Laura Fisher is a sustainability and health professional with a passion for good food, the outdoors, and fitness. She has a Masters degree from NYU in Environmental Education and is a certified holistic health coach through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She can be reached at: ldfishe@gmail.com.
Freezing food is a great way to save money by buying foods on sale or in bulk, then saving for future use. It can also set your mind at ease in case of a potential food shortage. Perhaps it can even help you hold on to the last vestiges of your mom's famous Thanksgiving pie or that piece of wedding cake you're saving for your anniversary. Certain foods, however, shouldn't be frozen, no matter how good your intentions may be. While they won't harm you if frozen, a few items are definitely at their best when eaten fresh.
In general, it's important to remember that anything with a high water content will considerably change texture after being frozen. For example, frozen grapes are a favorite snack, especially in the summer. But if you let those grapes defrost, they become soggy unappealing lumps. For anything with a lot of water, it's best to freeze it only if you plan to use it in cooking—it just won't be the same raw. (Thawed raw tomatoes will be unappetizing in a salad, but can still work well in a sauce.) Follow this list of foods not to freeze to save you from spoiling your appetite.
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The cooked whites of hard-boiled eggs do not translate well to the freezer. You'll end up with hard, rubbery eggs that no one will touch. You can freeze raw eggs, but it's better to take them out of their shells and freeze them individually in ice cube trays. This is also a great way to preserve egg yolks for later use when making a recipe that only calls for the whites.
Cucumbers are a prime example of a vegetable so high in water content that they become virtually useless once frozen (unless you're planning on using them in a green smoothie, which we highly recommend). Defrosted cucumbers are a soggy mess and practically have no resemblance to their crisp, fresh origins. If you find yourself with a bounty of cucumbers that you can't possibly use, you can pickle the cukes and freeze them with the brine.
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If you freeze mayonnaise, it will look normal while still in frozen form. However, once it starts to defrost, you will notice that the texture of the creamy condiment changes significantly. Mayonnaise is an emulsion typically made of oil, egg yolks, vinegar or lemon, and seasonings. As mayonnaise thaws, that emulsion will break, leaving you with the liquid, acidic ingredients, and oil floating on top of the yolk base.
While it won't kill you, melted mayonnaise certainly won't spread the same on a sandwich. You could always try to re-emulsify the mayo using an electric mixer, but you might have to add additional water to help the ingredients come back together, which will result in a thinner sauce.
When water (which lettuce contains a lot of) is frozen, it expands. This expansion can damage the cell walls of vegetables, which is why frozen veggies are rarely as crunchy as their fresh counterparts. Lettuce is too delicate to handle this process without turning into complete mush.
All cheese will change texture slightly when frozen, but soft runny cheeses (like Brie or Camembert) will fare far worse than a hard cheese like Parmesan. Soft cheeses have a higher fat and water content, so when thawed, they will become watery and significantly change consistency. It's best to buy only as much of these delicious cheeses as you can consume in about two weeks.
When you go to use thawed raw potatoes in your cooking, they will become discolored. In some cases, they'll turn black, which renders them inedible. In the case of a bumper crop of potatoes that need to be preserved, you can freeze cooked spuds that have been blanched, mashed, roasted, or made into hash browns.