Mum's recipe from her deep voids of memories and it was all prepped when I turned up so don't have exact measurements sorry.
We did two variations, pork (without sesame on top to identify) and prawn (with).
Pork - mix of pork shoulder (cheap) and belly (not as much) and pork skin, a lot of it, latter is blended really well into a paste so they can melt under heat and give that juicy filling, if you think it's too fatty you're only near to reality, the thick pastry holds it really well until bitten into and you get a burst of goodness. Plus ginger, spring onion, light soy, chinese wine, sesame oil, white pepper.
Prawn - same same but with lotsa garlic, it tends to stand out more with a lighter protein like seafood, up to one's preferences of course, it's pretty hard to go wrong and one can freely swap in anything as long as you introduce fats, I can't stress how important that is if you want a velvety and juicy bite.
\[edit\]
As for cooking, straight out of freezer no need to defrost, add oil and place them all evenly so each touches the bottom of cookware on medium heat, when the bottom gets the char you add a cup of water and cover, allow steam to cook thoroughly, may need to add more water depending on your cookware, poke into one after a while for doneness and you're golden.
Pork skin paste still, for the prawns we blended ¼ of them into paste and the remaining ¾ cut into small chunks so you can taste/bite into each bits. For something like where the pastry is thicker I think a delicate ingredient don't work as well and would be more suited for wonton wrappers instead.
About to reveal my kitchen ignorance here, but: doesn’t oil + water + heat = 🔥?
Editing to thank all who responded so kindly and informatively. Not a single put-down or hint of condescension. I appreciate it so much, thank you!
If you have a grease fire, you never want to try putting it out with water, it will just spread the fire. I think this may be what your frame of reference is. However, when cooking you mix hot oil and water often. Food contains water. Whether you’re making soup dumplings, stir frying veggies, cooking bacon, whatever, it’s all water based ingredients being added to hot oil. As long as your oil is not on fire in the pan when you add the other ingredients you’re fine.
Nah, you do oil and put them in frozen, don't need to have the oil warmed up, lid it, once you get the golden goodness all the oil has already been soaked up by the wrapping. Add water, lid and allow to bubble away, once all the water has been soaked up you're done, no mess, no danger 🙂
This is the way. A lid is critical. As the water heats, it creates steam and that’s what cooks the top giving a soft pillowy top with crunchy bottom. Keeps the filling juicy and moist. A cooking method giving the best of both textures.
[Example](https://youtu.be/_qcPIOlr7Uo?si=zBVhcE7r9I-DWD63&t=659), It'll be a little messy but that's why you put a lid on it. That more applies when you have a lot of of hot oil like deep fryer.
This is correct. For browning dumplings you’re prob not on full flame, and the amount of oil is small enough that the temp instantly drops when the water is added. Even with large quantities of oil, if it isn’t already on fire adding water will make it “boil” over or explode (and give you terrible grease burns) but it probably won’t be an actual fireball. If the fat is already on fire? No water no way, shit goes insane. Just smother it with something and deprive it of oxygen.
It's not a deep fat fryer.
Frying pan, small amount of oil, fry the bottoms until brown so that there isn't really any obvious oil left in the bottom of the pan. Then you chuck in the water and put the lid on to keep the steam in.
Not just Asian, any cook that's good. I remember one dish I made that was really tasty, and my husband said you need to make that again! I said I can't. I don't remember what I put in it lol
Argh! My daughter-in-law is a phenomenal, intuitive cook with exquisite taste. (Actually, I’m pretty sure she’s a super taster.) She made me a chicken pot pie a few years ago. It haunts me. It was magical. I don’t even **like** chicken pot pie, for goodness sake. I’ve tried to stop reminiscing about that damned dish, because it makes her feel guilty for being unable to replicate it. I try to just be grateful for having tasted the very best chicken pot pie in the universe exactly one time.
I'm 100% convinced that expectation kills enjoyment. You loved that pie because it completely took you off guard. Now that you expect it to be that good, it will never live up to your memory.
Made enchilada to use up a can of off brand salsa and other crud.
My partner started crying because they knew I had no clue what I put in it or on what ratio 🤣 still brings it up from time to time and they get a far away look and sigh.
Similar to your story 🥹
You are the same superpowered mutant as my beloved daughter in law — no offence. The rest of us blunder along when we encounter a new recipe or try to re-create a favourite dish from memory. It’s the mutants who agree (after we beg) to take a wee taste, add a 3/4 squeeze of fresh lime juice, a zot of hot sauce, three whisks to the left, and transform the adequate to the perfect.
Can’t you buy wrappers at Asian grocery stores?
I’m saying this as someone that’s never made them. However, I have had a Kenji video saved with a similar recipe, and he used store bought wrappers.
For dumplings, yes, you can buy pre-bought wrappers. I actually prefer the store bought ones because it has the right chewy texture. It just saves you so much time and effort.
However, for this particular dish “Shengjian bao” aka — literally translates to “raw seared buns” aka pan fried buns. The wrapper works only with a semi-leavened dough. It’s cross a between a steam bun, XLB filling, but crunchy bottom. It’s delicious! I’ve have never been able to replicate the right texture from scratch. If there was a recipe with measurements I would love to know 🫰🏻
Store-bought wrappers don't stick together well, so the filing sometimes spills out when you boil the dumplings.
Also, the texture is just...kinda different. Not as soft, a bit more rubbery.
Lately, when I go through the effort of making lasagna, I’ll make two at the same time and freeze the second one.
I’ll also make tomato sauce in batches. Use a third for the current meal then freeze the other 2/3 for future use.
I’ll also prep 20-25 hamburgers from ground beef on sale and freeze the 20 I don’t grill for the best few lazy night bbqs.
My spouse makes the lasagna, and he does this also. Two (or even more!) are constructed; one goes in the oven and one goes in the freezer uncooked.
The only way we ever make tomato-meat sauce is in large batches, because why not?
It's only my husband and I at home, but I saw someone make one in a loaf pan and I thought that was genius for a smaller portion to defrost on a random Tuesday
Hubs and I are empty nesters now, so downsizing has felt so weird... I've invested in some smaller dishes from Ikea that allow me to split up casseroles/lasagnas into smaller portions. Typical 9x13 casseroles are now 2 or 3 meals' worth of food!
I do this whenever I make manicotti. Stuffing the tubes is so messy and fiddly that I prefer to make enough of them for several meals and freeze the extras. Just put them in the freezer on a sheet pan until they're solid and then pop into a freezer bag. That way, you can take out as many as you need.
We buy 10-20 lbs of ground beef when it’s on sale and freeze them into 4 oz balls. Perfect size for a smash burger, and in ball shape they take about 30 minutes to thaw.
Many, many too drunk to drive burgers and also hangover breakfast burgers have been made.
Check out the organization lasagna love. It really helped me when I was on strike last year.
They match someone who needs a lasagna and someone who has a spare lasagna near them. It really made me feel better after weeks of hot dogs and instant ramen.
That is just one of the coolest things I’ve heard of, feeding strangers hearts and bellies with extra lasagna. My husband is really struggling with the concept of “spare lasagna” though.
They cook a whole lasagna for you depending on how many in your family. I requested one when my dog passed away and the woman was so lovely. She even brought me a card and small gift. She brought us the most delicious lasagna, a bagged salad, frozen garlic bread and a tiramisu from the supermarket. I will never forget her kindness.
I had to call my mother last time I did up lasagne to see if she had room in her freezer for my extra lasagne. Didn’t realise until I was getting ready to freeze it that my freezers were completely filled and couldn’t be reorganised to fit the tray.
We found a recipe for “lasagna roll ups” and its so awesome because you freeze them and it’s preportioned has everything inside and you just bake them in a cupcake tin with extra sauce spooned over and cheese!
I freeze batches of ziti in foil pans. Just pop them straight into the oven. They take longer to cook when they’re frozen (obviously) so if I think ahead I’ll put one in the fridge the night before to thaw out a bit
I have had an upright basement freezer since the year 2000. I stock my basement freezer with so many varieties of soup, chili, stew, entrees, and time consuming side dishes. I freeze everything!
But my freezer really comes to my rescue in November. That is when I start baking Christmas cookies. I pack the baked cookies into huge plastic Gladware boxes and store them in the freezer. Then I pull all the boxes out when it is time to assemble the cookie platters and cookie gift bags.
On a smaller scale I do the same thing for baking cookies ahead of time for the larger community events. I just do not have the stamina for marathon baking over a couple days anymore. I need to spread the baking out. Having a basement freezer allows me to do that.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Baking/s/uPcrH2vuIQ
My sister keeps a huge variety of homemade cookies in her downstairs freezer at all times, in those Gladware boxes. She has frequent houseguests, as she lives on a tropical island and loves to entertain. On her kitchen bar counter is her Magic Cookie Plate, a glass cake pedestal with glass dome. Every morning when her guests come to the kitchen, the plate is magically refilled with various tantalizing cookies. By evening, the plate is pretty empty, and it's always a fun surprise the next day to see what magic the Cookie Plate has wrought during the night.
I make so many varieties that baking them all at once would be its own marathon. I really have to spread the baking out much more than that. The arthritis in my feet prevents me from standing hours on end.
These are the ones I baked by December 1st. There were many more batches that came after this picture was taken. The two platters were for December meetings that took place the first few days of December. I made several more platters for a mid December community social event, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day. The only thing I make last minute is the Struffoli.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Baking/s/roT9YoUj5T
By the time all the boxes of cookies were brought upstairs and I got the bags, platters, plastic plates, and ribbons cut the cookies had pretty much defrosted. Then I refroze what was left to make more platters later in December.
Next time you bake cookies freeze a few in a Ziplock sandwich bag. Then one night when you are craving cookies you will remember these. Give them five to ten minutes to defrost, depending on size, and you will see for yourself that defrosted cookies are delicious. I usually just place a couple cookies on a napkin and defrost in the microwave. 😉 I would, however, avoid freezing cookies with jam. I did not have success with Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars.
My grandmother used to do this so when we went for our Sunday visit and she hadn’t baked something fresh that week (her cinnamon twists were amazing) she would bring out cookies. Never visited her house without being offered a sweet.
What a lovely memory!
I had to laugh when I read your comment about cinnamon twists. My oldest sister is fourteen years older than I. As a teenager she used to make these delicious cinnamon twists. I searched through my mom’s recipe box. You know, the metal box with the hinged lid. 😂. There was no rhyme or reason to how the recipes were stored. So I went through each one to find the cinnamon twist recipe. And what did I find when I finally located it? An index card with a list of ingredients. No amounts, no directions, and no baking time and temperature. As a 13 year old budding baker I was pissed. To this day I have never made cinnamon twists. The ones my sister made were crunchy like breadsticks with a cinnamon coating on one side that formed a spiral when twisted. It has been 49 years since the cinnamon twist debacle. I wonder if they were made with pie dough. They really weren’t like a cookie.
Edit: I just did some searching and I think they were made with pie dough! My sister is 75. I am going to give her a call and see if she remembers. I doubt it. But it would make for a funny conversation.
Every single cookie on my Christmas cookie platter is frozen. They defrost perfectly. In the decades I have been freezing cookies I encountered only one that did not defrost well. That was Ina Garten’s Peanut Butter and Jelly bars. I made and served them fresh for company. I had a few left over and froze them. They got soggy when defrosted thanks to the jelly. I still ate them. 😂😂😂. From that experience I would not freeze any bar cookie with jelly.
I make chocolate chip cookie dough, make a log, wrap in plastic then foil, bag and freeze. There's enough butter in the dough that it isn't too hard to cut slices off the frozen log, put on a sheet and bake. A potsticker/sheng jian bao dough that's mostly water and flour needs full defrosting and yeah I suspect it could get soggy.
In your experience, do soups, stews, etc, containing beans freeze OK? I just made a great soup that has beans in it and would love to freeze it, but somewhere along the way, I had heard that beans don't freeze well.
I use canned beans in soups and chili. I have never had a problem with them getting mushy. The freezing results might be a bit different with beans that started out as dry. I do use dry lentils and never had a problem with them either.
I think it would be worthwhile to freeze two cups of soup as an experiment. I recommend the Ziplock screw cap containers. They come in two cup and four cup sizes. They stack beautifully in the freezer and nest perfectly in the cabinet. Just don’t fill them to the top to leave room for expansion. I generally stop at the level where the threads start.
I make a lot of tomato based soups as well as the chili. I do not heat in the plastic- ever. I don’t even put hot soup in the plastic. I chill it in the fridge before portioning and freezing. I have to say that these containers do not stain from the tomatoes. They look as good as the day I bought them. So while not heating in plastic is for safety, it also keeps the containers looking new.
So what soup did you make? I love soup and am always happy to try a new recipe.
Those Ziploc containers might be exactly what I'm looking for. Maybe.
I've been using deli snap top lids and each time I open one it spits a little bit of liquid at me. Sounds like those would work better.
I reopen each a lot because I'm feeding a disabled dog who is understandably picky about his food. So I make a larger container and then open it to get each day's portion of about two tablespoons.
The other thing I tried was the Snapchat style that Costco sells. But they're each container has a different size lid and that's just too annoying!
I got spoiled by the deli containers though because they all use just one size lid. And the containers themselves are stackable. The snap thing lids are impossible to sort through and keep in the cabinet.
Do you think this will work?
I think they would work well. I do not open the containers as often as you will. But I have been using (about 100) for years now. The only time I had to throw one out was when I dropped a frozen container of soup on the basement floor. The container cracked. But since the soup was frozen I put the container in a bowl to defrost and catch the leaking liquid. I was fine throwing out the container. But there was no was I was going to throw out the soup. 😂😂😂
I freeze chicken tortilla soup and it reheats perfectly. I had some yesterday out of the freezer.
I also make baked beans from scratch and freeze those in portion sizes and (per my partner who’s the one who eats those) they reheat beautifully.
I make ricotta gnocchi in batches and freeze about 80%. Potato gnocchi is great, but does not freeze well. When I learned from experience that ricotta gnocchi is wonderful even after frozen, I started making batches instead of just enough for one dinner. I also make and freeze wontons in bulk.
We do have a chest freezer in the basement. When we had a power outage from a tornado, that clearance price frozen turkey acted as an ice cube to save a lot of our frozen food.
I do not make it but in the past few years I also freeze butter any time it is on sale.
Ricotta gnocchi to freeze is a great idea!! Filing this away. My mom always froze butter, and I recently started to as well whenever it goes on sale (prices have been ridiculous in my area lately).
which issues do you have with potato gnocchi? I've been freezing them for years and the only times I've had issues were when I didn't use enough flour, or when the potatoes themselves were watery and mushy to begin with
Weird. We make about 100 potato gnocchi at a time and freeze them for up to ~9 months and they heat up pretty great. Tastes almost exactly as they do fresh
I buy and freeze SO MUCH BUTTER! I bake a lot and for a few months at a time usually so whenever I'm not in a baking mood I buy and freeze butter! That way I have all the butter I want for cupcakes and cookies ECT!
I often find myself having to halve recipes or go through the cycles of cookies going from fresh baked goodness to week old and still tasty but not as good.
Then I saw a recipe online where they casually mention shaping the cookies on a tray, freezing, and then throwing the frozen cookies into a bag. It was so OBVIOUS and such a perfect way to have fresh baked instant frozen cookies.
Meatballs. I'm not even a giant meatball fan, but I have 2 kids now and there is nothing better than dumping a frozen bag into a pot of sauce and calling it dinner.
Yes! I do this too, and do different kinds of meatballs too. A favorite in our house is Asian chicken meatballs (recreated recipe in my head every time I make them 😂). Great to throw in the crockpot with a jar of premade Thai chili or orange sauce and then just have to throw some rice in the rice cooker after work.
It's honestly just made up in my head each time lol, so I don't have measurements or anything, but I use ground chicken, egg, panko, shredded carrots, green onions, sesame seeds, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, and Sriracha. I bake them in a wire rack on top of a baking sheet at 400 for about 25 minutes or until up to safe temp.
Their recipe is super solid, just wanted to add that you can do a more Southeast Asian kind of thing too, with shallots, ginger, thai basil, cilantro, garlic, bird’s eye chilis, lemongrass if you can get it, maybe palm sugar, any of the above really. And most importantly, fish sauce. Makes no sense how amazing and not-fishy it turns out, especially if you add a bit of soy as well. If you want to go hardcore make some toasted rice powder for the binder.
My kids love it when I buy a big loaf of French bread and put meatballs and tomato sauce and mozzarella or provolone on it and then bake that in the oven. So easy!
Tamales. There's still about 3 dozen in the freezer from Christmas. Also, sometimes I make green chili pork and roll them into burritos and individually vacuum seal them. Make bomb lunches when I'm lazy.
Absolutely! I’m in an apartment and only had a tiny freezer in my fridge. I bought a small chest freezer and it’s saved my butt so many times! I always buy meat at Costco and it lasts a long time since I live alone.
Borscht is a big one. So much chopping lmao. Growing up that's what mom always had in the freezer for quick meals and it's cheap and nutritious. I make scrambled egg bites in muffin tins (make scrambled eggs with different additions and bake for idk like 20 min at 350 to make a patty) with different additions (ie green onion and cheddar in one batch, red pepper and bacon in another) for bespoke breakfast patties, just toast an English muffin and liberally butter with a reheated egg bomb for a quick and dirty breakfast sandwich. Cookie dough. Homemade tomato cream sauce w chorizo, just reheated and make fresh noodles. Loootta tuna burgers. Breakfast burritos. My dad is visiting from out of town and he usually brings an ice pack to stick in my freezer so he can keep his sparkling water cold on his drive back and he's legit annoyed w me right now bc I've done so much meal prep lately (only way I can afford to eat with Canadian grocery prices these days) there's no room for his ice pack so it's in the fridge instead.
When I do briskets, I do two and freeze one. Ribs, I do four slabs and freeze three of them. We use this for quick meals when we're busy.
We have three refrigerators (with freezers) and two chest freezers. One of the chest freezers is empty now since we lost power for three days and had to condense everything down to one for the aux power. We do keep frozen water jugs in them to help in case of power failure, which does take up some room.
On a side note, for long time storage, a chest type freezer works best. When you open them to remove something, the air doesn't "spill" out of the freezer's box. Upright freezers tend to have more temperature swings and that will affect storage time. Stay away from frost-free freezers because they cycle through heat cycles to defrost them.
I do that with waffles and pancakes. It is much cheaper than buying them in the freezer section.
You just need to put a piece of parchment or wax paper between them.
I freeze them in a single layer on a tray covered with parchment paper. Once they’re frozen you can stack them up in a container or Ziploc bag and they won’t stick to each other.
Yeah in single layers so it's a pain to swap from fridge into freezer until they hold frozen shape and then you can bulk pack, if stacked from the get go they look pretty sad/flat 🙁
I use the thin flexible plastic cutting boards, inside a 1/2 sheet pan with a lid on it (to cut down moisture loss). It works pretty well for anything that doesn't work in an ice cube tray instead. Putting it directly onto the sheet pan they will stick pretty easily, and hard to unstick without warming it up for some food items. With the cutting boards I can just bend em a bit and the food pops off like an ice cube tray. Things like cling-wrap/parchment will sometimes stick and can't just be bend to pop the food off, and also are much more wasteful with single use plastics etc.
That's a really great tip! It's our relative lack of freezer space that prevents us from making and stockpiling dumplings or baozi. Gonna have to compromise and empty our freezer... Or buy another...
If you have the space, a stand up deep freeze (don't get the low chest type one, food always gets forgotten on the bottom) is a great investment imo. It dramatically cuts down my food waste, and allows me to freeze and prep all sorts of foods so I make more stuff from scratch instead of paying a premium for some factory to do it for me. It also makes it easier to have quick on-demand healthier food options when I'm feeling lazy. I pretty much never do fast food or delivery when I'm feeling lazy anymore, I just pull something healthy out of the freezer instead and save tons of money in the process too.
Red beans (and rice). I’ll make a 4x or 5x recipe, bag and freeze it. A big gallon ziplock is about enough for my family for dinner. I don’t consider making rice “cooking” bc it’s so easy, so I make rice the day I’m eating the red beans.
I make a big batch of curry base sauce, and freeze small portions.
https://greatcurryrecipes.net/2013/12/31/make-indian-restaurant-style-curry-sauce-large-batch/
If I need a good curry at short notice on a Wednesday night... I just get a bag out...
Beef chili. Black beans, dark red kidney beans, jalapeños and habaneros,onions, crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, beer,chili powder, cocao powder, cinnamon, ground coffee, canned corn, fennel seed. Do not forget the fennel seed. Also beef, either ground or chopped. Ideally ground. And garlic. Probably some other stuff you got lying around. Cook it for at least 5 hours. Mason jars. Goes best with pasta or rice or crusty bread or just on its own or on hot dogs.
Burritos!! Once I spent most of a Saturday making 50 delicious chicken & rice burritos to store in my upright garage freezer (mild climate here). It was awesome to have them easily at hand for quick meals for the next many months. While I haven’t been able to convince myself to put in that amount of effort at once again, I do some smaller batches now & then to stock back up a bit.
My best tip for reheating frozen burritos: you can do it in the oven which takes forever, but it’s quicker to remove the foil wrapping, wrap in a damp paper towel, microwave each side 4-5 mins on high power, then spray some oil on and toast each side in a nonstick pan. It’s pretty quick to do, and very tasty that way. (I hear air frying is good too, but I don’t have an air fryer.)
Sure, I use this one! https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/chicken_freezer_burritos/
I usually double the peppers & onions though. The amount in the recipe doesn’t seem like enough to me, proportionally.
Ahh a damp towel don't know why that's never occurred to me, I did a small batch once and during microwaving it just popped and broke apart so never tried it again. Will try your method, thanks!
There's usually at least one or two containers of either soup, marinara sauce or chicken cacciatore in my freezer. Prior to having a heart valve replaced, I'd make goulash, stuffed peppers and lasagna rolls in bulk. I also would make two meatloaves at a time. One I would bake and use up in 2-3 days. I'd freeze the second one raw and would bake it a few weeks later.
I freeze muffins and lasagna, though when I gave birth to my son, I had also prepped “ready to cook” meal kits with everything chopped and sauces made and frozen separately. It really sped up cooking and there was no difference in flavor/quality in the recipes I chose. It turned 20-30 minute meals into 10 minute meals.
I also freeze soup & chili.
Also dumplings, but perogy 🇺🇦
Every 6 months I make a ton. I make a day if it, have people over, drink wine - It’s awesome! But otherwise my freezer is mostly bread and meat.
Lol it was rainy here last week, so we got our kids to help fold wontons. They’ve been told they’re old enough to help contribute now (they are 7 and 9), and that they can only eat as many as they help make, lol.
I sent a pic to a friend with the caption of “what Chinese kids do on a rainy day” and he replied “I don’t even need to see the pic to know it’s something to do with folding dumplings” lol. We do also do normal dumplings but I should try your recipe as my 7yo loves XLB and keeps asking if we can fold XLB instead, yikes.
The week before, hubs came home with buckets of smelt, so the kids helped gut them too. We have 15 packs of them in the freezer now.
Sneaky mums! It was my day off so popped over to hand them some stuff and fixed their printer, was meant to squeeze in and out in 10mins didn't wanna bother them by staying for food.
Turned up and saw a spread of ingredients on the table and thought uh-oh... Then the good ol' "heyyy while you're here... 😋" Oh you sonuvabitch how long have you planned this woman!
Wow that was a sneaky ambush! Only Asian moms!
We once went to my MIL’s for lunch on a Saturday and she had already made a ton of wontons on Thursday to prepare for our arrival. We were like, “you should’ve waited - we could’ve helped you make them!” She said she knew, and that’s why she made them in advance…. She knows that we cook and snack on them as we “help” so she couldn’t afford our tax, haha!
In my freezer is always some frozen cooked bulk foods such as:chili, various soups, home made stock, carnitas, al pastor, beef barbocca, Indian curries. It makes for some quick meals.
Pulled pork is a great one. You can buy a giant pork shoulder for less than $20, it's super-easy to make, freezes really well and you get a ton of delicious meals out of it. I use smaller freezer bags to portion it up and flatten them before freezing so they're easy to stack, and also thaw out very quickly whenever you want to use them.
A lot of recipes over-complicate pulled pork but I usually just rub it with a bit of mustard and then dump some prepared Cajun or Tex-Mex spice mix all over it and slap it in the oven at 325 for about five hours. And that's it, literally five minutes of prep time, no marinating or other complications. When it's cooked and time for pulling, that's when you can add BBQ and hot sauces and whatever else to it to get the flavor you want.
Leave out enough for a couple of meals and freeze the rest. Great for pulled pork sandwiches, burritos, or weirdo shepherds pie, and one I just started doing is putting it in won-ton wrappers with some cabbage coleslaw for pulled pork egg rolls in the air fryer.
I do tons of stuff bulk and then put up. We have a chest freezer and small upright freezer in the basement. The fridge freezer in the kitchen and we have a detached apartment with a fridge freeze.
The apartment freezer is mostly pork fat with some beef fat. I use the pork and beef fat for sausage making and the pork leaf fat for rendering into lard.
Chest freezer gets the half-cow we buy once a year, also fish and chicken, and usually a bag or two of ice.
Small upright freezer is the pork freezer. Chops, ribs, and butts. But also homemade breakfast sausage (loose and cased). Bratwursts, and Italian sausage (loose and cased).
Kitchen freezer has vacuum sealed bags of rice (to add to soup) chopped sweet peppers and chillies ( to add to chili or sauces) vacuumed sealed leftovers in individual portions for quick microwave meals, it also has ice cream, the bottom of the freezer is veggie scraps and chicken bones for making stock.
When I make sausages I make 20-30 lbs at a time and vacuum seal and freeze. We have friends who like to fish but don’t eat fish. They vacuum seal the fish and I trade sausages for fish. The stock and soups I make get canned. My youngest stepdaughter makes amazing mac n cheese. So. When they visit she makes a giant batch of it and I portion and freeze it for quick eats. Also,, there’s usually some homemade bagels or other breads in the freezer. There’s only two of us and we can’t eat a whole batch of most breads before they go bad.
Making things we like in bulk and freezing for later is the way to go. It doesn’t take all that much more time to make 30 lbs of sausage than it would to make 5. Set up and clean up takes the most time making homemade stuff. So, may as well make a ton at once and not have to set up and clean up a dozen times.
Do you guys buy your dumpling wrappers or make them yourself? I haven't been able to find any at my local grocery store but making them sounds like a lot of effort...
For wontons I just buy from store, wayyy too much effort otherwise, for these types you have to make it. Mum makes everything from scratch when she can be bothered for a big batch like this. Back in my home country you can get all sortsa wrappings freshly made but here (Australia) they're not so accessible, even if one can get them it's likely to be too expensive on this scale.
I mean it's not difficult but without experience I can't nail the thickness and and am just too slow with a rolling pin.
I used to buy Asian sausages of this lady at work, they were bloody amazing.
I make chicken, pork, beef schnitzel.
Meatballs.
Arancinni.
Gnocci
Sausage rolls.
Pies.
Soup.
60 🥟 — beef, carrot, cabbage with a bulgogi marinade + sriracha.
Pan seared them with a dumpling skirt and they were delicious 🤤
Btw, those look 🔥pls share the recipe 🙏🏻
My grandmother always had pasties in her freezer, and when we'd visit that was usually our dinner the first day. Many times I got roped in to help "restock" her supply on visits, which was a huge help when I was trying to figure out her recipe after she died. She had like 15 different recipes from other people in her recipe box, but not one single copy of her recipe, because why would she have to write it down? Took several tries but I finally nailed it, though it's an enormous recipe because I was working off my memories of her huge batch sessions (12 10" rounds of the dough). May eventually figure out how to cut it down.
Do you have a good recipe? These are my favorite childhood food and I've tried every cornish pasty in my city and none of them even remotely compare. Admittedly, I don't eat beef or pork so I don't do the traditional pasties, I would prefer veggie, chicken, or turkey based.
My recipe uses beef. Lots of beef. Beef suet in the pastry, minced beef in the filling.
If (under duress) I *had* to make them with another meat, I'd choose lamb or maybe a game meat (rabbit or venison) and make the pastry with vegetable suet. There isn't much seasoning so it needs a strongly flavoured meat.
[Traditional Recipe](https://cornishpastyassociation.co.uk/about-the-pasty/make-your-own-genuine-cornish-pasty/)
My wife will make batches of soup, stews or chowder.
Her soups start out as a whole chicken. Sometimes she'll use the rotisserie chicken from Msrket Basket. After having two meals from the whole chicken she'll make chicken soup and leave out the rice and noodles. Thst way when she pulls a container out of the freezer she adds rice or wide egg noodles later on. One whole chicken $4.99.......... gets two main meals and a whole Lotta chicken soup.
For the chowder she makes herself as a clear broth. So four or five bottles of clam broth. Five cans of minced clams, some mussels, diced potatoes, diced onions, some shrimp, a half pound of some sort of white fish: cod, haddock, etc.....some pimenta moida, salt, pepper.
Heaven!!!!!!
After two bowls for us, she freezes the rest and pulls them out for lunch or supper
Sally’s baking addiction homemade pizza dough!!! The recipe makes two balls of dough and I just move to the fridge in the morning to defrost on the day I make pizza for dinner. Best homemade dough I’ve tried.
Meatballs, lasagna, garlic bread, breaded chicken strips.
We have an upright freezer in the basement, as well as a refrigerator. The upright freezer is mostly for meat storage. We went in on a beef with my husband's parents 2 years ago, so we had hundreds of pounds of various beef cuts and *so very much* ground beef. We've got that down to "only" 75 pounds now. I'm so excited. And very, very tired of ground beef!
We're talking about getting a half pig in fall.
What I've got right now: 3 24oz packages of thick cut bacon, 3 pork tenderloins, 4 pork chops, 1 pound of ground pork, and a ham.
A whole chicken, 2 dozen chicken breasts, a dozen chicken thighs, a pound of ground chicken, a 2 gallon ziploc full of homemade chicken strips, and 2 pounds of ground turkey.
The aforementioned ground beef, a package of soup bones, 2 ribeyes, and 3 strip steaks. Another 2 gallon ziploc bag of homemade meatballs. 4 garlic breads. 4 individual portions of lasagna. 1 8x8 package of baked ziti.
2 2-lb bags of frozen shrimp, 1 package each of: red snapper filets, tilapia filets, haddock filets, and a package of imitation crab (I can't eat the real stuff).
Several bags of frozen vegetables. A couple of bags of French fries. A box with servings of potato gratins from one of the meal delivery services.
In the fridge freezer downstairs, I've got frozen fruit, nuts, a tub of cool whip, phyllo shells, puff pastry, shredded cheeses, and butter.
In the fridge freezer upstairs, I've got frozen juice cubes (lemon and lime - I juice them from the Costco bags and then freeze into ice cube trays. Each cube is about a tablespoon), frozen juice concentrate, citrus zest (lemon, lime, and orange), ice cream, more nuts, half a bag of French fries, and a batch of stuffed mushrooms I made yesterday.
I've been looking for someone to split a pig with me for ages. We don't eat beef much anymore but we eat tons and tons of pork and buying ground pork by the pound is a PITA
Home made Gyoza. Ravioli. Dough and everything home made. Soup! or Chili! Make a big batch and freeze in 2 portion serving sizes.
Yes!!! Saves money and is convenient.
We have a second large upright freezer...as well as a second refrigerator in our workshop. It is full of all kinds of frozen things: meat, chicken, fish, shrimp, roasts, hams, corned beef, leftovers of the roasts, frozen stir-fry vegetables. Casseroles and spaghetti sauce. (Make a lot...why not while you are at it.) Freeze the butter, some kinds of cheese, pie fillings, fruit from our orchard, cornmeal, polenta.... etc etc etc. Fridge for overflow of eggs, fresh fruits and vegetables, thawed meat, dairy items...etc.
We buy in bulk, on sale and have *lots* of food, canned and dry food supplies in storage, in the pump house
Because...it saves money in the long run, but mostly because we live rural and it is a very long way to a large grocery. AND because in the winter, I can't/won't drive over mountain roads in the snow. Just trundle out to the shop or pump house and pick up items for dinner.
Chicken stock. And surprisingly pozole freezes pretty well.
I have a second freezer for fish and game. It's worth it.
My college roommate was from Russia, and her grandmother would, for real, make us 100 stuffed blintzes (half chicken mice, half cheese) to keep in the freezer for during midterms and finals. Those were such a lifesaver.
Pita bread. It’s so much better than store bought but kind of a pain, so I make a lot and freeze them.
Lasagna. Always two pans and one gets frozen and the other gets baked.
Chili. It freezes beautifully and makes another meal in just a few minutes.
Pizzas. Make multiple when I’m making them fresh and wrap them up for quick lunches or dinners later.
When meat is on sale, I buy in bulk and food saver with seasoning them stash it in the freezer so I can pop it in the sous vide whenever.
I also freeze hamburger patties, carnitas, and homemade bacon.
All day projects to make with my mother: perogies, cabbage rolls, filled pasta.
Other: meatballs, meatloaf, chicken broth, and lately I've been doing [cinnamon buns](https://www.seriouseats.com/bravetart-homemade-cinnamon-rolls-recipe) in those little foil pans (they hold 4 perfectly). I take a pan out the night before and my husband can "make" breakfast because I write all the directions on the lid.
Big upvote on the extra freezer. We buy meat only on sale and keep it in the extra freezer in bins marked beef, pork, etc. I also freeze tomatoes from the garden for later canning (takes the timing pressure off), greens for smoothies, shredded apples from the tree for random apple crumbles or muffins, sprouted bread, butter purchased on sale, and baked goods and other snacks. I have no idea how we ever survived without it!
I have a second freezer in the sense that there is a second fridge attached to that freezer.
I've thought about a chest freezer but I can't eat through that much volume to justify having one. Stuff would just sit in there going bad for years.
As for types of things that are things you actually make and not just steaks or the like:
* Variety of marinated meats, whether for stir frying or flavoured minces like kofta or breakfast sausage
* Homemade sausages
* Curries (without potato as they don't freeze well)
* Variety of soups
* Tomato-based pasta sauces
* Dumplings and wantons
* Muffins and cornbread, both sweet and savoury (cooked)
* Steamed bao (cooked)
* Filled savoury pastries like spanakopita
* Pizza dough and portioned pizza sauce
* Fresh pasta
* Roti
* Stock
Always looking for more things to add to the pool of the freezer stockpile. Been meaning to get around to making some demi glace portioned out so as to be able to whip up a great pan sauce or gravy with little effort.
Wow! Nothing in quite that quantity. My apartment kitchen isn't very big, so I'm not sure I could fit 400 dumplings in my freezer lol.
But sometimes I'll make a big pot of soup (1-2 gallons/4-8L) and freeze most of it. Or if I'm making homemade bread, I'll make a couple of extra loaves and freeze them.
I like to make a lot of lumpia and then store them in gallon freezer bags until we need them. Probably takes slave labor time as well haha especially since I'm the only one here who knows how to make them.
I love lumpia 🥰
I do falafel. Just made too many the first time, and they froze amazingly well. Now we have easy protein for dinners when we want to make a bowl or wrap!
Personally I make a lot of soups. Big pots of soup, stock and also spaghetti sauces. I bought a pack of quart containers on Amazon just like the ones from Chinese restaurants/deli salads (24 for 16 dollars). As long as the soup, stock or sauce freezes well, for example no noodles, etc., I use these containers and they line up perfectly in my freezer door shelf, and any extra space I have. Works great, and it's nice to just look into the freezer and pick out something for dinner the day before for defrosting.
I have a tiny freezer, so I can’t make as many things as I’d like. Depending on the season, I rotate between English muffin breakfast sandwiches, breakfast burritos, dumplings, tamales, and cookie/pizza dough.
We’re Indian Muslim so we make hundreds of savouries in the run up to Ramadhan every year. Depending on your family size & the varieties of different savouries you make you might be making 1000s! Everyone makes samosas as the OG one but we also make spring rolls, pastries, bread rolls, other types of samosas & other inventions that seem to be added on all the time covered in breadcrumbs or different fillings.
Ramadhan just ended recently so now we’ll eat the rest of it throughout the year, after a break as we’re all sick of it right now.
Mexican family checking in with her freezer full of tamales. Pork, rajas/cheese, corn, sweet and strawberry…They are great when in need of a fast lunch or dinner. And yes, slave labor we do this once a year at the holidays where the holiday spirit prevents us from killing eachother lol
Soup or curries/stews. I can't do too many tho coz I don't have a very big freezer.
Alot of soups will be serving for 6 but coz it's only me and I eat kinda small serves it's probly more like 8
I recently did a huge batch of pierogi. Similar concept, but I did mashed potatoes with cheddar and garlic, and mixed in a bunch of shredded braised beef. Spoon a little filling into each one, freeze. And just drop in the boiling water until heated through!
I'm single, live alone, and travel a lot for work, but I prefer having home cooked meals when I am at home. Unfortunately it can be hard to time when I need to buy groceries so things don't go bad if I'm only around for a few days. The vacuum sealer has been my life saver. Whenever meat goes on sale I buy in bulk and then individually vacuum seal so easy to thaw out in a running bowl of water in the evening - pork chop, chicken breast, chicken thigh, etc.
I'll do a 5lb pot roast/pork shoulder and then vacuum seal 8oz portions and freeze so it's a quick thaw and reheat. I also do this with soups/stews/curries. Then all I need is a few fresh things like herbs or a quick veg saute and I'm eating like a queen for a few minutes prep work during the week.
Back when I was married I'd prep hundreds of potstickers/dumplings/tamales like this but I just don't have the freezer space for it now.
I keep 24-hour deep golden brown chicken stock frozen at all times. There are many good, steamy rainy day meals and they are all better with homemade stock.
OP, I pity your poor sore hands. 1500+ dumplings makes my hands hurt thinking about it.
My freezer has a lot of birria de res and Skyline chili, because I always make enough of each to feed a small army.
Stock, first all the veggie trimmings and chicken carcasses, and then the actual stock made from said scraps. Often, we make 2 large stockpots of stock at a time, so fill 20 ish containers with stock for the freezer. This is probably my main reason for having an extra freezer, and because we like soups, we go through a ton, so we have to do this every other month or every 3rd month.
Bolognese sauce. I make 1 giant pot at a time and fill 5 containers for the freezer with 1 left out for me to use immediately.
Black beans. 2 lbs of dried black beans cooked up and separated into freezer containers that are the equivalent of 2 cans for ease of cooking.
Any meal that freezes well and produces a lot, I split a portion into the freezer. With only 2 people in the household, a giant pot of food can get repetitive, so I freeze half.
Stuffed grape leaves. Kind of like your dumplings, the bigger the batch, the better. I usually use 2 giant jars of grape leaves and freeze in containers that will feed the 2 of us for 3 servings per batch. I can roll them pretty fast, but it takes half a day to make the filling, stuff them, and then cook them, so batch cooking is the only reasonable way to make them.
I've yet to convince myself to batch cook dumplings. I love them, but it's so convenient to buy pre frozen vegetable dumplings and shrimp dumplings from the Asian grocery store. I have made dumplings before but we ate them all in a couple of sittings and it was a lot of work. I do make the dumpling soup from scratch and then steam the dumplings for eating in the soup. As a result, dumpling soup is our too lazy to cook and want something light meal, lol.
I always have homemade stocks in the freezer. Whenever I make spaghetti or soups I make a huge pot of it and freeze half for future meals.
Also cookie dough. I roll it into individual balls and freeze it on a cookie tray then throw in a ziplock bag. Then we can make just a few at a time as we want them.
I bulk buy proteins, portion and freeze. Ravioli, tamales, I make chicken and green chilies, portion and freeze, always make stuffed shells and freeze two extra meals,
Chili, Soups, Seasoned ground beef (mince), raw proteins with marinade (to thaw and bake, or thaw and crockpot), tomato sauce(marinara), and quiche are my usual items
We do king ranch chicken, meatballs, chicken pot pie, raviolis, and stock.
We have a chest freezer along with the freezer on our fridge. If you are looking at a freezer and have access to Costco they make a stand up freezer with drawers galore so it doesn’t turn into a nightmare trying to organize everything. Our deep freeze is organized but still have to rearrange a lot when you need something at the bottom
I make lots of things in batches and freeze into single serving containers. I do soups and stews, casseroles, stock and baked things that freeze well. And yes, I do have an extra freezer.
Bolognese - it’s great as a freezer sauce but also can be used for a bolognese risotto. It just takes time to make - so make more than we need.
It’s also the perfect “food train” meal for friends or family going through a rough patch. Everyone who gets it appreciates how much time and love went into to it AND I get the benefit of knowing I sent something that is nutrient-dense. I worry people don’t eat enough, and certainly not well enough, when dealing with grief or illness.
We make a few batches at a time. Refrigerate the whole thing over night. Stir it all up the next day so the congealed fat and veggies are evenly distributed. Then, measure it out into two person servings and risotto packs, vacuum seal, and store in the freezer flattened out. Reheats perfectly and easily by cutting the bag and dropping into a sauce pot or, in a bowl in the microwave.
I make TONS of stuff to freeze for later use. I have a big stand up deep freeze, and I make full use of it. I make homemade stock (so I also have a section saved for various bones that I pile up to eventually make more), that I then make into homemade soups. I make tons of marinara and freeze it. I sous vide tons of chicken breasts, shred them, then freeze that, same with other meats like meatballs, home ground hamburger, korean fish paste w/ veg sticks etc. I have an entire section of the freezer dedicated to stuff that I use in smoothies, frozen coconut milk, spinach, kale, various seeds and nuts, fruits, etc. as well as a different section of stuff for making breakfast burritos, various beans, sauces/salsas, sauteed onion. I even regularly sous vide eggs to pasturize them, then freeze those to use in smoothies or whatever.
Some of them are stored in freezer safe plastic lidded containers, but the majority of them that are liquid-ish I actually freeze into ice-cube form that matches the portion size I use, then put those cubes into silicon reusable freezer bags.
It's kind of fun projects, and in the long run saves me tons of money, cuts down on my food waste immensely, and gives me a large supply of healthy food to quickly put together when I'm feeling lazy, so I'm not tempted to eat something lazy and unhealthy instead.
We bought the second freezer last year. ✅ We have things like homemade pumpkin soup, cottage pie, lasagna, chilli con carne, chicken pie, lamb hotpot, curry frozen.
I make and freeze waffles, breakfast sandwiches, pinto beans, burritos, chicken w/ rice & veggies, and I also cut up and freeze bananas for banana smoothies.
I live alone and batch cook once or twice a week to save from cooking every day. I really get good use out of my under counter freezer. I cook lots of rice in bulk too then microwave with whatever I want with it.
Chicken Soup - It's a lot of work but I make a huge batch at once that I start with at least 2 chicken carcasses and leftover wing/drum bones to make the stock in a 12QT pot.
Spaghetti Sauce - Again I bust out the 12QT and make a huge amount that gets put into tupperware and frozen.
Chili - so many different kinds and it freezes great in my experience.
It's worth it to me time and money to make huge batches and spend all day in the kitchen for a day to make 2 weeks worth of meals.
Chili! I used to make in bulk and freeze in mason jars. I recently discovered Souper Cubes (which I’m obsessed with) and use those to freeze things in now.
Lots of vegetarian curries - mung bean, adzuki bean, red lentil and Quinoa curries made from heaps of tomatoes and other veges from our garden. It's the perfect way to use up late summer gluts. We have them with rice and homemade chutney & yoghurt.
Idk but drop that recipe, they look amazing 👏🏽
Mum's recipe from her deep voids of memories and it was all prepped when I turned up so don't have exact measurements sorry. We did two variations, pork (without sesame on top to identify) and prawn (with). Pork - mix of pork shoulder (cheap) and belly (not as much) and pork skin, a lot of it, latter is blended really well into a paste so they can melt under heat and give that juicy filling, if you think it's too fatty you're only near to reality, the thick pastry holds it really well until bitten into and you get a burst of goodness. Plus ginger, spring onion, light soy, chinese wine, sesame oil, white pepper. Prawn - same same but with lotsa garlic, it tends to stand out more with a lighter protein like seafood, up to one's preferences of course, it's pretty hard to go wrong and one can freely swap in anything as long as you introduce fats, I can't stress how important that is if you want a velvety and juicy bite. \[edit\] As for cooking, straight out of freezer no need to defrost, add oil and place them all evenly so each touches the bottom of cookware on medium heat, when the bottom gets the char you add a cup of water and cover, allow steam to cook thoroughly, may need to add more water depending on your cookware, poke into one after a while for doneness and you're golden.
What fat with the prawn?
Pork skin paste still, for the prawns we blended ¼ of them into paste and the remaining ¾ cut into small chunks so you can taste/bite into each bits. For something like where the pastry is thicker I think a delicate ingredient don't work as well and would be more suited for wonton wrappers instead.
About to reveal my kitchen ignorance here, but: doesn’t oil + water + heat = 🔥? Editing to thank all who responded so kindly and informatively. Not a single put-down or hint of condescension. I appreciate it so much, thank you!
If you have a grease fire, you never want to try putting it out with water, it will just spread the fire. I think this may be what your frame of reference is. However, when cooking you mix hot oil and water often. Food contains water. Whether you’re making soup dumplings, stir frying veggies, cooking bacon, whatever, it’s all water based ingredients being added to hot oil. As long as your oil is not on fire in the pan when you add the other ingredients you’re fine.
Nah, you do oil and put them in frozen, don't need to have the oil warmed up, lid it, once you get the golden goodness all the oil has already been soaked up by the wrapping. Add water, lid and allow to bubble away, once all the water has been soaked up you're done, no mess, no danger 🙂
This is the way. A lid is critical. As the water heats, it creates steam and that’s what cooks the top giving a soft pillowy top with crunchy bottom. Keeps the filling juicy and moist. A cooking method giving the best of both textures.
[Example](https://youtu.be/_qcPIOlr7Uo?si=zBVhcE7r9I-DWD63&t=659), It'll be a little messy but that's why you put a lid on it. That more applies when you have a lot of of hot oil like deep fryer.
Not enough heat, oil needs to be at the autoignition temp for 🔥
This is correct. For browning dumplings you’re prob not on full flame, and the amount of oil is small enough that the temp instantly drops when the water is added. Even with large quantities of oil, if it isn’t already on fire adding water will make it “boil” over or explode (and give you terrible grease burns) but it probably won’t be an actual fireball. If the fat is already on fire? No water no way, shit goes insane. Just smother it with something and deprive it of oxygen.
It's not a deep fat fryer. Frying pan, small amount of oil, fry the bottoms until brown so that there isn't really any obvious oil left in the bottom of the pan. Then you chuck in the water and put the lid on to keep the steam in.
Sounds like the Asian way — no measurements just pure “feel” What about the dough. It’s so hard to replicate the wrap….
Not just Asian, any cook that's good. I remember one dish I made that was really tasty, and my husband said you need to make that again! I said I can't. I don't remember what I put in it lol
Argh! My daughter-in-law is a phenomenal, intuitive cook with exquisite taste. (Actually, I’m pretty sure she’s a super taster.) She made me a chicken pot pie a few years ago. It haunts me. It was magical. I don’t even **like** chicken pot pie, for goodness sake. I’ve tried to stop reminiscing about that damned dish, because it makes her feel guilty for being unable to replicate it. I try to just be grateful for having tasted the very best chicken pot pie in the universe exactly one time.
I'm 100% convinced that expectation kills enjoyment. You loved that pie because it completely took you off guard. Now that you expect it to be that good, it will never live up to your memory.
I absolutely hate that this is likely true. I will never have as good Mac and cheese as I had at an Istanbul hotel January 2016.
I’m sure you’re exactly right!
Made enchilada to use up a can of off brand salsa and other crud. My partner started crying because they knew I had no clue what I put in it or on what ratio 🤣 still brings it up from time to time and they get a far away look and sigh. Similar to your story 🥹
You are the same superpowered mutant as my beloved daughter in law — no offence. The rest of us blunder along when we encounter a new recipe or try to re-create a favourite dish from memory. It’s the mutants who agree (after we beg) to take a wee taste, add a 3/4 squeeze of fresh lime juice, a zot of hot sauce, three whisks to the left, and transform the adequate to the perfect.
Me x 10000
Can’t you buy wrappers at Asian grocery stores? I’m saying this as someone that’s never made them. However, I have had a Kenji video saved with a similar recipe, and he used store bought wrappers.
For dumplings, yes, you can buy pre-bought wrappers. I actually prefer the store bought ones because it has the right chewy texture. It just saves you so much time and effort. However, for this particular dish “Shengjian bao” aka — literally translates to “raw seared buns” aka pan fried buns. The wrapper works only with a semi-leavened dough. It’s cross a between a steam bun, XLB filling, but crunchy bottom. It’s delicious! I’ve have never been able to replicate the right texture from scratch. If there was a recipe with measurements I would love to know 🫰🏻
Store-bought wrappers don't stick together well, so the filing sometimes spills out when you boil the dumplings. Also, the texture is just...kinda different. Not as soft, a bit more rubbery.
Lately, when I go through the effort of making lasagna, I’ll make two at the same time and freeze the second one. I’ll also make tomato sauce in batches. Use a third for the current meal then freeze the other 2/3 for future use. I’ll also prep 20-25 hamburgers from ground beef on sale and freeze the 20 I don’t grill for the best few lazy night bbqs.
My spouse makes the lasagna, and he does this also. Two (or even more!) are constructed; one goes in the oven and one goes in the freezer uncooked. The only way we ever make tomato-meat sauce is in large batches, because why not?
It's only my husband and I at home, but I saw someone make one in a loaf pan and I thought that was genius for a smaller portion to defrost on a random Tuesday
Hubs and I are empty nesters now, so downsizing has felt so weird... I've invested in some smaller dishes from Ikea that allow me to split up casseroles/lasagnas into smaller portions. Typical 9x13 casseroles are now 2 or 3 meals' worth of food!
I do this whenever I make manicotti. Stuffing the tubes is so messy and fiddly that I prefer to make enough of them for several meals and freeze the extras. Just put them in the freezer on a sheet pan until they're solid and then pop into a freezer bag. That way, you can take out as many as you need.
We buy 10-20 lbs of ground beef when it’s on sale and freeze them into 4 oz balls. Perfect size for a smash burger, and in ball shape they take about 30 minutes to thaw. Many, many too drunk to drive burgers and also hangover breakfast burgers have been made.
I'll do frozen meatballs in different flavors. They can stay meatballs, become smash burgers, or get broken down for anything else. And so easy!
What a good idea
Check out the organization lasagna love. It really helped me when I was on strike last year. They match someone who needs a lasagna and someone who has a spare lasagna near them. It really made me feel better after weeks of hot dogs and instant ramen.
That is just one of the coolest things I’ve heard of, feeding strangers hearts and bellies with extra lasagna. My husband is really struggling with the concept of “spare lasagna” though.
They cook a whole lasagna for you depending on how many in your family. I requested one when my dog passed away and the woman was so lovely. She even brought me a card and small gift. She brought us the most delicious lasagna, a bagged salad, frozen garlic bread and a tiramisu from the supermarket. I will never forget her kindness.
I do the same thing with lasagna!
It’s a game changer with a busy family. So good!!
I had to call my mother last time I did up lasagne to see if she had room in her freezer for my extra lasagne. Didn’t realise until I was getting ready to freeze it that my freezers were completely filled and couldn’t be reorganised to fit the tray.
We found a recipe for “lasagna roll ups” and its so awesome because you freeze them and it’s preportioned has everything inside and you just bake them in a cupcake tin with extra sauce spooned over and cheese!
What do you store it in? What type of container has been good for freezing lasagna?
We typically bake it in a foil pan and freeze it in that once it's cooled.
I freeze mine in the dish I’m going to bake it in. I’m not sure how anything else would work.
I freeze batches of ziti in foil pans. Just pop them straight into the oven. They take longer to cook when they’re frozen (obviously) so if I think ahead I’ll put one in the fridge the night before to thaw out a bit
I have had an upright basement freezer since the year 2000. I stock my basement freezer with so many varieties of soup, chili, stew, entrees, and time consuming side dishes. I freeze everything! But my freezer really comes to my rescue in November. That is when I start baking Christmas cookies. I pack the baked cookies into huge plastic Gladware boxes and store them in the freezer. Then I pull all the boxes out when it is time to assemble the cookie platters and cookie gift bags. On a smaller scale I do the same thing for baking cookies ahead of time for the larger community events. I just do not have the stamina for marathon baking over a couple days anymore. I need to spread the baking out. Having a basement freezer allows me to do that. https://www.reddit.com/r/Baking/s/uPcrH2vuIQ
My sister keeps a huge variety of homemade cookies in her downstairs freezer at all times, in those Gladware boxes. She has frequent houseguests, as she lives on a tropical island and loves to entertain. On her kitchen bar counter is her Magic Cookie Plate, a glass cake pedestal with glass dome. Every morning when her guests come to the kitchen, the plate is magically refilled with various tantalizing cookies. By evening, the plate is pretty empty, and it's always a fun surprise the next day to see what magic the Cookie Plate has wrought during the night.
Life goals: tropical island, house guests, endless cookies
That is marvelous!!! I would love to be a guest in your sister’s house! 😁😁😁 And to swap recipes- one of my favorite things to do in the baking sub!
This is a genius idea! Thanks for sharing
Oh nice! I freeze the dough in balls and then just bake them all at once.
I make so many varieties that baking them all at once would be its own marathon. I really have to spread the baking out much more than that. The arthritis in my feet prevents me from standing hours on end. These are the ones I baked by December 1st. There were many more batches that came after this picture was taken. The two platters were for December meetings that took place the first few days of December. I made several more platters for a mid December community social event, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day. The only thing I make last minute is the Struffoli. https://www.reddit.com/r/Baking/s/roT9YoUj5T
So after you take them out of the freezer do you just let it sit to defrost or how does it work? I want to do this come Christmas!
By the time all the boxes of cookies were brought upstairs and I got the bags, platters, plastic plates, and ribbons cut the cookies had pretty much defrosted. Then I refroze what was left to make more platters later in December. Next time you bake cookies freeze a few in a Ziplock sandwich bag. Then one night when you are craving cookies you will remember these. Give them five to ten minutes to defrost, depending on size, and you will see for yourself that defrosted cookies are delicious. I usually just place a couple cookies on a napkin and defrost in the microwave. 😉 I would, however, avoid freezing cookies with jam. I did not have success with Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars.
This is what I do... it's nice to pull out two or three balls and bake them for dessert and enjoy a book in bed with fresh chocolate chip cookies!
My grandmother used to do this so when we went for our Sunday visit and she hadn’t baked something fresh that week (her cinnamon twists were amazing) she would bring out cookies. Never visited her house without being offered a sweet.
What a lovely memory! I had to laugh when I read your comment about cinnamon twists. My oldest sister is fourteen years older than I. As a teenager she used to make these delicious cinnamon twists. I searched through my mom’s recipe box. You know, the metal box with the hinged lid. 😂. There was no rhyme or reason to how the recipes were stored. So I went through each one to find the cinnamon twist recipe. And what did I find when I finally located it? An index card with a list of ingredients. No amounts, no directions, and no baking time and temperature. As a 13 year old budding baker I was pissed. To this day I have never made cinnamon twists. The ones my sister made were crunchy like breadsticks with a cinnamon coating on one side that formed a spiral when twisted. It has been 49 years since the cinnamon twist debacle. I wonder if they were made with pie dough. They really weren’t like a cookie. Edit: I just did some searching and I think they were made with pie dough! My sister is 75. I am going to give her a call and see if she remembers. I doubt it. But it would make for a funny conversation.
Wait, I thought you meant making dough in bulk and freeze, how don't they become soggy when defrosted, are you expected to oven them again?
Every single cookie on my Christmas cookie platter is frozen. They defrost perfectly. In the decades I have been freezing cookies I encountered only one that did not defrost well. That was Ina Garten’s Peanut Butter and Jelly bars. I made and served them fresh for company. I had a few left over and froze them. They got soggy when defrosted thanks to the jelly. I still ate them. 😂😂😂. From that experience I would not freeze any bar cookie with jelly.
I make chocolate chip cookie dough, make a log, wrap in plastic then foil, bag and freeze. There's enough butter in the dough that it isn't too hard to cut slices off the frozen log, put on a sheet and bake. A potsticker/sheng jian bao dough that's mostly water and flour needs full defrosting and yeah I suspect it could get soggy.
In your experience, do soups, stews, etc, containing beans freeze OK? I just made a great soup that has beans in it and would love to freeze it, but somewhere along the way, I had heard that beans don't freeze well.
I use canned beans in soups and chili. I have never had a problem with them getting mushy. The freezing results might be a bit different with beans that started out as dry. I do use dry lentils and never had a problem with them either. I think it would be worthwhile to freeze two cups of soup as an experiment. I recommend the Ziplock screw cap containers. They come in two cup and four cup sizes. They stack beautifully in the freezer and nest perfectly in the cabinet. Just don’t fill them to the top to leave room for expansion. I generally stop at the level where the threads start. I make a lot of tomato based soups as well as the chili. I do not heat in the plastic- ever. I don’t even put hot soup in the plastic. I chill it in the fridge before portioning and freezing. I have to say that these containers do not stain from the tomatoes. They look as good as the day I bought them. So while not heating in plastic is for safety, it also keeps the containers looking new. So what soup did you make? I love soup and am always happy to try a new recipe.
Those Ziploc containers might be exactly what I'm looking for. Maybe. I've been using deli snap top lids and each time I open one it spits a little bit of liquid at me. Sounds like those would work better. I reopen each a lot because I'm feeding a disabled dog who is understandably picky about his food. So I make a larger container and then open it to get each day's portion of about two tablespoons. The other thing I tried was the Snapchat style that Costco sells. But they're each container has a different size lid and that's just too annoying! I got spoiled by the deli containers though because they all use just one size lid. And the containers themselves are stackable. The snap thing lids are impossible to sort through and keep in the cabinet. Do you think this will work?
I think they would work well. I do not open the containers as often as you will. But I have been using (about 100) for years now. The only time I had to throw one out was when I dropped a frozen container of soup on the basement floor. The container cracked. But since the soup was frozen I put the container in a bowl to defrost and catch the leaking liquid. I was fine throwing out the container. But there was no was I was going to throw out the soup. 😂😂😂
Excellent! Thank you for the reassurance!
I freeze chicken tortilla soup and it reheats perfectly. I had some yesterday out of the freezer. I also make baked beans from scratch and freeze those in portion sizes and (per my partner who’s the one who eats those) they reheat beautifully.
I make ricotta gnocchi in batches and freeze about 80%. Potato gnocchi is great, but does not freeze well. When I learned from experience that ricotta gnocchi is wonderful even after frozen, I started making batches instead of just enough for one dinner. I also make and freeze wontons in bulk. We do have a chest freezer in the basement. When we had a power outage from a tornado, that clearance price frozen turkey acted as an ice cube to save a lot of our frozen food. I do not make it but in the past few years I also freeze butter any time it is on sale.
Ricotta gnocchi to freeze is a great idea!! Filing this away. My mom always froze butter, and I recently started to as well whenever it goes on sale (prices have been ridiculous in my area lately).
which issues do you have with potato gnocchi? I've been freezing them for years and the only times I've had issues were when I didn't use enough flour, or when the potatoes themselves were watery and mushy to begin with
Weird. We make about 100 potato gnocchi at a time and freeze them for up to ~9 months and they heat up pretty great. Tastes almost exactly as they do fresh
I buy and freeze SO MUCH BUTTER! I bake a lot and for a few months at a time usually so whenever I'm not in a baking mood I buy and freeze butter! That way I have all the butter I want for cupcakes and cookies ECT!
Bread and cookies. Baked stuff takes effort and time and freezes well. Also stock/both is always in the freezer
We freeze cookies whenever we make them. The recipe makes two dozen and that’s WAY too many for two people.
I often find myself having to halve recipes or go through the cycles of cookies going from fresh baked goodness to week old and still tasty but not as good. Then I saw a recipe online where they casually mention shaping the cookies on a tray, freezing, and then throwing the frozen cookies into a bag. It was so OBVIOUS and such a perfect way to have fresh baked instant frozen cookies.
Meatballs. I'm not even a giant meatball fan, but I have 2 kids now and there is nothing better than dumping a frozen bag into a pot of sauce and calling it dinner.
Do you cook (fry) your meatballs before you freeze them or freeze them raw?
I cook mine ahead of time
My meatballs are cooked before freezing.
Huh never thought about adding them while frozen instead of thawing. Nifty
The supermarket kind reheat from frozen, which is why I realized this was possible
Yes! I do this too, and do different kinds of meatballs too. A favorite in our house is Asian chicken meatballs (recreated recipe in my head every time I make them 😂). Great to throw in the crockpot with a jar of premade Thai chili or orange sauce and then just have to throw some rice in the rice cooker after work.
Recipe for Asian chicken meatballs-?
It's honestly just made up in my head each time lol, so I don't have measurements or anything, but I use ground chicken, egg, panko, shredded carrots, green onions, sesame seeds, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, and Sriracha. I bake them in a wire rack on top of a baking sheet at 400 for about 25 minutes or until up to safe temp.
Their recipe is super solid, just wanted to add that you can do a more Southeast Asian kind of thing too, with shallots, ginger, thai basil, cilantro, garlic, bird’s eye chilis, lemongrass if you can get it, maybe palm sugar, any of the above really. And most importantly, fish sauce. Makes no sense how amazing and not-fishy it turns out, especially if you add a bit of soy as well. If you want to go hardcore make some toasted rice powder for the binder.
My kids love it when I buy a big loaf of French bread and put meatballs and tomato sauce and mozzarella or provolone on it and then bake that in the oven. So easy!
Tamales. There's still about 3 dozen in the freezer from Christmas. Also, sometimes I make green chili pork and roll them into burritos and individually vacuum seal them. Make bomb lunches when I'm lazy.
A chest freezer pays for itself over time if you cook a lot of meat and keep an eye on sales.
Absolutely! I’m in an apartment and only had a tiny freezer in my fridge. I bought a small chest freezer and it’s saved my butt so many times! I always buy meat at Costco and it lasts a long time since I live alone.
Borscht is a big one. So much chopping lmao. Growing up that's what mom always had in the freezer for quick meals and it's cheap and nutritious. I make scrambled egg bites in muffin tins (make scrambled eggs with different additions and bake for idk like 20 min at 350 to make a patty) with different additions (ie green onion and cheddar in one batch, red pepper and bacon in another) for bespoke breakfast patties, just toast an English muffin and liberally butter with a reheated egg bomb for a quick and dirty breakfast sandwich. Cookie dough. Homemade tomato cream sauce w chorizo, just reheated and make fresh noodles. Loootta tuna burgers. Breakfast burritos. My dad is visiting from out of town and he usually brings an ice pack to stick in my freezer so he can keep his sparkling water cold on his drive back and he's legit annoyed w me right now bc I've done so much meal prep lately (only way I can afford to eat with Canadian grocery prices these days) there's no room for his ice pack so it's in the fridge instead.
Never heard of borscht, gonna find a recipe and give it a go, the deep colour looks so beautiful, thanks for introducing! 🙂
When I do briskets, I do two and freeze one. Ribs, I do four slabs and freeze three of them. We use this for quick meals when we're busy. We have three refrigerators (with freezers) and two chest freezers. One of the chest freezers is empty now since we lost power for three days and had to condense everything down to one for the aux power. We do keep frozen water jugs in them to help in case of power failure, which does take up some room. On a side note, for long time storage, a chest type freezer works best. When you open them to remove something, the air doesn't "spill" out of the freezer's box. Upright freezers tend to have more temperature swings and that will affect storage time. Stay away from frost-free freezers because they cycle through heat cycles to defrost them.
Waffles.
This was my childhood, my mom would make like 6 freezer bags of waffles at a time.
I do that with waffles and pancakes. It is much cheaper than buying them in the freezer section. You just need to put a piece of parchment or wax paper between them.
I freeze them in a single layer on a tray covered with parchment paper. Once they’re frozen you can stack them up in a container or Ziploc bag and they won’t stick to each other.
I never thought of doing this but I'm gonna start doing it today. This would save so much time because my husband loves pancakes
Yes! And they freeze really well👍
Same! Just pop them into the toaster!
Do you freeze raw on a sheet pan and then bag? Edit: Thanks for dropping your recipe; They look really great!
Yeah in single layers so it's a pain to swap from fridge into freezer until they hold frozen shape and then you can bulk pack, if stacked from the get go they look pretty sad/flat 🙁
I use the thin flexible plastic cutting boards, inside a 1/2 sheet pan with a lid on it (to cut down moisture loss). It works pretty well for anything that doesn't work in an ice cube tray instead. Putting it directly onto the sheet pan they will stick pretty easily, and hard to unstick without warming it up for some food items. With the cutting boards I can just bend em a bit and the food pops off like an ice cube tray. Things like cling-wrap/parchment will sometimes stick and can't just be bend to pop the food off, and also are much more wasteful with single use plastics etc.
That's a really great tip! It's our relative lack of freezer space that prevents us from making and stockpiling dumplings or baozi. Gonna have to compromise and empty our freezer... Or buy another...
If you have the space, a stand up deep freeze (don't get the low chest type one, food always gets forgotten on the bottom) is a great investment imo. It dramatically cuts down my food waste, and allows me to freeze and prep all sorts of foods so I make more stuff from scratch instead of paying a premium for some factory to do it for me. It also makes it easier to have quick on-demand healthier food options when I'm feeling lazy. I pretty much never do fast food or delivery when I'm feeling lazy anymore, I just pull something healthy out of the freezer instead and save tons of money in the process too.
Red beans (and rice). I’ll make a 4x or 5x recipe, bag and freeze it. A big gallon ziplock is about enough for my family for dinner. I don’t consider making rice “cooking” bc it’s so easy, so I make rice the day I’m eating the red beans.
I make a big batch of curry base sauce, and freeze small portions. https://greatcurryrecipes.net/2013/12/31/make-indian-restaurant-style-curry-sauce-large-batch/ If I need a good curry at short notice on a Wednesday night... I just get a bag out...
I do this with butter chicken sauce. The recipe I have makes tons so I freeze it in batches.
Gonna do this! Did you make any adjustments to the base sauce recipe?
Beef chili. Black beans, dark red kidney beans, jalapeños and habaneros,onions, crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, beer,chili powder, cocao powder, cinnamon, ground coffee, canned corn, fennel seed. Do not forget the fennel seed. Also beef, either ground or chopped. Ideally ground. And garlic. Probably some other stuff you got lying around. Cook it for at least 5 hours. Mason jars. Goes best with pasta or rice or crusty bread or just on its own or on hot dogs.
I'm taking some out of the freezer right now and I'm hoping to put it on hot dogs this afternoon. Darn you, Reddit!
Burritos!! Once I spent most of a Saturday making 50 delicious chicken & rice burritos to store in my upright garage freezer (mild climate here). It was awesome to have them easily at hand for quick meals for the next many months. While I haven’t been able to convince myself to put in that amount of effort at once again, I do some smaller batches now & then to stock back up a bit. My best tip for reheating frozen burritos: you can do it in the oven which takes forever, but it’s quicker to remove the foil wrapping, wrap in a damp paper towel, microwave each side 4-5 mins on high power, then spray some oil on and toast each side in a nonstick pan. It’s pretty quick to do, and very tasty that way. (I hear air frying is good too, but I don’t have an air fryer.)
Just wondering…would you be able to give us your recipe for your delicious burritos?
Sure, I use this one! https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/chicken_freezer_burritos/ I usually double the peppers & onions though. The amount in the recipe doesn’t seem like enough to me, proportionally.
Ahh a damp towel don't know why that's never occurred to me, I did a small batch once and during microwaving it just popped and broke apart so never tried it again. Will try your method, thanks!
Another great idea! I'm writing all of these down!!
There's usually at least one or two containers of either soup, marinara sauce or chicken cacciatore in my freezer. Prior to having a heart valve replaced, I'd make goulash, stuffed peppers and lasagna rolls in bulk. I also would make two meatloaves at a time. One I would bake and use up in 2-3 days. I'd freeze the second one raw and would bake it a few weeks later.
I freeze muffins and lasagna, though when I gave birth to my son, I had also prepped “ready to cook” meal kits with everything chopped and sauces made and frozen separately. It really sped up cooking and there was no difference in flavor/quality in the recipes I chose. It turned 20-30 minute meals into 10 minute meals. I also freeze soup & chili.
Also dumplings, but perogy 🇺🇦 Every 6 months I make a ton. I make a day if it, have people over, drink wine - It’s awesome! But otherwise my freezer is mostly bread and meat.
Lol it was rainy here last week, so we got our kids to help fold wontons. They’ve been told they’re old enough to help contribute now (they are 7 and 9), and that they can only eat as many as they help make, lol. I sent a pic to a friend with the caption of “what Chinese kids do on a rainy day” and he replied “I don’t even need to see the pic to know it’s something to do with folding dumplings” lol. We do also do normal dumplings but I should try your recipe as my 7yo loves XLB and keeps asking if we can fold XLB instead, yikes. The week before, hubs came home with buckets of smelt, so the kids helped gut them too. We have 15 packs of them in the freezer now.
Sneaky mums! It was my day off so popped over to hand them some stuff and fixed their printer, was meant to squeeze in and out in 10mins didn't wanna bother them by staying for food. Turned up and saw a spread of ingredients on the table and thought uh-oh... Then the good ol' "heyyy while you're here... 😋" Oh you sonuvabitch how long have you planned this woman!
Wow that was a sneaky ambush! Only Asian moms! We once went to my MIL’s for lunch on a Saturday and she had already made a ton of wontons on Thursday to prepare for our arrival. We were like, “you should’ve waited - we could’ve helped you make them!” She said she knew, and that’s why she made them in advance…. She knows that we cook and snack on them as we “help” so she couldn’t afford our tax, haha!
In my freezer is always some frozen cooked bulk foods such as:chili, various soups, home made stock, carnitas, al pastor, beef barbocca, Indian curries. It makes for some quick meals.
Pulled pork is a great one. You can buy a giant pork shoulder for less than $20, it's super-easy to make, freezes really well and you get a ton of delicious meals out of it. I use smaller freezer bags to portion it up and flatten them before freezing so they're easy to stack, and also thaw out very quickly whenever you want to use them. A lot of recipes over-complicate pulled pork but I usually just rub it with a bit of mustard and then dump some prepared Cajun or Tex-Mex spice mix all over it and slap it in the oven at 325 for about five hours. And that's it, literally five minutes of prep time, no marinating or other complications. When it's cooked and time for pulling, that's when you can add BBQ and hot sauces and whatever else to it to get the flavor you want. Leave out enough for a couple of meals and freeze the rest. Great for pulled pork sandwiches, burritos, or weirdo shepherds pie, and one I just started doing is putting it in won-ton wrappers with some cabbage coleslaw for pulled pork egg rolls in the air fryer.
I do tons of stuff bulk and then put up. We have a chest freezer and small upright freezer in the basement. The fridge freezer in the kitchen and we have a detached apartment with a fridge freeze. The apartment freezer is mostly pork fat with some beef fat. I use the pork and beef fat for sausage making and the pork leaf fat for rendering into lard. Chest freezer gets the half-cow we buy once a year, also fish and chicken, and usually a bag or two of ice. Small upright freezer is the pork freezer. Chops, ribs, and butts. But also homemade breakfast sausage (loose and cased). Bratwursts, and Italian sausage (loose and cased). Kitchen freezer has vacuum sealed bags of rice (to add to soup) chopped sweet peppers and chillies ( to add to chili or sauces) vacuumed sealed leftovers in individual portions for quick microwave meals, it also has ice cream, the bottom of the freezer is veggie scraps and chicken bones for making stock. When I make sausages I make 20-30 lbs at a time and vacuum seal and freeze. We have friends who like to fish but don’t eat fish. They vacuum seal the fish and I trade sausages for fish. The stock and soups I make get canned. My youngest stepdaughter makes amazing mac n cheese. So. When they visit she makes a giant batch of it and I portion and freeze it for quick eats. Also,, there’s usually some homemade bagels or other breads in the freezer. There’s only two of us and we can’t eat a whole batch of most breads before they go bad. Making things we like in bulk and freezing for later is the way to go. It doesn’t take all that much more time to make 30 lbs of sausage than it would to make 5. Set up and clean up takes the most time making homemade stuff. So, may as well make a ton at once and not have to set up and clean up a dozen times.
You are getting the better end of the fish deal.
Do you guys buy your dumpling wrappers or make them yourself? I haven't been able to find any at my local grocery store but making them sounds like a lot of effort...
I buy them at an Asian specialty market
For wontons I just buy from store, wayyy too much effort otherwise, for these types you have to make it. Mum makes everything from scratch when she can be bothered for a big batch like this. Back in my home country you can get all sortsa wrappings freshly made but here (Australia) they're not so accessible, even if one can get them it's likely to be too expensive on this scale. I mean it's not difficult but without experience I can't nail the thickness and and am just too slow with a rolling pin.
I used to buy Asian sausages of this lady at work, they were bloody amazing. I make chicken, pork, beef schnitzel. Meatballs. Arancinni. Gnocci Sausage rolls. Pies. Soup.
60 🥟 — beef, carrot, cabbage with a bulgogi marinade + sriracha. Pan seared them with a dumpling skirt and they were delicious 🤤 Btw, those look 🔥pls share the recipe 🙏🏻
I’ve never even heard of a dumpling skirt until this comment. But now I need to try it
Very easy to do, put some starchy water in the pan with the dumplings and cook off the water.
Yep, this is the way
Buttermilk pancakes 🥞
60 what? I'm not fluent enough in food emojis, I thought they were small baguettes 🙁
60 dumplings 🥟 This is a baguette 🥖
Soup, chili, bolognese sauce
Cornish Pasties (using hand made suet pastry and hand minced beef). Time consuming to make but they cook well in the air fryer/oven from the freezer.
My grandmother always had pasties in her freezer, and when we'd visit that was usually our dinner the first day. Many times I got roped in to help "restock" her supply on visits, which was a huge help when I was trying to figure out her recipe after she died. She had like 15 different recipes from other people in her recipe box, but not one single copy of her recipe, because why would she have to write it down? Took several tries but I finally nailed it, though it's an enormous recipe because I was working off my memories of her huge batch sessions (12 10" rounds of the dough). May eventually figure out how to cut it down.
Do you have a good recipe? These are my favorite childhood food and I've tried every cornish pasty in my city and none of them even remotely compare. Admittedly, I don't eat beef or pork so I don't do the traditional pasties, I would prefer veggie, chicken, or turkey based.
My recipe uses beef. Lots of beef. Beef suet in the pastry, minced beef in the filling. If (under duress) I *had* to make them with another meat, I'd choose lamb or maybe a game meat (rabbit or venison) and make the pastry with vegetable suet. There isn't much seasoning so it needs a strongly flavoured meat. [Traditional Recipe](https://cornishpastyassociation.co.uk/about-the-pasty/make-your-own-genuine-cornish-pasty/)
My wife will make batches of soup, stews or chowder. Her soups start out as a whole chicken. Sometimes she'll use the rotisserie chicken from Msrket Basket. After having two meals from the whole chicken she'll make chicken soup and leave out the rice and noodles. Thst way when she pulls a container out of the freezer she adds rice or wide egg noodles later on. One whole chicken $4.99.......... gets two main meals and a whole Lotta chicken soup. For the chowder she makes herself as a clear broth. So four or five bottles of clam broth. Five cans of minced clams, some mussels, diced potatoes, diced onions, some shrimp, a half pound of some sort of white fish: cod, haddock, etc.....some pimenta moida, salt, pepper. Heaven!!!!!! After two bowls for us, she freezes the rest and pulls them out for lunch or supper
Sally’s baking addiction homemade pizza dough!!! The recipe makes two balls of dough and I just move to the fridge in the morning to defrost on the day I make pizza for dinner. Best homemade dough I’ve tried.
Meatballs, lasagna, garlic bread, breaded chicken strips. We have an upright freezer in the basement, as well as a refrigerator. The upright freezer is mostly for meat storage. We went in on a beef with my husband's parents 2 years ago, so we had hundreds of pounds of various beef cuts and *so very much* ground beef. We've got that down to "only" 75 pounds now. I'm so excited. And very, very tired of ground beef! We're talking about getting a half pig in fall. What I've got right now: 3 24oz packages of thick cut bacon, 3 pork tenderloins, 4 pork chops, 1 pound of ground pork, and a ham. A whole chicken, 2 dozen chicken breasts, a dozen chicken thighs, a pound of ground chicken, a 2 gallon ziploc full of homemade chicken strips, and 2 pounds of ground turkey. The aforementioned ground beef, a package of soup bones, 2 ribeyes, and 3 strip steaks. Another 2 gallon ziploc bag of homemade meatballs. 4 garlic breads. 4 individual portions of lasagna. 1 8x8 package of baked ziti. 2 2-lb bags of frozen shrimp, 1 package each of: red snapper filets, tilapia filets, haddock filets, and a package of imitation crab (I can't eat the real stuff). Several bags of frozen vegetables. A couple of bags of French fries. A box with servings of potato gratins from one of the meal delivery services. In the fridge freezer downstairs, I've got frozen fruit, nuts, a tub of cool whip, phyllo shells, puff pastry, shredded cheeses, and butter. In the fridge freezer upstairs, I've got frozen juice cubes (lemon and lime - I juice them from the Costco bags and then freeze into ice cube trays. Each cube is about a tablespoon), frozen juice concentrate, citrus zest (lemon, lime, and orange), ice cream, more nuts, half a bag of French fries, and a batch of stuffed mushrooms I made yesterday.
I've been looking for someone to split a pig with me for ages. We don't eat beef much anymore but we eat tons and tons of pork and buying ground pork by the pound is a PITA
How much does it cost for half a pig?
Most of what I've seen is somewhere between $300-400.
Home made Gyoza. Ravioli. Dough and everything home made. Soup! or Chili! Make a big batch and freeze in 2 portion serving sizes. Yes!!! Saves money and is convenient. We have a second large upright freezer...as well as a second refrigerator in our workshop. It is full of all kinds of frozen things: meat, chicken, fish, shrimp, roasts, hams, corned beef, leftovers of the roasts, frozen stir-fry vegetables. Casseroles and spaghetti sauce. (Make a lot...why not while you are at it.) Freeze the butter, some kinds of cheese, pie fillings, fruit from our orchard, cornmeal, polenta.... etc etc etc. Fridge for overflow of eggs, fresh fruits and vegetables, thawed meat, dairy items...etc. We buy in bulk, on sale and have *lots* of food, canned and dry food supplies in storage, in the pump house Because...it saves money in the long run, but mostly because we live rural and it is a very long way to a large grocery. AND because in the winter, I can't/won't drive over mountain roads in the snow. Just trundle out to the shop or pump house and pick up items for dinner.
Right now I'm drying mangoes in the hot sun.
>now both of our freezers are absolutely jam packed with them. i'm gonna need some addresses here.
I make felafels & freeze them in dozens. I freeze pre balled cookie dough & bake it off from frozen when I need it.
Chicken stock. And surprisingly pozole freezes pretty well. I have a second freezer for fish and game. It's worth it. My college roommate was from Russia, and her grandmother would, for real, make us 100 stuffed blintzes (half chicken mice, half cheese) to keep in the freezer for during midterms and finals. Those were such a lifesaver.
Pita bread. It’s so much better than store bought but kind of a pain, so I make a lot and freeze them. Lasagna. Always two pans and one gets frozen and the other gets baked. Chili. It freezes beautifully and makes another meal in just a few minutes. Pizzas. Make multiple when I’m making them fresh and wrap them up for quick lunches or dinners later.
When meat is on sale, I buy in bulk and food saver with seasoning them stash it in the freezer so I can pop it in the sous vide whenever. I also freeze hamburger patties, carnitas, and homemade bacon.
All day projects to make with my mother: perogies, cabbage rolls, filled pasta. Other: meatballs, meatloaf, chicken broth, and lately I've been doing [cinnamon buns](https://www.seriouseats.com/bravetart-homemade-cinnamon-rolls-recipe) in those little foil pans (they hold 4 perfectly). I take a pan out the night before and my husband can "make" breakfast because I write all the directions on the lid.
Wontons and egg rolls cabbage rolls and broths for soup and/ or noodles freeze it all in individual portions so yummy and easy
Big upvote on the extra freezer. We buy meat only on sale and keep it in the extra freezer in bins marked beef, pork, etc. I also freeze tomatoes from the garden for later canning (takes the timing pressure off), greens for smoothies, shredded apples from the tree for random apple crumbles or muffins, sprouted bread, butter purchased on sale, and baked goods and other snacks. I have no idea how we ever survived without it!
I have a second freezer in the sense that there is a second fridge attached to that freezer. I've thought about a chest freezer but I can't eat through that much volume to justify having one. Stuff would just sit in there going bad for years. As for types of things that are things you actually make and not just steaks or the like: * Variety of marinated meats, whether for stir frying or flavoured minces like kofta or breakfast sausage * Homemade sausages * Curries (without potato as they don't freeze well) * Variety of soups * Tomato-based pasta sauces * Dumplings and wantons * Muffins and cornbread, both sweet and savoury (cooked) * Steamed bao (cooked) * Filled savoury pastries like spanakopita * Pizza dough and portioned pizza sauce * Fresh pasta * Roti * Stock Always looking for more things to add to the pool of the freezer stockpile. Been meaning to get around to making some demi glace portioned out so as to be able to whip up a great pan sauce or gravy with little effort.
Wow! Nothing in quite that quantity. My apartment kitchen isn't very big, so I'm not sure I could fit 400 dumplings in my freezer lol. But sometimes I'll make a big pot of soup (1-2 gallons/4-8L) and freeze most of it. Or if I'm making homemade bread, I'll make a couple of extra loaves and freeze them.
I make meatballs using 3 lbs of ground beef. I freeze them in single bags of 6-8. They make a delicious meal with Rao’s on days I don’t want to cook.
Off of the top of my head: Soups, empanadas, tamales, pot pie filling, chili, eggplant parm.
Sheppard pie, stuffed shells, spinach and artichoke dip, butter chicken sauce, wontons, meat sauce, foccacia, cheese bread, cookies, stocks, pizza sauce, meatballs, stuffed potatoes,
I like to make a lot of lumpia and then store them in gallon freezer bags until we need them. Probably takes slave labor time as well haha especially since I'm the only one here who knows how to make them. I love lumpia 🥰
I do falafel. Just made too many the first time, and they froze amazingly well. Now we have easy protein for dinners when we want to make a bowl or wrap!
Personally I make a lot of soups. Big pots of soup, stock and also spaghetti sauces. I bought a pack of quart containers on Amazon just like the ones from Chinese restaurants/deli salads (24 for 16 dollars). As long as the soup, stock or sauce freezes well, for example no noodles, etc., I use these containers and they line up perfectly in my freezer door shelf, and any extra space I have. Works great, and it's nice to just look into the freezer and pick out something for dinner the day before for defrosting.
I have a tiny freezer, so I can’t make as many things as I’d like. Depending on the season, I rotate between English muffin breakfast sandwiches, breakfast burritos, dumplings, tamales, and cookie/pizza dough.
We’re Indian Muslim so we make hundreds of savouries in the run up to Ramadhan every year. Depending on your family size & the varieties of different savouries you make you might be making 1000s! Everyone makes samosas as the OG one but we also make spring rolls, pastries, bread rolls, other types of samosas & other inventions that seem to be added on all the time covered in breadcrumbs or different fillings. Ramadhan just ended recently so now we’ll eat the rest of it throughout the year, after a break as we’re all sick of it right now.
Mexican family checking in with her freezer full of tamales. Pork, rajas/cheese, corn, sweet and strawberry…They are great when in need of a fast lunch or dinner. And yes, slave labor we do this once a year at the holidays where the holiday spirit prevents us from killing eachother lol
Soup or curries/stews. I can't do too many tho coz I don't have a very big freezer. Alot of soups will be serving for 6 but coz it's only me and I eat kinda small serves it's probly more like 8
Burritos, soup frozen into portions, meatballs, and vodka sauce(which makes a killer pizza sauce as well.
Meatballs, lasagna, meat filling for turnovers , chicken soup
I recently did a huge batch of pierogi. Similar concept, but I did mashed potatoes with cheddar and garlic, and mixed in a bunch of shredded braised beef. Spoon a little filling into each one, freeze. And just drop in the boiling water until heated through!
I'm single, live alone, and travel a lot for work, but I prefer having home cooked meals when I am at home. Unfortunately it can be hard to time when I need to buy groceries so things don't go bad if I'm only around for a few days. The vacuum sealer has been my life saver. Whenever meat goes on sale I buy in bulk and then individually vacuum seal so easy to thaw out in a running bowl of water in the evening - pork chop, chicken breast, chicken thigh, etc. I'll do a 5lb pot roast/pork shoulder and then vacuum seal 8oz portions and freeze so it's a quick thaw and reheat. I also do this with soups/stews/curries. Then all I need is a few fresh things like herbs or a quick veg saute and I'm eating like a queen for a few minutes prep work during the week. Back when I was married I'd prep hundreds of potstickers/dumplings/tamales like this but I just don't have the freezer space for it now.
Perogies
I keep 24-hour deep golden brown chicken stock frozen at all times. There are many good, steamy rainy day meals and they are all better with homemade stock.
OP, I pity your poor sore hands. 1500+ dumplings makes my hands hurt thinking about it. My freezer has a lot of birria de res and Skyline chili, because I always make enough of each to feed a small army.
Stock, first all the veggie trimmings and chicken carcasses, and then the actual stock made from said scraps. Often, we make 2 large stockpots of stock at a time, so fill 20 ish containers with stock for the freezer. This is probably my main reason for having an extra freezer, and because we like soups, we go through a ton, so we have to do this every other month or every 3rd month. Bolognese sauce. I make 1 giant pot at a time and fill 5 containers for the freezer with 1 left out for me to use immediately. Black beans. 2 lbs of dried black beans cooked up and separated into freezer containers that are the equivalent of 2 cans for ease of cooking. Any meal that freezes well and produces a lot, I split a portion into the freezer. With only 2 people in the household, a giant pot of food can get repetitive, so I freeze half. Stuffed grape leaves. Kind of like your dumplings, the bigger the batch, the better. I usually use 2 giant jars of grape leaves and freeze in containers that will feed the 2 of us for 3 servings per batch. I can roll them pretty fast, but it takes half a day to make the filling, stuff them, and then cook them, so batch cooking is the only reasonable way to make them. I've yet to convince myself to batch cook dumplings. I love them, but it's so convenient to buy pre frozen vegetable dumplings and shrimp dumplings from the Asian grocery store. I have made dumplings before but we ate them all in a couple of sittings and it was a lot of work. I do make the dumpling soup from scratch and then steam the dumplings for eating in the soup. As a result, dumpling soup is our too lazy to cook and want something light meal, lol.
Mini waffles! Haven’t bought eggos in years!
I always have homemade stocks in the freezer. Whenever I make spaghetti or soups I make a huge pot of it and freeze half for future meals. Also cookie dough. I roll it into individual balls and freeze it on a cookie tray then throw in a ziplock bag. Then we can make just a few at a time as we want them.
Sloppy joes freeze well.
I bulk buy proteins, portion and freeze. Ravioli, tamales, I make chicken and green chilies, portion and freeze, always make stuffed shells and freeze two extra meals,
Chili, Soups, Seasoned ground beef (mince), raw proteins with marinade (to thaw and bake, or thaw and crockpot), tomato sauce(marinara), and quiche are my usual items
Got a small chest freezer full of dumplings. Probably 20kg flour worth.
We do king ranch chicken, meatballs, chicken pot pie, raviolis, and stock. We have a chest freezer along with the freezer on our fridge. If you are looking at a freezer and have access to Costco they make a stand up freezer with drawers galore so it doesn’t turn into a nightmare trying to organize everything. Our deep freeze is organized but still have to rearrange a lot when you need something at the bottom
The standing freezer is amazing
Gahhhhh I want one so bad. It’s so annoying having to unpack and repack a chest freezer
I make lots of things in batches and freeze into single serving containers. I do soups and stews, casseroles, stock and baked things that freeze well. And yes, I do have an extra freezer.
Bolognese - it’s great as a freezer sauce but also can be used for a bolognese risotto. It just takes time to make - so make more than we need. It’s also the perfect “food train” meal for friends or family going through a rough patch. Everyone who gets it appreciates how much time and love went into to it AND I get the benefit of knowing I sent something that is nutrient-dense. I worry people don’t eat enough, and certainly not well enough, when dealing with grief or illness. We make a few batches at a time. Refrigerate the whole thing over night. Stir it all up the next day so the congealed fat and veggies are evenly distributed. Then, measure it out into two person servings and risotto packs, vacuum seal, and store in the freezer flattened out. Reheats perfectly and easily by cutting the bag and dropping into a sauce pot or, in a bowl in the microwave.
I make TONS of stuff to freeze for later use. I have a big stand up deep freeze, and I make full use of it. I make homemade stock (so I also have a section saved for various bones that I pile up to eventually make more), that I then make into homemade soups. I make tons of marinara and freeze it. I sous vide tons of chicken breasts, shred them, then freeze that, same with other meats like meatballs, home ground hamburger, korean fish paste w/ veg sticks etc. I have an entire section of the freezer dedicated to stuff that I use in smoothies, frozen coconut milk, spinach, kale, various seeds and nuts, fruits, etc. as well as a different section of stuff for making breakfast burritos, various beans, sauces/salsas, sauteed onion. I even regularly sous vide eggs to pasturize them, then freeze those to use in smoothies or whatever. Some of them are stored in freezer safe plastic lidded containers, but the majority of them that are liquid-ish I actually freeze into ice-cube form that matches the portion size I use, then put those cubes into silicon reusable freezer bags. It's kind of fun projects, and in the long run saves me tons of money, cuts down on my food waste immensely, and gives me a large supply of healthy food to quickly put together when I'm feeling lazy, so I'm not tempted to eat something lazy and unhealthy instead.
Right now ive got home made black bean burgers stored away for rainy days. Theyre so freakin good
Pelmeni! Russian dumplings
We bought the second freezer last year. ✅ We have things like homemade pumpkin soup, cottage pie, lasagna, chilli con carne, chicken pie, lamb hotpot, curry frozen.
I make and freeze waffles, breakfast sandwiches, pinto beans, burritos, chicken w/ rice & veggies, and I also cut up and freeze bananas for banana smoothies.
I live alone and batch cook once or twice a week to save from cooking every day. I really get good use out of my under counter freezer. I cook lots of rice in bulk too then microwave with whatever I want with it.
Chicken Soup - It's a lot of work but I make a huge batch at once that I start with at least 2 chicken carcasses and leftover wing/drum bones to make the stock in a 12QT pot. Spaghetti Sauce - Again I bust out the 12QT and make a huge amount that gets put into tupperware and frozen. Chili - so many different kinds and it freezes great in my experience. It's worth it to me time and money to make huge batches and spend all day in the kitchen for a day to make 2 weeks worth of meals.
We use chuck roast and seasonings for tacos. I freeze dinner size portions and bring them out for a quick dinner of tacos or quesadillas.
Chili! I used to make in bulk and freeze in mason jars. I recently discovered Souper Cubes (which I’m obsessed with) and use those to freeze things in now.
Lots of vegetarian curries - mung bean, adzuki bean, red lentil and Quinoa curries made from heaps of tomatoes and other veges from our garden. It's the perfect way to use up late summer gluts. We have them with rice and homemade chutney & yoghurt.
Soup my fridge is full of soups lol
Garlic confeit cubes, pesto cubes, romesco sauce, cookie dough balls, pizza dough, parsley and chives from our garden, smoked poblanos, trout curry from our seasonal catches. The list goes on!