How long will food be safe to eat if frozen immediately after cooking it?
How long will food be safe to eat if frozen immediately after cooking it?
I made some awesome arroz con gris (beans and rice) that I froze after cooking it. The only animal product it contains would be lard. Otherwise, it's just rice, beans, garlic, onions, green bell peppers, olives, and herbs. I don't remember how long ago I made it, but it could be anywhere from 6-12 months ago. It stayed frozen the whole time. If I thaw it in a pool of room temp water and warm it up on the stove, is it safe to eat?
It's been a hard day and my brain ran out of thinking fuel. I can't even google this rn. I appreciate any helpful responses.
Edit: Based on responses and the American federal government, it should be safe. My freezer is set to 0*F, so we're having dinner tonight! If you see me posting a lot in the next few days, it's cause I got hospitalized, and you're all gonna pay for it with my shitposts from the hospital bed! 😋
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I've eaten year old frozen meat.
Rice however doesn't seem to freeze well. Not sure why.
Rice doesn't freeze/re-cook well because when you cook it it fills with water. When you freeze it you trap that moisture in it and there's really no way to reheat it without all that moisture escaping. It's the same reason rice gets hard if you leave it out too long - the water evaporates.
Well I ate it cold and it still wasn't good. Only frozen one night.
So you froze rice and then ate it cold? Like frozen cold? If you ate it frozen, it wasn't good because it was still frozen. If you ate it "room temperature" cold it wasn't good because it dried out as it thawed! It also probably dried out a little before you froze it.
Out of curiosity why can't you just make fresh rice for the reheated dish? Is it all too mixed together?
Sigh no I obviously did not eat it frozen. It was frozen in and thawed in a glass sealed Tupperware container so no it didn't dry out before, during, or after. Thawed to room temperature not reheated. There is just something weird about rice that it doesn't freeze well in my experience.
Since it's a plant, my guess would be the expansion of the water becoming ice probably ruptures many of the cell walls. Even if the melting water stays where it was, the structure is broken. It had no room to stretch because it had already doubled when it absorbed the water in cooking.
The water still escapes the rice in an air tight container it just stays in the container as condensation. It won't soak back into the rice without heat, and even then the texture of the rice will not be the same. It won't be fluffy and soft like fresh rice is. If you aren't worried about adding extra calories, you could try pan frying the rice before freezing or after thawing. The texture will change but it should be very flavorful thanks to the oil and added moisture.
It's because of retrogradation, basically the two forms of starch arrange themselves in a new way when it cools.
That's supposed to happen if you refrigerate rice (ie leftovers)which I do all the time and eat no problem. It's the freezing that doesn't work.