Foodsday Tuesday: Feel the Burn!

I live alone, so I end up with leftovers all the time. And in order to preserve leftovers (because I usually can't eat them all right away), I've been known to freeze them. For exorbitantly long periods of time. (I definitely just made margaritas with some frozen mango chunks I bought a year ago.) Sometimes, they live in the freezer for a while because I forget about them: more often, I'm saving them for when I'll really want or need them. Last night, I wasn't feeling fat enough, so I figured I'd take care of the problem in a hurry and eat my last surviving piece of raspberry mousse cake. It had been living in a tupperware container in the door to my freezer for a while: I stared at it every time I went questing for ice cubes, waiting for the day that I'd finally give in and yummy, yummy, mousse cake.

Looks like I waited a bit too long on that one. Because although the cake still looked mostly intact (some of the jellied topping didn't survive), it tasted slightly freezer burnt. (I still ate most of it, though.) It begs the question, though: what, exactly, is freezer burn, and what causes it?

Freezer burn is what happens when the moisture leaves food as it's freezing (or while it's frozen) and—usually—forms ice crystals on the outside of food. It's generally caused by food that's not properly wrapped or sealed before going in the freezer, but it can also happen if your freezer's power goes out or if its temperature settings don't stay consistent—or if you leave the door open (on purpose or accidentally) for more than a few moments at a time. As frozen food thaws, the ice crystals in it become water (and, depending on what the food is, other liquids) that trickles out of the food that it leaked from. When your freezer gets cold again, the liquid will re-freeze and form ice crystals on the outside of the frozen food: that's freezer burn. Most frozen foods will develop a little freezer burn—that's the price you pay for transporting frozen food from the store to your home—and just how much freezer burn is "too much" is subjective and often tricky: there were no ice crystals at all on my cake last night.

Frozen vegetables are generally okay, even if they're freezer burned, provided you steam them or cook them in a sauce (the former can help restore some moisture, and the latter can usually mask the freezer burnt taste). I've used freeze burnt fruits in blended drinks (alcoholic and not) because all that matters in those is the pulp, really. Raw frozen meat (it sounds contradictory, but you know what I mean) is a bit trickier. Look for dry patches toward the center of the meat, especially if there's a lot of ice crystallization on the meat. If you can't spot the dry spots when the meat's still frozen, try defrosting it in the microwave for a bit: the dry patches will get even drier and harden a bit as they cook. It may seem like a lot of work, but it's better than serving dry chicken breasts at dinner. (However, it should be noted that sometimes freezer burnt chicken can be used in soup. We don't recommend doing it unless you're in a pinch, though.)

There's no way to ward off freezer burn completely, but it's less likely to plague you if you don't keep things in the freezer for too long (hi, Pot, it's me, Kettle...), keep your freezer set to a consistent temperature, don't keep the door open for too long, don't re-freeze thawed foods, and make sure all your food is properly sealed. Freezer bags are actually better than regular ones—it's not just a ploy to get you to spend more money—and disposable storage containers don't close as tightly as the more expensive, non-disposable ones.

Of course, you are your own best judge of what is or isn't too freezer burnt for consumption: nobody but you knows what you think tastes good!

Image via Living In My Mind.