I know I am extremely guilty of eating ice cream that has been freezer burnt. What can I say, I get cravings and no one has room to judge as I am sure you all have done it too. But what if we lived in a world where we could prevent freezer burn? A world where no food would develop ice crystals leaving us with nasty looking ground beef or frozen veggies? When will we learn how to prevent freezer burn? Though freezer burn is inevitable, we can prevent it and here is how.
What is Freezer Burn?
According to Real Simple, freezer burn is the scientific process where food in the freezer will have its moisture evaporated into the frigid air. When that moisture hits the cold, it will become frozen, leaving ice crystals on your food. This frozen bedazzling act will then cause the food to change color and taint the flavor of all your frozen goodies.
How Can We Prevent It?
The main way to prevent freezer burn is to keep the surface of your food away from the air. Real Simple recommends getting an air vacuum sealer in order to vacuum all the extra air out of your freezer bags. This will definitely lengthen the freezer life of your left over food, but not everyone has the extra change laying around to purchase a vacuum sealer (especially us on a college budget).
The Kitchn, on the other hand, offers us little tips on preventing freezer burn. They recommend using plastic wrap to wrap your whole foods, like meat and bread, and then wrapping it again in tin foil or placing it in a plastic, zip-lock bag and squeezing the air out.
For smaller foods, like berries or vegetables, their trick is to place them in bags that are equivalent to the amount you are freezing. Meaning, if you have only a small quantity of berries, place them in a small zip-lock bag. This will ensure that there is as little extra space for air as possible.
But What About the Ice Cream?
All of the freezer burn hacks above are amazing, but what about our original question about ice cream? The one thing that is perpetually freezer burnt, but the one thing we are constantly going into the freezer to get. Here is how you prevent freezer burn from developing on your pint of Halo Top: place your pint of ice cream in a freezer zip-lock bag, squeeze out any extra air, and boom.
Now that you've learned how to prevent freezer burn your ice cream will be soft and crystal free just like the rest of your now freezer burn protected food items. Try out any of these hacks next time you are sick of freezer crystals on your frozen foods.