Re: [CH] Freezing stuff

JohnT (love2troll@kc.rr.com)
Fri, 5 Sep 2008 15:03:31 -0500 

Hey Doug,

My families first freezer was a 1943 International Harvester.  My dad and I 
did our best to keep full of walleye fillets, pheasants & duck.  My mom had 
a huge strawberry patch and made lots of apple pies etc. Beef all local 
raised and butchered. It was quite an event when my relatives gathered on 
the farm to harvest chickens and mostly can them.  (that farm is now an 
organic food cooperative)  A nicer time to live for sure!  The monthly hide 
under our desks drill (Soviet missiles) was about our only worry in the 
world.  I was given that old freezer when I go married and it lasted into 
the mid eighties.

Anyways... had some time today and was going to put the Alton Brown freezing 
episode on YouTube so downloading a torrent wasn't necessary.  (good way to 
pick up a virus or something)  I learned abt torrents from Mats in Stockholm 
some years back.  I expect many of you C-H know who he is.  Someone beat me 
to it...  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1X2BvpX_U8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ipd3HliBuk&feature=related

Hot regards,
jt


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Doug Irvine
To: JohnT ; Chilehead List (post)
Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2008 10:31 AM
Subject: [CH] Freezing stuff


Hello John and all who may be interested.  We have been freezing food
since 1953 when we got our first freezer. I was in the RCAF(air force)
at the time and the "Food Plan" hit Ottawa with a bang! The way it
worked was simple, one contracted to buy frozen food, meats, vegetables,
fruits, from the food company, and the freezer came along with it. It
worked like this, the savings one made on the food, supposedly paid for
the freezer! Not quite! However, people did eat better(and more of)and
all in all, was a good plan, as long as one considered the freezer as a
purchase, and not a "free item" which unfortunately quite a few did. I
found out to my surprise that the person who was managing one of the
companies was an old buddy of mine, and as I was in the Service, he
recruited me to sell this food plan. Well, did I make money? You betcha!
Bought a 51 Buick for cash, which was unheard of on an Airman's income.
In any event, one of the things we learned using this freezer, an Amana
upright, was how to freeze properly,from our in house home economist,
who became a good friend. Out in the countryside around Ottawa there
were lots of farm roadside stands where the farmer's wife or kids were
selling fresh produce. We would travel out and get it, bring it home, a
very quick boiling water blanch and ice cube cooling, dry and into the
freezer, bottom shelf laid out on a cookie sheet. As soon as it was
frozen, into bags, expelled of air, and back into the freezer! That was
over 50 years ago, we still do it the same way! Only thing I don't
freeze are chiles!! Dry them, rather. However I do freeze tomatillas and
tomatoes.
Many years later, from a Seventh Day Adventist gal, I learned how to
freeze corn, so that it tastes like fresh, months later. Again, a quick,
one minute boiling water blanch, into ice water, dry and wrap in wax
paper, each ear wrapped separately. Then into the freezer on a tray, and
when frozen, into a plastic bag, air expelled and back into the freezer!
Don't know why this method works so well, but it does.
So, there are a few of the old guy's historical(Hysterical?) experiences
years ago....Cheers, Doug in BC