To think batch cooking and freezing is bleegghh

[Notgotajarofglue]

FT working busy mum trying to follow all the tips and hints on getting through these hectic years.
One thing always comes up:batch cook, freeze and reheat.
AIBU thinking that everything comes out Not envy
Watery sauces, soggy veg and dry over cooked meat in all the favourites recommended for this. Husband said it was like prison food. I don't know what I'm doing wrong as I'm a fab cook and it seems from mn that everybody loves batch cooking.
Can't just be me, they've got to be settling for eating horrid food just to save time right?

There's absolutely no reason why something like bolognaise or chilli shouldn't taste identical when frozen and reheated. We always do fresh salad or veg with freezer dinners, or cook one of those part baked frozen baguettes to soak up sauce etc. Sorry but you're definitely doing it wrong!

I use plastic takeaway boxes for freezing, as then there's enough for a meal for two or three depending on what is added.
Bolognese sauce tastes the same after freezing. I tend to partly defrost in the microwave then finish in a saucepan so if it's got a bit watery I can adjust and add some extra ingredients.
If I cooked enough stew to freeze some, I'd only do it as far as veg that are OK to be mushy or disintegrate, and add carrots when heating it up so they keep their texture.

Usually my plans to batch cook and freeze are scuppered by people eating most of it so there's only enough for one more meal, which I put in the fridge for a couple days later.

This is one of those threads that highlights the differences in people's lives.
Sure... it may only take 20 mins to whip up a prawn stir fry, but that's assuming that you have the ingredients to hand and the 20 mins to stand at the hob.
Some people live extraordinarily busy lives and every time-saving habit helps. Also many people live outside towns and their nearest supermarket may be miles away. Not everybody can just pop into a nearby M&S (assuming they could afford to anyway).

I've batch cooked a lot of food over the years and none of it has ever tasted anything other than like what it tasted originally - decent home-cooked food. As a general rule I don't freeze meals with water-dense vegetables in though as they will go soggy. Things like peppers and cougettes can be added when you reheat.

I do freeze mash too. We nearly always have some left, so I just freeze it on a little tray and then add it to a freezer bag of small mash portions. Can be really quickly defrosted with a bit of butter and turned into fish cakes or mini fish pies or something.

I am astounded by how bitchy a turn some posters have taken on this thread!!!! OP was asking an innocent question - why are some people so keen to crap all over her??? It's batch cooking ffs, not Brexit.

Audacity - yes I agree. I decide what I’m cooking depending on the weather and how I feel. Often it’s nice to eat outside these days, so it’s mainly salads etc. Also, I cook according to how hungry I think people will be - ie. if DH has had a “business lunch” he probably won’t want a tagine or casserole. Or if the kids have made one of their after-school forages into Pret-a-Manger or somewhere, there’s no point bringing out heavy food.

I don't batch cook specially, I just make extra and freeze some for another meal later. It works best with curries and stews.

I like cooking, but sometimes when I'm exhausted and have to make something for tea, it's so great to remember I have a tub of chilli or something in the freezer.

I don't defrost it slowly overnight, I'm never that organised. I just blast it in the microwave! But then I don't have to feed a fussy DH :)

YABVU. I love batch cooking and freezing but not every kind of food lends itself to it.

@BertrandRussell

Do people never buy frozen ready meals?

Do you think any posters on mumsnet are going to admit to THAT? 😂 At LEAST half of the posters who claim to never have frozen ready meals are fibbing! The supermarkets sell shitloads. They are a massive seller, yet no-one will admit to buying them! 😄

About half of what I cook is pre-cooked/ready meals/frozen pies/frozen chips etc..... and we have take out once a week (Chinese/Indian/fish and chips.) And although I occasionally freeze leftovers, because I don't like wasting food, I have NEVER BATCH COOKED. Never will either. It's no more trouble to just whip up a quick stir fry, or bolognese, or chilli con carne, or a salad, or an omelette.

Can't see the point in batch cooking personally.

And LOL at the mean and catty comments about how the OP obviously can't cook if her frozen batch meals are coming out shitty.

Wonder what the weather is like up on that high horse that some posters are on?!

We don’t routinely batch cook for the freezer either. We cook from scratch pretty much all the time and we like to have a lot of variety, we both enjoy cooking and eating. But if we make something like a curry/chilli/stew/pasta sauce we always make at least a double portion so that we’ve got an easy pre-prepared base for another meal in the fridge. It’s cheaper but it’s also less effort. My OH works long hours in a demanding job during the week and anywhere we can economise on time spent cooking, we will. However, it’s just the two of us. If I were a busy mum of young children I would be glad to at least have the option of an easy, from the freezer, ready-but-home-cooked meal at least once a week if not more. To me, batch cooking for a family is not about having 25 boxes of the same thing for weeks at a time, but thinking ahead and having the convenience of home-cooked meals on those days where you do not want to cook or haven’t got the ingredients in for the kind of meal you fancy,

A lot of people don’t just find themselves whiling away time in M&S of an afternoon/evening where they can pick out lovely but expensive things to make a super quick but tasty meal.

I am astounded by how bitchy a turn some posters have taken on this thread!!!! OP was asking an innocent question - why are some people so keen to crap all over her???

OP: Can't just be me, they've got to be settling for eating horrid food just to save time right?
I assume the OP meant this humorously but maybe to some it seemed a bit snarky?

“And LOL at the mean and catty comments about how the OP obviously can't cook if her frozen batch meals are coming out shitty.”
I don’t like mean and carry comments. But if the OP’s frozen meals are coming out shitty, she is doing something wrong. She is either trying to freeze something that shouldn’t be frozen, or she is not reheating it properly. That’s why I asked.

And just for the record, I will happily eat a good supermarket ready meal (M&S or similar standard). I’ve got no problem doing that. But for some people they either don’t want to eat supermarket ready meals, for various reasons (quality, medical issues, any number of things) or it’s not financially viable for them to feed a family on convenience meals of a higher standard. Batch cooking for the freezer is a better option for a lot of people.

“I can’t help think of them eating some miserable defrosted mince affair every night. It sounds depressing” was pretty snippy too-particularly coming fro someone whose alternative suggestion was a meal made with about 15 quid’s worry of stuff from Marks and Spencer!

I've only ever seen Charlie in the fridge section.

Yes you’re right. My comment makes no sense in the context of this thread.

If I'm going to the time and trouble to make a casserole or a chilli or a proper ragu bolognese I almost always make far more than the amount we can eat at one meal and the leftover portions either go into the fridge for later in the week or they end up in the freezer, in tubs or freezer bags, as full as I can make them so there is minimal airspace, as I think they keep better that way. I defrost them in the fridge at some later point* and reheat, often in the microwave, and they are absolutely delicious. Never watery, no problems of texture.

I have a slow cooker which is nearing its 40th birthday. I gather that modern slow cookers are nothing like as slow as mine is, i.e. they cook at higher temperatures. Mine is not far off haybox temperatures and does a magnificent job with stews, but the secret is not to put very much liquid in to start with, as it won't evaporate during cooking, and the juices from the meat and vegetables will dilute the stew. I do beef in ale for about 13 hours on auto. Never, ever watery.

*Often a very much later point - always fine - maybe we're just not very fussy in our house?

Anyway, this thread will go the way of every other thread. But let me just assure you, my OH and I, and in fact my (grown-up) children too, are very big foodies. We don’t sit down to nasty, depressing meals every day. We cook well and eat very well. But if freezer prison food isn’t for you then you don’t need to have it, do you? Just accept that this particular time saving and stress reducing strategy doesn’t work for you.

Alternatively, if you want to better your skills at quick and easy convenience foods for the freezer, you could look at the Pioneer Woman. I very much doubt that her food tastes like shit.

Op it's your cooking. It should taste as it did when it was freshly cooked.

Glass container with good lids are brilliant and better than some plastic ones.

I usually batch cook every 10-14 days or so, which gives us more than enough food to supplement with salads and oven ready foods.

1 afternoon of cooking to not have to worry about meals for the next two weeks.

I batch cook and freeze as I live alone, never had any issues and I freeze
Pasta bakes
Pasta and sauce
Beef stew with sweet potato mash
Corned beef hash
Chicken casserole

(Mind you that makes no sense, given that we don’t eat frozen meals all that often. What I should have said is when we do eat frozen meals they’re definitely not akin to prison food, nor nasty or depressing in any way.)

I don't get it OP. Takes half an hour tops to cook a meal for us all at night. The only thing we freeze is meat, bread and random packets of herbs!

obviously not everything is suitable for freezing, but a large batch of well-cooked minced beef, frozen in 2 or 3 serving portions, suitable for meat pies, spag bol, chillis - why not?

Yep fill the container like a pp above says. That way there is less ice and less chance of it being watery and changing texture.

My meals do not come out watered down.

For instance, if I make a Lasagna and cook it all except the last stage of oven baking and freeze it instead.
When taken out, defrosted then oven baked, I find the flavours are nicer than if I had cooked it the same day. The flavours have time to merge and it's simply delicious.

I don’t batch cook per se, but there's just me and DP, so if I do something like chilli or bolognaise I always freeze some. With a chilli we would have it (say) tonight with rice, tortilla chips, salsa, guacamole, and soured cream, tomorrow with jacket potatoes and salad, plus a portion for the freezer. Take the frozen portion out the night before to defrost and then re-heat on the hob.

Last night it was a curry. Chicken was like asbestos, mushrooms were like slugs, peppers were like piss flaps all in a watery sauce.

You must be doing something (a lot) wrong OP. I’ve never had food turn out like that!

Most batch cooked meals are in a sauce or sauce like consistency...I'd rather stick a jacket potato in the microwave, stir fry some noodles or cook some eggs if I was short of time.