How to prevent freezer burn … kitchen helper
Do you pull things out of the freezer to find them covered in tiny ice crystals? These can degrade the quality of the food and make it mushy when it defrosts. There’s a hack to stop this - and all you need is a bowl of water and a Ziploc bag. Read on to find out how!
Food gets freezer burn when there is too much air surrounding food, or it is not wrapped properly. Moisture from the food gets into that air and freezes, forming a ‘fur’ of tiny ice crystals on the surface of the food. Here’s how to stop that happening:
1. Make sure the food is fully cooled and not releasing steam.
2. Place it in a Ziploc bag and seal the bag almost fully, leaving about five centimetres of the ‘zip’ open.
3. Fill a deep saucepan or bowl with cold water.
4. Slowly lower the Ziploc bag into the water leaving the ‘zip’ just above the water line. Don’t get any water in the bag.
5. The water will push the air to the top of the bag and then out. Zip the bag closed completely.
6. Dry the outside of the bag and place flat in the freezer.
This will create as close as you can get to a vacuum seal without using an actual vacuum sealer, and should save your meat, leftovers, fruit, and vegetables from freezer burn.
