Frozen food

[zuludog]

This is a reminder, really, that has been prompted by TRACTORLADY'S recent Thread

Supermarkets, including Iceland, are businesses and so must cater for all tastes
Thus they will have things like pizza, battered fish, food in sauces, and so on

But if you search you can find, if you like, plain food, that has had only the minimum of processing and additions
I'm thinking of things like fish that has only been gutted or filleted; plain vegetables, or perhaps simple mixed packs for stir frying or steaming;
cuts of whole meat, not processed into burgers
Beware of minced meat. Some of it is OK if you fry off the fat, but I once had some cheap stuff that just disintegrated into fatty mush
There are useful things like prepared broad beans and other pulses, and herbs

You can do this Searching on the websites, or by going there and rooting through the freezers

At the moment there may be some shortages. For example, Iceland don't have frozen broad beans, but Tesco do
Frozen food is handy if like me, you live on your own.
Although I do buy fresh fruit and veg, buying frozen means I can use just a small amount

 

[Drummer]

I find the mince from lidl is good, as it comes in different fat levels, so if I am doing mushrooms I get a higher fat content.
I am in favour of eating fat which is natural to the food - so I have chicken thighs cooked in the Tefal hot air fryer - the skins are lovely and crispy, the meat succulent. I sometimes cook a stir fry once the chicken is done to take advantage of the fat and juices from the chicken.
I've heard that eating low carb is expensive - and so it is if you go for low fat meats.
I suspect that the mince mush was 'reclaimed' meat rather than what you'd expect. It probably said so in tiny letters somewhere not very obvious.

 

[KARNAK]

I`ve got a Tefal hot hair fryer @Drummer, is that the same? not sure help needed.

 

[rebrascora]

Like @Drummer I often go for the higher fat minced beef @Lidl (usually 20% fat) because I too follow a low carb high fat way of eating and I don't need to lose any weight and yes a lot of the fat renders out on cooking, which I reserve and then use to fry off my onions and mushrooms and aubergines or use to cook my breakfast omelette. Meat fat gives food so much extra flavour and is a naturally occurring fat.
I also believe that if you are killing an animal you should waste as little of it as possible and that fat is an integral part of the meat. To me trimming it off is a sin.

 

[Drummer]

Hot AIR fryer - the one I have is quite elderly, it just stirs the contents around as they cook - modern ones can do more tricks, but just getting something which makes chicken thighs so delicious - that earns its place on the counter top for me.
I think it is quite strange to carefully trim away the fat or buy a low fat mince, and then have to chose between something which is dried out and lacking flavour, or adding back some other fat - just doesn't make sense.

 

[Ditto]

What about sausages? For the whole of my life I never ate sausages, now I luvs them especially at breakfast with eggs. 🙄

Same with burgers, never thought to buy those either. Did eat the occasional F*gg*t whatever the heck they were.

 

[HenryBennett]

What about sausages? For the whole of my life I never ate sausages, now I luvs them especially at breakfast with eggs. 🙄

Same with burgers, never thought to buy those either. Did eat the occasional F*gg*t whatever the heck they were.

Faggots are offal, mostly liver, and salt

 

[rebrascora]

Don't faggots also contain rice or some other grain which would make their carb content higher?
High meat content sausages are fine even if they contain a lot of fat but cheap sausages contain a lot of rusk which is carbs so they are best avoided if you are using low carb diet to manage your diabetes,

 

[HenryBennett]

Frozen food is the same as fresh, chilled etc - you have to read the label.

But frozen food is still viewed, unjustly, with some suspicion. In truth though frozen food is often fresher and better quality than “fresh”. Modern blast freezing freezes food so quickly that when you cook it, especially vegetables, it’s fresher than the so called fresh food.

 

[HenryBennett]

Don't faggots also contain rice or some other grain which would make their carb content higher?
High meat content sausages are fine even if they contain a lot of fat but cheap sausages contain a lot of rusk which is carbs so they are best avoided if you are using low carb diet to manage your diabetes,

My understanding is that faggots use “meat” that’s so cheap that rice would add to the cost. It’s one of those foods that has as many recipes as there are people who make them, so they can and do contain pretty well anything. But they are essentially offal meatballs. Stuff that even burger joints wouldn’t put in their burgers!

 

[rebrascora]

Nothing wrong with offal. I like liver and kidney and tongue and they put sheeps lungs and heart in haggis and I love that! It is the thought of offal which puts people off.

 

[trophywench]

Pig liver, lung & heart, belly pork, onion, bay leaves and sage. Pigs caul to enclose the meat before cooking.

All offal is OK providing the person using it has sharp enough knives and the manual dexterity to remove every sign of 'pipework'!

Loved me mother's liver and onions and stuffed heart and when I later discovered in both France & Spain, kidneys braised in sherry - thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

There's a saying about pigs, you can eat every bit of them one way or the other - except the squeal!

 

[atoll]

be aware that freezing does not kill corona virus.
cooking your food at 60 C or more for 30mins or more should do

Can freezing your food kill coronavirus? - Healthy Food Guide

For the latest coronavirus advice click here As people try measures against coronavirus transmission, such as cleaning and sanitising their groceries to remove any potential droplets on surfaces, many are wondering if freezing or refrigerating their shopping is enough to kill the virus. Healthy...

www.healthyfood.com

The Effects of Temperature and Relative Humidity on the Viability of the SARS Coronavirus

The main route of transmission of SARS CoV infection is presumed to be respiratory droplets. However the virus is also detectable in other body fluids and excreta. The stability of the virus at different temperatures and relative humidity on smooth surfaces were studied. The dried virus on...

www.hindawi.com

 

[HenryBennett]

be aware that freezing does not kill corona virus.
cooking your food at 60 C or more for 30mins or more should do

Can freezing your food kill coronavirus? - Healthy Food Guide

For the latest coronavirus advice click here As people try measures against coronavirus transmission, such as cleaning and sanitising their groceries to remove any potential droplets on surfaces, many are wondering if freezing or refrigerating their shopping is enough to kill the virus. Healthy...

www.healthyfood.com

The Effects of Temperature and Relative Humidity on the Viability of the SARS Coronavirus

The main route of transmission of SARS CoV infection is presumed to be respiratory droplets. However the virus is also detectable in other body fluids and excreta. The stability of the virus at different temperatures and relative humidity on smooth surfaces were studied. The dried virus on...

www.hindawi.com

Great advice. I shall remember that when I next do frozen peas and cauliflower. I hope I didn’t pick up the virus yesterday as I only boiled the veg for three minutes.

 

[rebrascora]

You will end up with mush if you cook frozen cauliflower or most other veg for 30 mins! More risk from eating fresh salad leaves than frozen cauli I would think and I have been eating that throughout.

 

[atoll]

Boiling water raises the temperature to ~100 Centigrade/212F which should kill most virus's in boiling water after about 2 minutes and any virus on the outside surfaces of frozen veg .

Cooking food at 100C in an oven,can result in the smoke alarm going off before the oven timer and that the food is not fully cooked through.

Frozen meals are generally cooked at 180-200F/80-90C for 20-30 minutes.

The important point was that 60 Centigrade/140F is about the minumum temp and 30 minutes the minumum time AT THAT TEMPERATURE to ensure that any potential virus in frozen processed food is no longer viable as a pathogen ,and the meal is fully cooked all the way through.

However cooking will not kill bacteria or toxins formed if the food/meat that has gone bad before being frozen,or has been defrosted without being cooked first then refrozen.

further reading for those that use the smoke alarm as a kitchen timer.............
The Food Standards Agency's current best estimate suggests that there are around one million cases of foodborne illness in the UK each year, resulting in 20,000 hospital admissions and contributing to around 500 deaths.

Food poisoning

Food poisoning is a common, often mild, but sometimes deadly illness. It is caused by the consumption of food or drink that is contaminated with bacteria, parasites or viruses. Most cases result from bacterial contamination. Food poisoning happens in one of two ways: either in the food (for examp...

www.viva.org.uk

.

 

[Ditto]

Food poisoning is so horrible, it must be one of the worst ways to go.

 

[nonethewiser]

Have chest freezer in garage, frozen food reduced items in shop all go in, freeze bread & just take slices out as needed.

Nowt wrong with frozen food, some is c**p same goes for shelf food, had bag of frozen mixed veg with meal last night for quickness, tasty nutritious cant go wrong.