Can I refreeze my lasagne?!

[surrey321]

So I cooked the meat filling a few days ago & froze it.. defrosted yesterday & made up into a lasagne, cooked it. There’s loads left & no one will eat it now as we’re going away… I can’t refreeze it can I??

I’m not an expert but I don’t think so. Should have made the lasagne at the time (but I know that’s no help now). Enjoy your time away.

I wish someone would write an Idiot's Guide to Freezing. I would buy it.

So it was made with frozen ingredients but you have cooked it since you assembled it? That's fine to freeze now IMO.

@BookAndPiano there is an idiots guide along with a number of food freezing books available. Just do a search to find the one you want.

I’d freeze cooked lasagna. Only thing is it doesn’t reheat well. You’re better to prepare, assemble and freeze. It can be cooked fresh after defrosting. Pyrex dishes for one family meal are good. Once frozen remove from Pyrex and place in a plastic bag so that your Pyrex are available for other cooking.

As it was fully recooked then yes, you can refreeze it. It’s uncooked meat thawed and refrozen without cooking that is the problem

@bumptybum is that true? This is a revelation to me!! Thank you. So to clarify, raw mince was frozen. I defrosted it & cooked it into a bolognaise. Refroze it. Defrosted it & made it into a lasagne which was then cooked last night. So tomorrow I can refreeze the whole cooked lasagne, yes?!
good lord, I’m overthinking this!!!

I have looked @spotddog but I want one that tells me what to freeze various dishes in and whether or not I can put them straight into the oven, on what mark and for how long. Most recipes don't include this information.

If I can't cook something from frozen, is it because it might not taste as good or because it might kill us?

Can I cook beef that has been frozen for a year? Is it different rules for a joint and mince? How long can ice cream or bread be frozen for?

Why, for example, do I have to defrost a tub of fresh mashed potato from M&S but can cook a tub of fresh mashed potato from Tesco straight from frozen.

On the bright side, I can confidently freeze peas, so maybe I need an intermediate one! 😀

You can't re-freeze something that's been thawed out unless it has been cooked in between, which in this case it has. So you are absolutely fine to freeze it now.

A basic food hygiene course would help you a lot I think.
Personally (and especially after the hand washing thread 🤣) I think everyone should take one!

I’d refreeze and cook it. People are far too precious in my opinion! I never get food poisoning or ill from food. If it smells ok and looks ok then it will be fine

So this would be the third time of freezing, for the meat? That is not advised.

I can wash my hands and my kitchen is spotless but I do need a basic book on to freeze-even on this thread there is controversy about the OP's lasagne!

I used to work in hospitality. Cooking thawed mince - fine. Freezing that resulting dish (in this case, bolognese) - fine. Then thawing it, cooking it and freezing it again? Not fine.

In a commercial kitchen, no you cant refreeze it. You can cook the meat and freeze it once, defrost and reheat in the lasagne, but you shouldn't freeze it again.

At home, I would probably freeze it again if I knew it had been kept refrigerated properly. For future reference I would freeze individual portions wrapped in clingfilm so you only need to take out whats needed.

No - my basic rule is that you can freeze something in one state (raw or cooked) once only. Freeze raw, defrost and cook, freeze again - fine. But can’t be froze again.

Nicely put.

OP, as someone suggested, leave the bolognese frozen, then thaw and cook it to make the lasagne to eat.

Got it! Thanks all!

Wait, sorry, I see that you have already thawed and cooked the bolognese/ragu into a lasagne.

Don't mess around with mince. I would chuck it.

Unless you're only going away for two days, and it can stay in the fridge.

You can't refreeze cooked/frozen/defrosted/cooked again food, which your bolognaise was.

It was raw/frozen/defrosted/cooked/frozen/defrosted/cooked again.

But I agree, refreezing should not happen.

Why can’t it be re-frozen? Assuming it was chilled quickly after cooking, where is the risk?

Oh so many in and outs of the freezer for my brain to process 😀

It's already been frozen and defrosted twice.

Because there has been cooked mince defrosted and cooked and you can't refreeze that.

I know, it was the OP's update that totally changed the proper advice!