Bacon for two - any other COVID kitchen tips?

[glwestcott]

So we love bacon, but use it sparingly.  A pound can get moldy before we use it. Freezing is fine, but packaging in portions is problematic because we never know what the portion size should be until it’s time to cook it and once it’s frozen, it’s hard to pull apart unless thawed first. A few weeks ago I came across a post in Reddit that’s really been helpful while we’re locked down. The tip was to roll bacon up one piece at a time and put them on a sheet pan (I covered first with parchment) and freeze. Once frozen, throw them in a baggie and keep in freezer. You can then take out as many or as few as you need. They thaw quickly when you’re ready to cook them.

What kitchen tips have you learned that have been helpful in getting through the pandemic?


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[RioG]

That is an excellent tip.

[seattlegirl]

Oh, that is a good tip!

Not really a tip, per se, but I have remembered that frozen veggies are pretty good and rather versatile, which has allowed me to go longer between shopping trips.

[picote]

That’s a great tip! I’ve become a little freezer obsessed in the last year.

Not sure if it’s COVID related, but along a similar vein, I’ve been buying the large bags of lemons, limes and oranges and juicing them. Limes get frozen in 3oz jars, lemons in 4oz and oranges in 8oz. It gives us easy fresh citrus for carnitas/fish/mimosas.

[rocketgirl]

I was having the same issue with bacon.  Boyfriend was just like, oh, take a knife and cut the package in half, stuff one half in a ziplock in the freezer and the other half in a ziplock in the fridge.  (Plus if I'm only making bacon for me, with the half strips, I can use the smaller pan.)

We do a lot of freezing in ziplocks so you can freeze it flat.  We're probably killing the planet though.  Sometimes I press a clear "line" with no food down the center and fold the ziplock. Then if I only want to thaw half of it, I can cut the ziplock down the "line" without trying to cut through say frozen mac & cheese.

I really do need to figure out what other things will freeze though since I don't use a whole onion at once (or really much of a whole anything at once), etc.

Parchment paper IS awesome though to put between sliced meat so you don't have to pull out and thaw all of it stuck together.

[radial]

I cook bacon in the oven, a pound or two at a time.  Then store the cooked strips in a ziplock bag to be used as needed.  The cooking process kills off the cooties so the bacon keeps for a long time with just refrigeration.  If you wanted to freeze it for some reason, I don't think you would have to worry about the frozen strips sticking together.  There's not much moisture left in cooked bacon. 

[picote]

I was having the same issue with bacon.  Boyfriend was just like, oh, take a knife and cut the package in half, stuff one half in a ziplock in the freezer and the other half in a ziplock in the fridge.  (Plus if I'm only making bacon for me, with the half strips, I can use the smaller pan.)

We do a lot of freezing in ziplocks so you can freeze it flat.  We're probably killing the planet though.  Sometimes I press a clear "line" with no food down the center and fold the ziplock. Then if I only want to thaw half of it, I can cut the ziplock down the "line" without trying to cut through say frozen mac & cheese.

I really do need to figure out what other things will freeze though since I don't use a whole onion at once (or really much of a whole anything at once), etc.

Parchment paper IS awesome though to put between sliced meat so you don't have to pull out and thaw all of it stuck together.

Yes to the parchment paper. Costco business center sells the small cut pieces by the 1000 that you see in between cheese, etc. I use it a lot when I vacuum freeze things.