Packing and sealing for freezing

1 servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient

Directions

PACKING AND SEALING

The secret to successful freezer packaging is to seal the air out and keep it out. Immediately after blanching and cooling, pack vegetables loosely in proper containers. Plastic freezer bags and boxes or can-and-freeze jars are all excellent. Freezer containers must be airtight, moisture/vaporproof, odorless, tasteless, and grease proof.

HEAD SPACE Since food expands as it freezes, you must allow room (or head space) for this expansion. Otherwise the lids will pop off, bags will burst, and you'll have wasted food, time, and money. Foods that are dry need no head space. Food that's packed in liquid or is mostly liquid needs ¼ inch of head space for pints, ½ inch for quarts.

If you pack foods in containers with narrow mouths, the food expands upward in the container even more, requiring ¾ inch of head space for pints and 1-½ inches for quarts. We suggest you stick to wide mouth containers. Most recipes give you head space needs for each particular food for wide mouth containers only.

SEALING How you seal food for the freezer is just as important as how you package it. After wiping the mouths of your freezer containers with a clean, damp cloth, seal rigid containers by following the manufacturer's instructions, or by snapping, screwing, or fitting the lid tightly on the container. If the lid doesn't seem tight, seal it with freezer tape.

Seal bags or boilable pouches with a heat sealing appliance; follow the instructions that come with the heat sealer. Or seal bags by pressing out the air, then twisting the bag close to the food. Fold the twisted section over and fasten it with a rubber band, pipe cleaner, or twist tie. To get air out of an odd shaped bag, lower the filled bag into a sink full of water and let the water press the air out. Twist the bag top, lift it out, double the twisted area backward, and fasten. For zipper closed type freezer bags, press the air out, then press the zipper closed by starting at one edge and slide your fingers along the length of the zipper pressing it closed.

LABELING A good freezer label should tell what food is in the package, the amount of food or number of servings, and when it went into the freezer. Better yet, it should tell how the food was packed, and when, for example, "Sugar Pack Strawberries: June, 1976" You might want to include an expiration or use by date. Frozen main dishes, sauces packed in boilable pouches, and other more complex items call for a label with description, number of servings, perhaps even heating and thawing instructions.

Select labeling materials that will last. A grease pencil or felt tip marker may write directly on the container. Freezer tape makes a quick label, as do pressure sensitive labels from a stationery store. Try to print legibly and use standard abbreviations.

Source: Vegetable Gardening Encyclopedia Typos by Dorothy Flatman 1995 Submitted By DOROTHY FLATMAN On 09-28-95

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