In article >, biig > wrote:

> Can you short term freeze broccoli and cauliflower without blanching,
> and still have a safe product? Blanching seems to leave too much water
> and they stick together even when I "well drain"
> them....Thanks....Sharon

It would be safe, but I think the texture would end up leaving much to
be desired. ;-)

Try spreading the blanched veggies on a cookie sheet and freezing them
that way, then bagging them once they are frozen.

A little trick mom taught me!

HTH?

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K.

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On Sat, 19 Feb 2005 07:03:06 -0500, biig > wrote:

>
> Can you short term freeze broccoli and cauliflower without blanching,
>and still have a safe product? Blanching seems to leave too much water
>and they stick together even when I "well drain"
>them....Thanks....Sharon

Depends on how you blanche the vegetables and how you drain them
immediately following the blanching. I don't like frozen broccoli
but cauliflower is not too bad. Dont ever blanch and freeze capsicums
or green beans. They just don't work.



Daisy

Can you short term freeze broccoli and cauliflower without blanching,
and still have a safe product? Blanching seems to leave too much water
and they stick together even when I "well drain"
them....Thanks....Sharon

"biig" > wrote in message ...
>
> Can you short term freeze broccoli and cauliflower without blanching,
> and still have a safe product? Blanching seems to leave too much water
> and they stick together even when I "well drain"
> them....Thanks....Sharon

As I understand it, and double-checking the U of M book on freezing foods -

1) blanching is done to stop enzyme action that continues in the freezer,
that action slower the lower the temperature until 0 F is reached. The
enzymes apparently break down the product and vitamins above 0 F.
(The water inside the fibers breaks the fiber down by water expansion and
makes the fiber soggy of the product is frozen at higher than -10 F, i.e.,
if you freeze it too slowly. )

So "short-term" is relative to the freezer temp and the enzymes involved.

But if stored at 0 F, a lack of blanching effects in vegetables are
apparently seen after about four weeks.

2) Blanching requires the internal temperature of the vegetable get to 180
F, and cold (iced) water to quench as soon as they are taken from the
boiling water.

Broccoli and Cauliflower are both listed in the blanch table as 4 minutues.

I would guess that having too much water on the product means you had too
little boiling water in the pot so it stopped boiling too long - and perhaps
you left them in too long so they boiling water thoroughly cooked some of
the fiber....?

3) And when storing in the freezer - to minimize freezer burn, put a layer
of Saran wrap tightly on any stored product followed by aluminum foil wrap.
Unlike other plastics made into sheets (glad, et al), Saran is the only
thermoplastic plastic that does not allow moisture migration.

Daisy wrote:
[snip]
> Don't ever blanch and freeze capsicums
> or green beans. They just don't work.

Our experience differs from that. When we've grown so many green beans
in the back yard that all our friends got tired of them we have had to
freeze some. We did it this way:

1. bring a large pot of water to full boil.
2. rinse beans, put in water. Do not tip 'n tail.
3. when water (quickly) returns to boil, time for 30 seconds.
4. dip them out, plunge in ice water bath.
5. drain when cold, spread to dry.
6. package in freezer zip bags. (no doubt Tilia would be ideal
but we don't have one)

It worked fine, at least as good as the commercial product.

We also froze bell peppers, both green and red (fully ripe). Here we
followed the method we found on a gardening group: pick, place in
freezer bag, place in freezer. They were fine for cooking, a little
bit soft for a salad or other raw use.

Never had more broccoli than we could eat, never grew cauliflower.

-aem

biig > wrote in message >...
> Can you short term freeze broccoli and cauliflower without blanching,
> and still have a safe product? Blanching seems to leave too much water
> and they stick together even when I "well drain"
> them....Thanks....Sharon

cauliflower can go black if frozen for too long unblanched, don't
know about broccoli though .keep a couple of absorbent tea-towels for
drying the veg as draining is not good enough on its own. it really
needs to be dried too.green beans are easily blanched and frozen --i
wonder how long the writer blanched hers for?? 2 minutes is enough as
they only take about 5 to cook from raw.

biig wrote:
> By short term, I mean a week or two at the most. A good size
> cauliflower is too much for us for one meal, so I froze what we
didn't
> use and mixed in some cleaned raw broccoli. We have the combo once a
> week usually...thanks.....Sharon

Why not simply bisect the cauliflower. Use half and store the other
half in the fridge... cruciferous veggies can easily keep refrigerated
for more than a month. I think home freezing cauliflower is wasteful,
turns it to mush. Most veggies don't freeze well unless they're flash
frozen.

biig wrote:
> Can you short term freeze broccoli and cauliflower without blanching,
> and still have a safe product? Blanching seems to leave too much
water
> and they stick together even when I "well drain"
> them....Thanks....Sharon

Its just a vegetable. Water be dammed. Freeze it. Enjoy it later.

Pierre

"biig" > wrote in message ...
>
> Can you short term freeze broccoli and cauliflower without blanching,
> and still have a safe product? Blanching seems to leave too much water
> and they stick together even when I "well drain"
> them....Thanks....Sharon

Blanching has nothing to do with safety, so the answer is yes. It is
generally accepted that it improves quality, however.


--
Peter Aitken

Remove the crap from my email address before using.

By short term, I mean a week or two at the most. A good size
cauliflower is too much for us for one meal, so I froze what we didn't
use and mixed in some cleaned raw broccoli. We have the combo once a
week usually...thanks.....Sharon

walamalacalucy wrote:
>
> biig > wrote in message >...
> > Can you short term freeze broccoli and cauliflower without blanching,
> > and still have a safe product? Blanching seems to leave too much water
> > and they stick together even when I "well drain"
> > them....Thanks....Sharon
>
> cauliflower can go black if frozen for too long unblanched, don't
> know about broccoli though .keep a couple of absorbent tea-towels for
> drying the veg as draining is not good enough on its own. it really
> needs to be dried too.green beans are easily blanched and frozen --i
> wonder how long the writer blanched hers for?? 2 minutes is enough as
> they only take about 5 to cook from raw.