Prepping to freeze, thaw and reheat [closed]

Question

I have a food truck and would like to cook as many things as possible to avoid buying canned food and work with as many fresh products as possible. It is too difficult to do it on a daily basis so I wanted to be able to spend one full day seasoning and cooking a few recipes, enough for a couple of weeks and freeze it in portions. My concern is if frozen, will the taste of the food be altered after thawing and reheating to serve? Here are few examples of what I would like to freeze, thaw and reheat: - ratatouille (stewed and seasoned vegetables) - seasoned and de-boned roasted chicken - black bean paste (seasoned) or refried beans - sauteed spinach and mushrooms - roasted chicken with leek, mushrooms and creamy sauce

Please advise Thank you JP

Answer 1

This is a difficult question in part because you've listed so many things -- for instance, a cream sauce is going to be difficult, as cream sauces may break when frozen. Cooked chicken, on the other hand, I go quite frequently.

But the thing with the chicken is that I'm cooking it to use as an ingredient in other things; I think you may have more success in that way -- compromising between the two by prepping and freezing some items to minimize the amount of work needed for each day's cooking. Some foods benefit from preparing in advance (stew, chilli, soups, etc.) that may could from once a week cooking. You'd likely want to bring things back up to temperature and then adjust seasoning on the day of. (possibly adding fresh herbs for the ratatouille and/or a splash of extra acid to brighten it back up)

I don't know what sort of food truck you're operating; if it's one with a kitchen, or if it's the type that prepares food in a canteen and does no cooking on-site ... I'd assume if you're cooking on site, this could be a problem as it'll take more time to cook from a frozen state.

It's probably worthwhile to do some taste tests -- make a recipe, then put some off to freeze, then thaw it back out a week later to compare to fresh and/or canned.