An Experiment
Do you remember the old song that began with “Does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight?” I’m wondering about frozen homemade horseradish.
This year I decided to freeze the leftover gefillte fish before it could smell like 3-day-old fish. So packages of two pieces with their little carrots on top went into freezer Ziplocks. And of course you have to have homemade red horseradish to eat with the fish, so today I divided up the leftover horseradish, that was still plenty strong enough to clean out your sinuses, and froze it in serving sizes as well.
I’ve never frozen either of these foods, so it will be interesting to see what they look and taste like when they thaw. I’m wondering if the heat of the horseradish will be negated by the cold of the freezer. I’m wondering if the fish will become mushy and flavorless.
It’s almost a relief to know I won’t be sick of gefillte fish by the end of Passover, but rather I will have an occasion to rediscover it in the heat of summer. I always marvel at the fact that the freezing process can extend the life of food, maybe not indefinitely, but for a long time.
Any bets on whether the bite will be gone when the red stuff thaws out?
posted by Barbara at 1:55 PM
6 Comments:
I could not even venture a guess! Sorry!
Yes the bite will be diminished, but not hugely. The amount of air in the bag with the horseradish is the determining factor. The moisture in the air will freeze against the horseradish and as it thaws that water will dilute its bite. Again, not by much though.
Steve -- You're excused because you have better things to think about, like how to make Twitter work for the NYT!
RR -- You sound like someone who knows! I may be in luck because I stored the horseradish in small air-free Saran wrap packages because I had already started to suspect that air had the effect of diluting the flavor. We'll see when I get around to thawing one out.
*Admitting ignorance*
What is gefillte fish?
Lilu -- Growing up as a WASP, I would have said the same thing until I met my husband and eventually converted to Judaism, thereby embracing the foods of this religion. This is a post I wrote about the fish we eat every year at this time. Some people spell it with one "l", others with 2. But it's the same fish. Some detest it (especially the stuff in jars), but I love it!
I freeze everything. Some? Not so good after defrosting, but I look forward to reading of your results.
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