a rolling pin. I buy those for lunch boxes.

I intentionally let bread go dry for panzanella.
Good stuff.

Bread ends- bread crumbs
Chicken carcass- stock for ramen
Veg on the turn- soup
Parmesan ends- risotto
Veg peelings- compost
Manky bananas- smoothies
Ditto for avocados

Detest food waste. Also hate packaging waste so we are a staunch RRR house here and have had my wheelie bin emptied once this year so far.

I do all that. I never waste anything.

Potatoes going sprouty - parboil, roll in oil and freeze to roast later.
Veg bits - soup or add to stew or freeze.
Chicken carcase - make stock in the slow cooker.
Bread - bread pudding or freeze the crumbs.

I love the crust on bread. It's not going in the freezer for crumbs, I'm having it now.

I like broccoli and cauliflower in regular suppers but dislike eating big lumps of stalk so all the stalks so those get sliced up along with any leafy bits and popped into the freezer. I also like making butternut squash paté and the rind doesn't mash well despite being perfectly edible so I whack off the rind and put the strips in the freezer then too. When I have too much freezer space full of bits of broccoli & cauliflower stalk and butternut squash rind, my go-to soup recipe is to fry up a couple of onions, bung in all the bits from the freezer with a cubed medium/largeish potato, a cupful of red lentils, a kettleful of water and a stock cube with plenty of seasoning/spices/herbs. Boil it all up for 20 minutes then liquidise.

Chicken soup can't be made with a stock cube.

@BigCheeseSandwich Google fruit scrap vinegar.

Basically almost fill a big jar with apple or pineapple peel and cores. Top up with water and a tbs sugar. Pop a clean pebble or weight in- or the mesh lid that comes in a jar of pepper dew peppers. Cover with a piece of fabric so flies don't get in.

Leave it for a few days until the side of the jar has plenty of bubbles. Strain out the fruit and keep the liquid in smaller jars or bottles- you don't want air at the top. Keep in a dark cupboard for a while to mellow/mature. Start tasting, and use when you like the flavour. It will keep indefinitely.

^^ re the weight or mesh lid- you want the water to cover the fruit. Anything sticking out will go mouldy.

Yy you want proper stock for chicken soup, it's a taste thing. I accept it might cost a bit more than making a stock-less soup, but I wouldn't actually do that in the first place.

Apart from the usual thing in the freezer (peas, ice cream, fish filets, etc) I only freeze the ends of bottles of red or white wine for stock, sometimes some herbs if I have a glut, maybe half an onion that's going spare, as I tend to make stock from fresh ingredients. Apart from that I often freeze the finished stock when I've made it.

I also freeze the ends of peeled ginger as it grates much easier from frozen. And peeled ripe bananas that would otherwise be wasted bit those are not for stock obviously.

Sgtmajormummy, learned the hard way regarding labelling stuff in the freezer after having apple crumble with a roast pork dinner instead of apple sauce . It was actually rather nice!