Autumn is a busy time for every housewife. People often wonder whether cabbage can be frozen. The answer is exclusively positive. Of course, freezing is a way to quickly and easily make a special version of winter preparations.
So, not only fruits and berries can be frozen. Cabbage tolerates the effects of negative temperatures well. More often it is fermented or pickled, however, in frozen form it can be used for cooking.Such a fork is not useful for salads or appetizers, because it becomes soft after defrosting, but you can prepare wonderful borscht, cutlets and vegetable casseroles.
With great pleasure, this vegetable is frozen by those housewives who are engaged in large-scale preparations for the winter and who are wondering whether it is possible to freeze white cabbage.
If you have a large freezer and a good harvest, you can provide yourself with supplies for the whole winter, and buy fresh cabbage only for preparing fresh dishes.
Application of frozen forks
You can use pre-frozen white cabbage for the winter in different ways:
- Use for cabbage rolls. Thawed leaves do not need to be boiled in boiling water, because they will already be soft after exposure to cold air.
- Vegetable stew. Pairs perfectly with potatoes, onions and fresh carrots.
- Use as a filling. You can make delicious pies with frozen cabbage.
When frozen it is just as versatile a vegetable as when eaten fresh. It will not be possible to make a salad from it, because the cabbage becomes soft, but the main properties are preserved: it does not fall apart, the taste remains almost unchanged. It is important that you can freeze not only winter, obviously very hard, varieties of white cabbage, but also summer, soft ones.
Advantages and disadvantages of freezing
Before freezing, you need to understand what to expect from this process and what results can be achieved. Along with drying vegetables, “cryotherapy” is becoming very popular among housewives.
By freezing cabbage for the winter, you can be sure that:
- ready-made semi-finished product will always be at hand;
- the beneficial qualities of the vegetable will not be lost;
- if necessary, the product can be quickly defrosted;
- the vegetable will be preserved for a long time;
- By mixing with other vegetables and then freezing the mixture, you don’t have to think about making soup dressings in winter.
This method of preserving the harvest, like freezing cabbage, also has disadvantages:
- unsuitability of cabbage for making salads;
- no crunch after defrosting;
- high requirements for freezer volume.
Be careful when thawing white cabbage. If the product cannot be used, re-freezing is not possible.
Preparing for freezing
There are deadlines for harvesting vegetables from the garden. Subsequently, it can be stored in a cool, dry place or frozen cabbage for the winter. Even a young housewife can handle the simplest freezing process. However, this procedure has certain nuances:
- Before freezing cabbage, it must be well prepared: make sure the heads are intact and there are no signs of rotting.
- For freezing, you can take only strong heads of cabbage that are formed in the correct way.
- There should be no traces of insects, otherwise the caterpillars will be frozen along with the leaves in which they hide.
- The top leaves must be removed, and the washed head of cabbage should be wiped with a towel.
If you suspect the presence of insects, you should soak the forks for half an hour in cold water, to which 40 grams of table salt per liter of liquid have previously been added. After this treatment, the forks should be rinsed well.
How to freeze white cabbage
Depending on how you intend to use the vegetable, you should choose the freezing method: whole fork, individual leaves or shredded. The shelf life in the freezer depends on this.
Frozen heads of cabbage should be stored at a temperature no higher than -18 °C for 8 to 10 months. If it is not possible to create the specified conditions, the storage period should be reduced.
If you plan to prepare large quantities of leaves and shredded material, you should consider purchasing a free-standing freezer.
Each portion should be placed in a bag or wrapped in cling film. You can freeze shredded cabbage or whole leaves in small bags. It is also possible to prepare one-piece forks, but this requires a lot of space.
Freezing a whole head of cabbage
If you have the appropriate equipment, you can freeze cabbage in its entirety for the winter. Subsequently, these heads of cabbage can be used to prepare cabbage rolls. Every housewife knows that minced meat is not wrapped in fresh leaves because the leaves will burst. To do this, it is pre-boiled or scalded with boiling water. From sudden exposure to temperatures, cabbage leaves lose their properties and become pliable and soft.
Remove the stem from a clean and dry fork. It is better if you do this with a sharp and thin knife. The dry head of cabbage is carefully wrapped in cling film and placed in the freezer.
When planning to make cabbage rolls, you need to remove the vegetable from the freezer in advance and leave it in the refrigerator for a while. In a few hours the forks will become usable and will not deteriorate.Stuffed cabbage rolls from frozen cabbage are prepared very quickly; after cooking, you will be able to detect some unfamiliar flavors.
Freezing shredded cabbage
After removing the stalk, chop the vegetable in a convenient way. Then the resulting mass is packaged into separate bags, squeezing out the air from them, and packed well. To freeze, place bags of cabbage immediately in the freezer.
If a slightly bitter taste is detected, the vegetable must be immersed in boiling water for a few seconds, after which the water is allowed to drain. As soon as the head of cabbage becomes dry, it can be chopped. Interesting options for preparations are obtained when other vegetables are added to cabbage during freezing: beets, carrots, bell peppers.
Storage conditions
When thinking about whether it is possible to freeze white cabbage, you should know that a properly frozen vegetable can be stored for 10 months. Compliance with the technology involves placing vegetables in a chamber whose internal temperature is below minus 18 °C.
If the cabbage has been removed and thawed, the procedure cannot be repeated. The leaves will become soft, so when frozen they will look like an icy mess.
When choosing a method for storing cabbage, you should take into account all the nuances. Whether to use this method to preserve the entire harvest is up to each housewife to decide independently. However, it is worth freezing at least some of the cabbage, because the cooking conditions of some dishes allow the use of frozen material.
