7 Ways to Cook Frozen Food
Frozen food is always good to have on hand and is often more convenient. With the pandemic, we may all now be used to buying in bulk and buying frozen foods. Tariq Halal makes it easier than ever to find Halal frozen food. It’s probably already a permanent part of your meal planning and shopping list. Even so, when you are ready to cook or thaw your frozen foods, you might be making some big food safety mistakes that could make you and your family ill. Here are some top tips on cooking frozen food.
- Read instructions carefully! What temperature was food at when it was frozen? Was it raw, partially cooked or fully cooked? Here are some ways to cook frozen food and decipher the instructions:
- “Cook to a certain temperature” = partially cooked, so it needs to be fully cooked.
- “Heat throughout” = fully cookers needs only to be heated up throughout rather than cooked.
- “Cook thoroughly” and/or “wipe surfaces after contact” = raw and needs to be handled and cooked as raw food.
- WASH YOUR HANDS! Frozen food has the same risks of contamination and foodborne illnesses. You must take all the same precautions.
- Use frozen sides and fresh mains. Most frozen sides and starters can be cooked directly from frozen. Pop a main in the oven and that’s dinner done!
- Use a food thermometer! If cooking instructions say to reheat to a certain temperature, the only way to know if you got there is to use a food thermometer.
- Batch cook! Cook a large batch of fresh food and freeze individual portions: You’ll only need to heat them up and they last longer than leftovers in the fridge! This is great when everyone wants something different for dinner!
- Refreeze! (Sometimes) Thawed items can be refrozen, but only if you’ve thawed them in the refrigerator. If you’ve any rapid method of thawing such as running/warm water or the microwave, you should thoroughly cook your food before you refreeze it.
- USE your frozen food! Whilst technically, frozen food CAN last forever, it loses taste, quality and moisture the longer it stays in the freezer so try to rotate it out and USE it!
Tariq Halal offers the best quality Halal frozen foods such as meats, seafood, starters, sides, and mains for delivery directly to your door. We are a family business and provide foods for your family that we feed to ours. Visit us online to place your order today. www.tariqhalalmeats.com
