How to prevent freezer burn?

LovetoLive

Fri, Jan 16 2015, 12:33 pm

How long can I expect challah to freeze for before getting freezer burnt?
How long for meat or chicken or fish?
How do I wrap it so it will last longer?

zaq

Sat, Jan 17 2015, 9:10 pm

The key is to double- wrap it in a way that will exclude all air. Aluminum foil is the best for this because you can shape it to cling to every contour of the food. Unfortunately, aluminum foil is also the most expensive wrap there is. Saran wrap is second-best; it won't cling to the contours of a braided challah, but it does stick to moist foods very well. I'm not fond of using aluminum foil or plastic directly on moist foods because things like tomato sauce will corrode the aluminum, and I'm concerned about plasticizers leaching out of Saran wrap after very long storage. I like to use wax paper touching the food and something else for a second layer, either ziplok plastic freezer bags or aluminum foil.

Freezer "burn" means air has gotten in and dried out the food. Proper wrapping should solve this problem even if you store for long periods. However, extended storage in the freezer will result in an unpleasant stale "freezer" taste, so you should not plan on extremely long-term storage.