Best things you never knew you could freeze

[TheSteveMilliband]

I made some biscuits lately- the type you roll into a sausage then cut slices, and the recipe said to freeze and slice off as required - fab, fresh biscuits whenever needed. Have you discovered or know of things to freeze other than the usual (for me that means stock/soup/chilli/bolognese/stew etc). Would love to find more!

sandwiches
milk cream cheese etc
raspberries

Emma really? Do they taste as good after being frozen? That would save some time for packed lunches

Chickpeas, kidney beans and other big pulses.

Sandwiches.

So cogito do you soak and cook beans/ chickpeas in bulk and freeze what you don't use? Usually buy Tina as it seems such a faf wih dried but might give it a go. Still reeling over sandwiches though

Grapes
They're like little frozen sweets and you can put them in drinks :)

Frozen grapes are brilliant.

I've heard that you can freeze sandwiches but haven't tried it. Apparently you pop them in your lunch box frozen in the morning then at lunch they are defrosted.

Eggs if they are separated.

Oh, grapes sound great! Can feel some pims coming on

Eggs! Fantastic! Always have -several week- week old tubs of yolks/ whites festering in fridge

Yes... bulk soak and cook. Then the trick is to drain them really well until quite cold and dry before freezing in a large bag in a thin layer. When frozen, give the bag a shake and they all separate like peas. 500g dried kidney beans (retail about 70p?) makes about 1.3kgs cooked which is three big cans.

Thanks cogito, will give that a go.

Bread. If you don't use a whole lot in your house it means you can keep and use for toast for as long as you like, rather than having to throw out half a stale loaf.

Hummus. You have to stir the oil back in once you've thawed it, but once you've done so it's totally fine.

Milk. Weird but true.

Bananas. If I have the odd one that looks a bit ropey I stick it in the freezer, then when I have enough I make banana loaf.

Mince pies. I make a big batch a few weeks before Christmas, freeze them in their tins before cooking and then store in a tupperware box. Whenever we have guests pop in over the festive period I can quickly stick half a dozen in the oven and have lovely, fresh mince pies in a few minutes.

Seriously sandwiches? Are they not horribly soggy once defrosted?

Bread and milk obviously, also cheese and butter. Yoghurts too. You can freeze an awful lot of things. Vegetables have to be blanched first but then many can be frozen. I hanker after a chest freezer so I can properly stockpile all this stuff!

I've put frozen sandwiches in my lunchbox in the morning...come lunchtime they were soggy and revolting

Can you freeze cheese, anyone?

Cheese never lasts long enough here to warrant freezing. Mince pies sound good, wouldn't have thought of freezing them in the tray. Anyone know if cake mix can be frozen?

With the sandwiches thing you have to be a bit wary about what you put in them - nothing soggy - and mayonaise does not make for a tasty defrosted sarnie - goes all soggy. So tuna or egg mayo out. Cheese/Cheese and ham or other meats works well. I used to make a batch of cheese and ham ones and then use the sandwich toaster at work...mmmm.....of course that was in my younger "I can eat anything and burn it off" days.

FWIW bread freezes far, far better than it fridges. The fridge accelerates the staling process. Freezer halts it.

My mum used to make me a pile of sandwiches on a Sunday and freeze them so I could take one to school in my lunchbox and it'd be defrosted by lunch. They were a little chilly, sometimes a wee bit hard in the middle still, but I think another half hour's defrosting time would have been okay. (Lunchtime at school was 11.45)
I only ever had cheese and pickle, cheese and marmite, cheese and brown sauce etc. Never salad!

I used to have frozen sandwiches at school - my dad used to get freebies at work quite often, one of my more painful memories is an entire bloody term of frozen Edam sandwiches after he came home with lbs of the stuff, I don't think I've eaten Edam since, and that was the best part of 30 years ago . . .

I don't remember them being soggy, but I do remember that on cold days they often weren't properly defrosted by lunchtime

As well as having regular bread + sliced for toast in the freezer, my mum freezes tag ends of stale loaves then grates them straight from the freezer when she needs breadcrumbs for a recipe.

Flour!
I use spelt flour because I have problems with wheat, and it's cheaper to bulk buy in 10kg bags but obviously that's difficult to store; until someone told me it's freezable. Well, it goes in the freezer, which stops any bugs, but it doesn't actually freeze - so you can use it pretty much straight from the freezer as well! I wrap the paper sack in plastic bags to stop any moisture getting into it though.

Word of caution with the milk - homogenised milk will freeze no problem, unhomogenised (the stuff you get from the milkman), not so well.

I used to take frozen yoghurts to school for lunch years ago - by the time lunch came around, they had usually defrosted, and if not it was still fun to eat.

Grated cheese. You'd think it would stick together in a big clump, but it doesn't. Much cheaper than buying ready grated bags and means you don't have half used blocks lying around in the fridge going mouse-trappy.

Also uncooked crumble mix. You just take out a bit and put the rest back for another day. Brilliant for a quick pudding.

Oh, and it's dawned on me recently that you don't need to bother defrosting meat that you're going to cook long and slow.

Garlic butter.... roll into a sausage and slice then freeze