What's in your freezer?


Freezers hold foods at -20C, extending the shelf-life of most ingredients by months. It is hard to imagine how people coped without it back then. The content of one's freezer speaks volumes about her eating habits, cooking styles, and really, the lifestyle. My aunt had a box freezer in her garage that kept bags after bags of microwavable hamburgers and hot pockets. There were also tons of juice concentrate and frozen vegetables. The content of my freezer changed quite a bit over the years. When I had a car and groceries stores were not within walking distance, I usually shopped on weekends and bought meat in bulk packages. I kept lots of frozen beef, pork, and chicken for use on any day of the week.

Now I don't have a car, and I pass by a supermarket everyday after work. I shop for food almost daily. This way the food is always fresh, and I avoid leaving old produce in the fridge and letting them go to waste. So presumably my freezer would have more room now. That is really not the case. Here are the main items:

Chicken stock: I have (at the current count) 11 tupperware containers full of homemade chicken stock. This I simply cannot live without. The standby roast chicken dinner cannot be served without a good gravy. The coal miner's wife's low budget dinner pasta alla carbonara also requires excellent stock.

Chicken bones: can't have the above without it.

Nuts and rice: Supposedly nuts stay fresh longer in the freezer. Rice at room temperature sometimes breeds rice bugs, which are yucky.

Ice cream maker: Yup, I got the cheap kind. The bowl must be frozen before use.

Starbucks Almond Fudge Coffee Ice Cream: this is constantly stocked in my freezer...

Frozen buns: I get these from Chinatown markets. These are quick, easy, and fairly nutritious breakfast food.

Peas: One of very few veggies that freeze well. In fact, freshly shelled peas' sugar content drops dramatically fast. Unless you plan to shell your own peas from farm fresh peapods, frozen baby peas are likely much more tender and sweeter than fresh ones.

Other odds and ends: over-ripe bananas -- when I collect 4 bananas I make a loaf of banana bread; vodka - uh, not mine; extra pie dough; shrimp shell and heads - leftover from peeling shrimp and are excellent in fish stocks.

What's in your freezer?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Is the vodka Ketel One? I would be scary if I am right. :) I'll do a blog about my freezer once I stop working 24/7...

We use chicken broth (canned), it's NOT the same, but we are lazy. We only do real chicken stock about once a week.
Albertitto said…
Bingo! Yes, it is Ketel One. You can actually click on the picture for a bigger version, and the resolution is high enough to make out the text on the cap.

How do you possibly do real chicken stock once a week?? It takes me at least a month or 2 to collect enough chicken carcasses to make a big pot of chicken stock. Then the stock usually lasts long enough for me to collect the next round of chicken bones.
Anonymous said…
No, I did not click on the picture, I don't need bigger version, I can spot any vodka a mile away...haha...

Maybe it's not chicken stock my mom makes then, she calls it Gao Tang (tall soup?). I don't know what's in it...
Albertitto said…
yeah, gao tang mean stock, though it could be chicken, pork, or beef. I do see these old stewing hens in Chinese markets that are mainly for making stocks. I believe the most common stock is made with a stewing hens and really good ham. I think the Chinese Americans usually use Smithfield ham. But I haven't tried making this stock yet.
John said…
Buy chicken wings, use a cleaver to cut them into pieces, and brown them in oil. Then use these to make stock (or to intensify the flavor of the stock you already made). Although really a brown stock, you'll be amazed at how intense the flavor is, and you'll never make any sauces or gravies with regular stock again!
Albertitto said…
That's too much work...plus I am anal about frying things stinking up the apartment. I keep the stock for everyday use, so I'm not too particular about it. I actually throw in whatever leftover pork and duck bones or meat. When I made the thanksgiving turkey this year, I did brown the turkey giblets and the neck for the turkey stock to make the gravy.
Albertitto said…
oh, and I actually have quite a bit of browned chicken in it. Most of the bones I have in the freezer are from roasted chickens and cornish hens. And we almost never get to the wings, so those are definitely browned and included in the stock.