Can You Freeze Potatoes?

Potatoes are usually a kind of cooking staples that preserve pretty shelf regular for a while. You might depend on potatoes to stay in good situation for just a few weeks at room temperature, and even longer in case you could have a root cellar or completely different cool, darkish place to keep up them. Nevertheless within the occasion you are having a look at longer-term storage in your potatoes, it is potential you may be questioning: Can you freeze potatoes?

Fortuitously, we have now now the reply for you—along with ideas that can assist you to defend your potatoes and steer clear of dropping any potato goodness to shriveling, sprouting, or rotting.

Can You Freeze Potatoes?

The transient reply—in case you haven’t change into acquainted with frozen french fries and tater tots—is a strong positive. Potatoes is perhaps saved throughout the freezer for longer-term security.

Nevertheless there is a (significantly) giant caveat: That you will need to prep your potatoes a bit sooner than you matter them to the freezer. If raw potatoes are uncovered to chilly temps throughout the fridge or freezer, they start altering their starch into sugars—particularly, glucose and fructose. That’ll finish in a sweet style and grittier texture, which is perhaps not what you’re looking out for in your mashed potatoes or fries.

Potatoes moreover embrace a lot of water. And like many alternative objects with a extreme moisture content material materials, the thawing/freezing cycle can create a change in texture that won’t be fascinating throughout the dish you’re planning to make.

And there may be moreover a precedence that chilling raw potatoes, then frying them, creates a compound generally known as acrylamide. That’s been associated to an elevated menace of most cancers in animal analysis, based mostly on the Nationwide Institutes of Properly being, though human analysis have been inconclusive.

Fortuitously, there is a easy decision to every factors: partially or completely cooking your potatoes sooner than you freeze them. (And bonus: Which means you may get pleasure from your frozen potatoes even faster on the once more end.)

Freeze Potatoes

Whereas the precooking caveat might make it appear to be freezing your potatoes is a ache, you really solely have to prep and blanch them to prep them. (And naturally, within the occasion you have made too many mashed potatoes or roasted potatoes, you’re already in a position to go!)

Prep your potatoes

Consider how you propose to utilize the potatoes after freezing (fries, diced, mashed), and peel, slice, and dice accordingly.

Put together dinner the potatoes

In case you want, you probably can adjust to a potato recipe in full and easily freeze the last word product. In case you should not have time to adjust to a full recipe, you probably can blanch them, which suggests dropping the prepped potatoes into boiling water and cooking merely until they’re tender.

As quickly because the potatoes are tender, place them in a bowl of ice chilly water for a lot of minutes to stop the cooking and cease them from getting too mushy.

Drain the potatoes for a lot of minutes, then pat them dry completely with paper towel or clear kitchen towels to make it possible for there is no additional moisture on them. (Further moisture principally ensures it’s possible you’ll end up with some freezer burn!)

Optionally out there: Set them for a main freeze

In case you are planning to utilize your blanched potatoes as french fries, or completely different features the place you wouldn’t want your potatoes frozen collectively, put together them on a baking sheet in a single layer and freeze them for a few hours until they’re completely frozen.

Put your potatoes in freezer-safe packaging

Put your cooked potatoes (no matter how you have obtained cooked them!) proper right into a freezer-safe bag or container, or wrap them in a lot of layers of plastic wrap. You might want to lower the amount of air in any container to help reduce the possibility of freezer burn.

Pop them throughout the freezer

Put that potato goodness into the freezer for long-term storage. It is potential you may want to label the container with the date so it’s possible you’ll keep in mind whilst you froze the potatoes.

Thaw Potatoes

In case you are using the potatoes for French fries or completely different fried potato dishes, skip the thaw, as that will lead to a a lot much less crispy end consequence. For frozen mashed potatoes or potato casseroles like scalloped potatoes or potatoes au gratin, thaw throughout the fridge in a single day sooner than heating up your potatoes.

How Prolonged Can You Retailer Frozen Potatoes?

When appropriately saved, full blanched potatoes can remaining throughout the freezer for as a lot as 10 to 12 months, nonetheless for the proper style and texture, use inside the primary few months.