How do you store food after cooking? How long can i store it for?!
How do you store food after cooking? How long can i store it for?
After cooking food, how do i prepare it for storage? I have heard you can store cooked and prepared food in the freezer for a month or more, what pros and cons of doing so and how will it effect the taste and nutritional quality of the food?
Answers:
Length of Time
Because freezing keeps food safe almost indefinitely, recommended storage times are for quality only. Refer to the freezer storage chart at the end of this document, which lists optimum freezing times for best quality.
A simple quick-cooking technique is to make extra food at one meal for future meals. Or, to prepare food ahead and freeze for enjoying at a later time. One easy method of freezing foods, including liquid foods such as soups and stews, is to freeze them in freezer bags. Following are some general freezing tips, followed by specific tips for freezing in freezer bags.
If you're making extra food at one meal for future meals, separate and refrigerate the portion to be served later BEFORE you put the food on the table. This keeps food quality higher by preventing "planned-overs" from becoming "picked-overs." It also helps keep food safe.
Keep an appliance thermometer in your refrigerator and in your freezer to assure they stay at 40 F or lower (refrigerator) and 0 F or lower (freezer). Buy a thermometer at a discount, hardware, grocery store or other store that sells kitchen cooking tools.
Refrigerate perishable foods so the TOTAL time they're at room temperature is less than two hours (or one hour in temperatures above 90 F). At room temperature, just ONE bacterium in perishable foods could grow to 2,097,152 bacteria in seven hours! As a general guideline, eat perishable foods within two days or freeze them. Perishable foods include:
meat, poultry, fish, eggs, tofu;
dairy products;
pasta, rice, cooked vegetables;
fresh, peeled and/or cut fruits and vegetables.
Freeze foods in portion sizes you'll need for future meals. For example, if there are two in your family and you each eat a cup of rice for a meal, freeze in two-cup portions.
Source(s):
http://lancaster.unl.edu
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/fact_sheets/foc...
Here's a super-informative article: http://www.realsimple.com/realsimple/con...
Freezing is not recommended, refrig for no more then a week.
Food won't taste quite the same, some times you may have to add some seasonings. You should use a shallow container and cool it in the frig. After it is cooled you transfer it to the freezer. Frozen foods can be kept frozen for months. Your freezer should be set at '0' or below. Thawing and refreezing will affect quality.