How does one prepare broccoli for freezing ?

I pulled in a mess of broccoli tonight. I would like to freeze it. I read somewhere that you blanch it for 3-5 minutes, emerse in cold water til heat is gone and the one must dry it before freezing ( water on it will turn it soggy ? ). How does one dry it. I would like it as fresh as possible and the idea of leaving it out to air dry after blanching it seems to defeat the idea of freshness ..

Any suggestions ?

TIA

= Me =

Reply to
MrMe
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Blanch it, quench it, and then shake the excess water off. Doesn't need to be dry. Then bag it in freezer bags or Tupperware freezer containers. HTH

Bob

Reply to
zxcvbob

There's another method where you cook the vegetables less time than normally recommended, and instead of blanching them, just lay them on paper towels or a clean kitchen towel and the steam will dry them and the heat left in them, will keep them cooking a bit. That way, you have a drier product to package for the freezer without getting any ice forming on it from moisture left over from dunking them in water after cooking. That information, and the timing for various vegetables may be in some of the new canning books. It's worth a trip to library or a book store to see if you can find it, if the technique has any interest for you.

Regards, June

Reply to
June

Hardware stores that sell cases of jars and other canning equipment usually also sell the current edition of the Ball Blue Book. It's cheap (under $10) and has all the latest info on food preservation techniques and lots of yummy recipes.

Jan

Reply to
Jan Flora

sometime in the recent past MrMe posted this:

We blanch everything no more than 3 mins., immerse it in ice-water (yep, chunks of ice in there) and then we used to pat dry on a towel, but discovered that a few turns around the salad spinner saves time and towels. We used to bag in zip-lock quarts, manually removing excess air by sealing them almost all the way and puckering the last inch sucking it out by mouth. Yeah, yeah - repulsed quivers and all, but this just for me & my wife. Now we use the Foodsaver and can invite guests ;-)

Reply to
Wilson

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