To think batch cooking is awful

[Newyear2025]

It takes forever to do and everything comes out tasting of freezer.

I agree. The texture is not the same.

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

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”.

Start as you mean to go on, I guess.

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.

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.

“plating up”.

what is this?

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 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!

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.

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 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 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

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

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.

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”.

Have you defrosted your freezer lately?

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.