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Question: How do I keep foods with strong flavours and smells from tainting other food in my fridge?
Answer: If you’ve ever left a cling-wrapped half onion on top of a pound of butter in your fridge, or a wrapped bowl of diced onions near a jug of milk overnight, you know what can happen. If the flavour is strong enough, it can potentially transfer to other ingredients in your fridge. All it takes is one morning bowl of cereal served with onion-tainted milk to drive home the point that smells and flavours can intermingle between foods in the fridge.Advertisement 2Story continues belowThis advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Theyre acrid, musty, or plasticky. Theyre scented with the stale aroma of leftover dinners. I can smell it as soon as I take my first sip, and as the cubes melt into my drink, I can start to taste it, too—all those off flavors start to infuse the lovely drink in my hand.
If your ice cube trays smell bad even after a good washing, its time to get new ice cube trays. That aroma is just going to go right into your ice. The Sweethome team discovered through extensive testing that silicone ice cube trays, though cute and seemingly clever, are the worst offenders of this problem. Silicone is more absorbent than other materials, and when those nasty freezer aromas get stuck in there, its impossible to get them out. So if you really want to use a silicone ice mold (maybe for making huge ice cubes, which is totally worth it) use it only as long as you need to freeze the cubes, then transfer the ice to your airtight container. (Store the silicone ice molds in your cupboard.)
So please, the next time you invite me over for dinner, follow these suggestions.Clean Your Freezer
You really dont want to be serving ice thats more than a week old, because the older your ice is, the more likely it has collected weird aromas and/or freezer burn. So before you invite people over, dump all your ice and make a fresh batch. When Im hosting a dinner party I make a fresh batch a couple of days ahead of time, pile it into an extra-thick freezer bag, and make another fresh batch the day of.Keep Your Ice Under Wraps
Im over at a friends house and theyre cooking me dinner. Everything has been carefully considered and presented: the cheese is the right temperature, the linens are freshly pressed. One of the hosts hands me tall gin and tonic with artisanal gin, my favorite tonic water, and a juicy wedge knocking against the ice cubes, and Im happy—I love gin and tonics.
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Onions and garlic are often the culprits, as they have a very strong smell and taste that is hard to contain. If you have to store onion in the fridge – either a leftover half onion or chopped pieces of onion prepared to save time later when cooking an evening meal – thin plastic isn’t enough to keep the flavour from transferring to other things. Consider storing pungent foods in a glass bowl with a sturdy lid, or a thick-walled food storage container. You should also keep strongly flavoured foods from touching anything else in the fridge, even if they’re stored in plastic. Keep anything that absorbs other flavours easily – butter, milk and eggs, especially, but also breads, cakes, etc. – away from strongly flavoured foods. Also keep any meat in a strong marinade well sealed, especially if garlic is involved.Article content
To keep some fridge odours at bay, baking soda can help. But that doesn’t mean you can just crack open a box of baking soda and leave it at the back of the fridge for half a decade. Look for specially designed packages that are made for deodorizing fridges and freezers, and make sure you swap out old for new packs based on the manufacturer’s directions.
— We Can Help! is a weekly column from ATCO Blue Flame Kitchen. Do you have a cooking or household question you’d like the ATCO Blue Flame Kitchen Answer Line to help you with? Call us toll-free at 1-877-420-9090 Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., or send us an email at [email protected]. For our searchable database of kitchen-tested recipes, along with household tips and expert advice, visit our website at www.atcoblueflamekitchen.com.Article contentShare this article in your social networkTrending
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WHAT’S FREEZER BURN? And how to prevent it
How do you keep frozen food cold?
Green Frog Tape and a black Sharpie work well for this task. Keep the freezer at least ¾ full and the temperature at or below 0˚F (-18˚C). A full freezer holds the cold better than an empty one and reduces the risk of fluctuating temperatures. And aim to consume frozen foods within three to six months, before freezer burn has a chance to occur.
Can You Freeze frozen food?
Freeze individually. To prevent sticking, spread food to be frozen (berries, hamburgers, cookies, etc.) on a cookie sheet and freeze until solid. Then, place in plastic bags and into the freezer. Freezer burn happens when food isn’t stored properly in the freezer, causing moisture to escape and turn into ice crystals.
How do you store food if it freezes?
If you’re storing a liquid, like freezing soup, for example—pour it into the freezer container, leaving about a half inch of headroom (the liquid will expand when it freezes). Cover the surface of the liquid with plastic wrap, smooth the plastic so that it makes contact over the surface of the food, then put the lid on the container.
How do you freeze food?
Write the dish name/contents, number of servings (1 quart=4 servings; 1 pint=2 servings), and date on containers or bags. Freeze individually. To prevent sticking, spread food to be frozen (berries, hamburgers, cookies, etc.) on a cookie sheet and freeze until solid. Then, place in plastic bags and into the freezer.