The art of freezing mirrors that of the dinner table

Freezing is becoming more and more popular as a way to preserve food for a long time. No need to prepare and sterilize jars, buy tons of sugar for jam, or even just provide space in a cupboard or on the balcony for storing jars.

Put them in the freezer – and that’s it, you can take them out and cook them in winter.

But in order to preserve all the vitamins and nutrients in the food you need not only to prepare them for freezing, but also to use the freezer properly.

Freeze properly

It would be nice if the refrigerator electronics automatically turns on all the necessary modes, but there are not so many such appliances in the kitchens. How to properly freeze food in a “budget” appliance, which most of our kitchens?

For example, how Atlant refrigerators that faithfully serve millions of American housewives can help to preserve their crops? Here’s what the manufacturers advise.

1 Prepare the freezer compartment in advance.

– Put the frozen foods in the storage compartment – this will prevent them from increasing in temperature when they come into contact with the warm “newbies”.

– Twenty-four hours before putting food in, turn on the rapid freezing mode or set the freezer temperature regulator to its lowest setting if the instructions give exact time values, then follow them .

– If you have a single-compressor refrigerator with a freezing chamber, in which the function of fast freezing is provided for example, Atlant XM-4012 , then when you switch it on, it is recommended to increase the temperature in the freezing compartment a little bit so that the food lying there does not freeze.

2 Unpack your food properly.

– The freezing rate depends on both the temperature and the size of the portion. The thinner the layer of frozen food, the better the final freezing quality and the longer the shelf life. A briquette not more than 4 cm thick is considered optimal.

3 Take care of the packaging.

– This can be in foil or standard cellophane bags.

– The packaging should fit tightly over the product there should be as little air in it as possible and be sealed with rubber bands, sticky frostproof tape, etc. p.

– When freezing liquid foods in a bag should be left a few centimeters of free space to expand.

4 Arrange them correctly in the compartment.

– Do not stack bags on top of each other: they will be “perceived” by the refrigerator as one big bag and will freeze, respectively, slowly. Properly stack packages vertically, not close together, to allow air to circulate freely through the freezer space.

5 Don’t be greedy!

– Don’t put more food in the freezer at one time than it can freeze. It is very easy to find out about the portion size: each freezer has such a characteristic as freezing capacity. It is measured in kilograms per day.

For example, the refrigerators Atlant of series XM 6019, 6020, 6021, 6022, etc. have. freezing capacity of 15 kg/day. Agree, this is quite enough for one harvest day.

It is not recommended to exceed these figures: the food will freeze more slowly, and the quality of freezing will suffer. Yes and refrigerator will work at the limit of its capabilities, and at the same time the power consumption will increase. Anyway, see the headline.

Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines..

Here is a table with storage times for frozen foods.

Fast, super fast, shocking

Almost all Atlant refrigerators are equipped with a quick freezer function and have four-star freezers.

One star corresponds to 6 ° C, so three-star freezers freeze and preserve food at -18 ° C, and in four-star freezers when freezing temperatures can drop to -24 ° C, which ensures a really fast and proper freezing.

But it’s no use storing frozen food at this temperature – it uses much more energy. And there is virtually no difference compared to -18 ° C.

What’s wrong?

Another important characteristic of refrigerators for our country is the safe storage time of food when the power is off. Unfortunately, accidents of this kind are not uncommon in our expanses, and the temperature in the street may not be the same as in the freezer.

In Atlant refrigerators, the indicators of safe storage in case of power failure are up to 20 hours models XM 6124, 6125 .

This does not mean that the temperature in the freezer will not change at all, just that it will not rise above -9 ° C. Foods will not defrost, but their shelf life will need to be revised downward.

In general, according to statistics, the elimination of 90% of failures in time falls within this framework, but the events of the last winter in New York region showed that the power can not be months.

No refrigerator can cope with such “freezing rains”, in these cases only American frost will help to preserve food.