Batch cooking

[cocomama2025]

Hi.

Trying to get into batch cooking.

Ideally I would double ingredients and freeze half.

Do I cook the complete dish then freeze it or do you freeze uncooked?

I appreciate pasta sauces can be cooled down and frozen.

What about marinaded chicken dishes etc?
Defrost uncooked and then cook it?

Sorry I just sound mad! Trying to be efficient with dinner ideas and time spent in the kitchen!

I freeze it cooked, that way it’s just a quick zap before eating. I wouldn’t be saving much time/energy if I was just freezing ingredients that I then had to cook.

The meat & sauce for spag bol I portion & freeze. I can have that as bol just cooking the pasta, or add kidney beans & chilli seasoning to make into chilli with rice.
Lasagne.
Chicken curry.
Chicken in sauce for pasta
Meatballs in sauce
The mince in grave for cottage pie-then just fresh mash needed.
Beef casserole
Chicken casserole

I portion it all into individual servings as even though we mostly eat together we may occasionally eat at different times/fancy something different.

Amazing thank you!

There is a new 'Batch from scratch' show on channel 4 it's a good watch!

I cook it all first, label clearly (so important!) and add any instructions.

For example I like pasta e fagioli, but pasta is prone to absorb too much liquid if frozen and defrosted.
So I cook everything up to the point before adding the pasta and freeze some with “add 110g macaroni and 200ml water” written on the bag so I know what to do.

Same with curries that I would add yogurt to - I just write what else to do.

It depends on what you're cookoing and how you want to use it. eg lasagna, I'd make it up but not actually bake it in the oven before freezing.

Curries/stews/casseroles - definitely cook completely then freeze. But the rice/pasta to go alongside I'd cook on the day fresh as a rule (barring things like lasagna above). Having said that, I've seen those batch cook prep instagram posts and I do see the value in spending an hour prepping a bunch of grabbags to put in the freezer then dumping into the slowcooker on the day.

Chicken pieces can be frozen cooked and reheated or frozen when marinaded and prepped and then just cooked. I suspect they're better done the latter way, but nto as convenient.

I tend to make things that are cooked and just need reheating. The batch lady cook book is interesting as she makes a number of dishes from the same ingredients
I often batch make quiche (use double cream as well as milk) and pies as it’s easier to do pastry stuff in a batch and lasagne as it’s easy to make a few up at once.
Cakes, scones and crumbles freeze well.
Recently I’ve been batch cooking carrots, mash potatoes, red cabbage and cauliflower cheese and freezing it in meal portions as my children won’t eat mixed up food.

For starters, always cool everything before freezing it. Not just pasta sauces.

Depends on the dish. I sometimes make a whole dish and freeze it ready to reheat sauce or chuck an entire shep pie/lasagna in oven. But sometimes, I only have time to make the meat so I freeze that to use on a night I have leftover mash the night before (SP) or that I have time to make a cheese sauce and layer up lasagna but not to make the whole thing (especially if I have time early in the day to assemble but can leave it in the oven while I'm busy later to be ready when we come in cold and hungry).

I do things that make life easy - like getting a bunch of veg on a good deal and dicing up a Mediterranean roast veg mix, seasoning it and freezing before cooking to dump into an ovenproof dish and roast at no notice (on their own or as the base for chicken breasts/joints). Leftovers can be frozen to throw into plain pasta sauce and some added leftover cooked chicken or bacon for an easy meal.

I sometimes get a good deal on chicken, make up a marinade and pour it into a ziploc bag with the chicken, let it sit for a little while (like while I wash up etc - between 10-60 minutes) before actually freezing, and then defrost and cook. It can be whole breasts/joints, or diced, as suits the marinade and how you would cook/eat it. I especially lemon and garlic Greek chicken.

At home, I tended to use leftover takeaway containers to freeze things as that was enough for 2 people (when full). I am solo here now and I tend to portion out 1 cup into ziploc bags, which is perfect for me and good for portion control but also means I can take out a 2nd easily if someone else joins me.

I also love a variety of curries and various kinds of pasta sauce, chilli (beef or veggie), chicken and mushrooms in a white wine/cream sauce etc to serve with freshly cooked rice/pasta as suits each sauce best. As prepping 1 large batch of a dish is much easier than 2 small batches on different nights - there is a lot less extra work than you'd think.

I make veg lasagnes and freeze them. Take out in morning, top with grated cheese and breadcrumbs. Air fryer for 20+ mins served with salad or green veg.

Fish cakes. I cook some haddock and a big pan of mash. I add grated cheese to the mash, but you don't have to. Loads of chopped parsley in the summer when it's growing. I also use some of the mash and mix with chopped red pepper, broccoli, frozen peas and sweetcorn. Fish cakes are round and the veg fingers are, well, finger shaped. Shape and dust with flour. Then quickly dip in egg and then breadcrumbs. I freeze them on a tray and then bag them up - that way, it's easy to just get a couple out. Quick dinner with salad or chips.

I freeze the wet saucey part of a meal if that makes sense

Curry - freeze the curry, cook rice fresh
Chilli - same
Casserole - freeze the casserole, cook mash or cous cous fresh - although mash does freeze ok, not ideal but edible
Pasta - freeze the sauce only (lasagne excepted)
Pie - freeze the filling and put into the pastry later
Soup - freeze well but creamy soups are best frozen before you add the cream

Pulled pork freezes well. I freeze the pork juices separately so I can pour them over when reheating in the pan to get sticky crispy bits.

Biscuit dough freezes very well - roll into a sausage before freezing and you can defrost very slightly, slice off the amount you want to cook and then refreeze.

Risotto or cooked rice do not defrost well nor does pasta IME. Nor do most cooked veg unless you don’t mind them falling apart when defrosted.

I also find that a big ziploc bag of the crumble mix for a fruit crumble is very useful to have in the freezer. You can make up crumbles to freeze whole - but with a bag of mix, if you get some fruit you need to use in a hurry, or have different types of fruit frozen in bags, it's easy to create a quick dessert in minutes. I sometimes do batches of stewed rhubarb to freeze if we get loads, and while we often have it just with custard, I also like to make it as a crumble. Or bags of blackberries from autumn foraging. Or a tin of peaches with a bit of cinnamon scattered over it...

That’s a good idea @BiddyPop do you have a recipe that freezes well?

And a tip I got years ago - if you're making mash potato for topping shep pie etc, and you will be freezing it, make the mash with powdered milk rather than liquid milk (and don't add extra liquid) as having dried mash helps to absorb the water which comes from the freezing/defrosting process.

And keep sauces a little less liquid than you normally would for the same reason (or else you may have to reduce it down when reheating).

I do the more concentrated sauces/stock/soup thing but can’t get my head around powdered milk!

One idea I read on MN - browning onions properly for curries stews etc takes a while - so brown a huge batch in advance and then freeze them in ice cubes or in flat sheets so you can easily defrost the amount you want. Genius but I’ve never actually got round to doing it.

On that note, frozen chopped onions are the best time saving buy.

Sorry Minipie I missed your question about Crumble recipe. I use a Darina Allen one, which I think is in the book I brought with me from home (I left the other for DH to use), so I'll check when I'm back at the apartment later today.