What foods should you never freeze? Welcome to my weekly post where I answer one of your questions you’ve submitted. This week’s question is what foods you can’t or shouldn’t freeze.
Are there foods you can’t or shouldn’t freeze? – a reader
As you likely know, I love using my freezer for all kinds and sorts of things. And I freeze a lot of items like flour, cottage cheese, butter, milk that most people don’t think of being things you can freeze. (Check out my post on 10 Things You Didn’t Know You Can Freeze.)
But there are some things I don’t recommend you try freezing. Here’s a list of the top 10 things I think you should never freeze:
1. Lettuce
While I’ve frozen spinach to use in smoothies (and it works!), most lettuce will get limp and soggy if frozen, due to the high water content.
2. Blocks of Cheese
You can freeze shredded cheese without a problem, but if you freeze block cheese, it will be very crumbly when thawed (you can use it if you are planning to melt it, but it won’t work for slicing and snacking on).
3. Raw Eggs
I have heard from some people that they successfully freeze raw eggs, but I’ve never had success with doing so. However, I’ve frozen cooked eggs (such as in a Breakfast Casserole) without any issues.
4. Cream Cheese
If you plan to use the cream cheese in baked goods, you should be okay. However, if you plan to spread it on bagels or something, I wouldn’t recommend freezing it as it will end up very crumbly after it’s frozen.
5. Potatoes — raw or mashed.
You can freeze mashed potatoes, but they are usually water-y if you don’t add cream cheese and/or sour cream to them. And raw potatoes will usually turn a dark color when frozen.
6. Cucumbers
Cucumbers have high water content, so they will be mushy and soggy if frozen.
7. Milk you plan to drink.
You can freeze milk (and I do it often!), but I only recommend using it in baking. It separates and has sort of a lumpy consistency when thawed — which isn’t very appetizing!
8. Raw meat that has been frozen and then thawed.
If you freeze meat raw and then thaw it, it needs to be cooked if you are going to re-freeze it. If meat is already cooked, I recommend not thawing it and re-freezing it as it will usually affect the quality of the meat.
9. Jell-O
Okay, this might seem like a crazy one to put on the list, but we tried freezing Jell-O as an experiment a few weeks ago and it did not work at all. It was all soupy and water-y when thawed!
10. Celery
When thawed, frozen celery will be very limp. However, if it’s diced up in small pieces before frozen, you can use it in a casserole and it will probably be okay. But don’t freeze whole celery stalks with the intent to thaw and snack on them! 🙂
What else would you add to my list? Anything on my list that you’ve had success freezing?
P.S. Have a question you’d love for me to answer in a future Q&A post? Send me an email through the contact form here.
I cleaned out the sock basket when I worked on the laundry room. Can you believe that in this overflowing basket of mismatched socks that had come through the laundry in the last 6-8 months there was not one single match??
