<p>Bought a ton of the most beautiful strawberries you ever saw at the Farmer's Market last Sunday. But I've still got half of them and we're going out of town for four days early tomorrow morning. Should I freeze them whole or sliced? Ziplocs or something else?</p>
<p>My friend always made a sugar syrup and froze the berries, (after removing the stems), in this syrup.</p>
<p>I just wash them, cut them and freeze them in freezer zip lock bags.</p>
<p>Okay, thanks. The internet has done its job. I guess I figured it would be that simple, but I just wasn't sure. The freezing in syrup is a good suggestion too.</p>
<p>I'd bring the temperature below 32 degrees.</p>
<p>Freezers are good. ;)</p>
<p>Alton Bropwn had a clever method on "Good Eats" -- the idea being to freeze the berries more quickly than you can in a home freezer. Get 5 pounds of dry ice and an ice chest, plus a bowl large enough to hold the berries and the dry ice. Break up the dry ice (it will be very crumbly) and mix the berries (whole) into it in the bowl. Put it into the ice chest and lower the top, but do not snap the latch. In about 30 minutes, you'll have perfectly frozen berries. Lower a ziplock ino the ice chest, and spoon the berries into the bag -- this keeps oxygen out of the bag, since the ice chest is now filled with carbon dioxide.</p>
<p>SAFETY POINTS! Do not touch the dry ice with your skin -- the intense cold will "burn" it, basically frostbite.</p>
<p>Do not lower your head into the cooler -- there's no oxygen in there, and you could pass out.</p>
<p>Do not latch the cooler -- the carbon dioxide is busily expanding and needs elbow room. You could shatter your cooler.</p>
<p>But aside from that, have fun!</p>
<p>If you use the simple method of just freezing in a zip lock, squeeze out the excess air as much as you can.</p>
<p>Yes, it's true, I am domestically challenged in many ways. I'm always forgetting which things are okay to freeze and which things turn into mush as they thaw out. I'm pretty sure I don't have time for the Mission Impossible method involving dry ice --- I have no idea where you get dry ice --- with the intriguing danger of passing out while freezing some berries. :eek: Even the sugar method (which sounds wonderful to try later) has several more "steps" than I've got time to do today. But, choc, I did bookmark that page for future use, so thanks.</p>
<p>Not into Extreme Cooking?:) Should one ever want dry ice, say for a steaming cauldron for a Harry Potter party, or freezing strawberries, your local grocery can usually get it with advance notice. Your better grocery or classy fish market will have it all the time.</p>
<p>And when squeezing out that nasty, oxygen-filled air in the "throw the berries in the ziplock" method, a good way to get as much out as possible is to use a straw to suck it out.</p>
<p>Use a straw. Got it. At least there's no danger of passing out. Thanks, mim.</p>
<p>Sounds like you have gotten BERRY good advice on CC (I think you can find out ANYTHING on CC!)</p>
<p>I freeze them whole.</p>
<p>I clean the berries and slice off the top. I place all the berries, cut side down, on a cookie sheet and freeze until hard. Then throw them all in a ziplock bag.</p>
<p>This method is great for smoothies (you can just grab a couple at a time!).</p>
<p>Interested to see if anyone knows different, but imho and experience, once you've frozen them, there are some things they're good for and others theyare not. You can use them in cooked things, to make a sauce etc. But you can't use them "whole" as they will be mushy when defrosted.</p>