How-to
Bulk cooking requires a few skills to stay sane on cooking day. Here I include the tips and tricks I've learned over the years.
How to Prepare for Bulk Cooking
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- Parent Category: Bulk Cooking
- Written by Deleyna
The goal with bulk cooking is to have a number of meals that you can toss in the oven at a moment's notice, all nice and labeled and stored in the freezer (or refrigerator...or pantry...).
The first step is to decide how many people you will be feeding with each meal. For my family, I use 6 servings as a goal. The ideal number is unique for each family. You should also consider if you want to have left-overs or not. I like to plan for at least 1 more person at each meal, and I also choose fairly large portions just because I have a "thing" about anyone going away from my table hungry.
Next you get to pick the recipes. This is always my favorite part. Sit down and go through your cookbooks or look on the internet. Try to pick simple recipes with common ingredients whenever possible. At the same time, try to pick a variety of meals. In other words, don't do all Italian unless your family just adores Italian food. Review each recipe thinking about how it will be stored. Will you put it in a freezer bag or a casserole pan? Make sure you note down the containers that you'll need.
Review your recipes to make sure they will store well. Will this recipe store better raw or cooked? Would it be better to partially cook some of the ingredients before freezing? Flag each recipe and make a note of what quantity you will need to make. If you're making a recipe that makes 4 servings and you want 6, you'll have to adjust your ingredients 1.5 times the recipe.
For each recipe make a note of the basic steps required to assemble the end product: sauces, pre-cooking meats, etc.
Create a grocery list. To do this, sort all of the ingredients from all of your recipes together by type and location in the store. Make general notes on items you think may be hard to find, so you can survive making a substitution at the store.
If you have time, go through your recipes and your grocery list and break down what will be done with the items after they come in. For example: carrots (2c chopped, 1c whole). This way you can refer to this list on the day of cooking. If you have more than one person working in the kitchen, someone can be doing the rough prep on the vegetables just working from this list. You don't want to be cutting the vegetables up for just one dish. You want to cut all of the vegetables at once and sort them into their recipes so you can find them quickly. (One note about this, however. If you've bought vegetables in bulk, don't be afraid to cut extra. It is always wonderful to throw an extra bit of something into a recipe that you might not otherwise have on hand. You can generally tray-freeze the leftover vegetables, so having the extras is a bonus.)
I like to make a master menu to put on the freezer so the family can see what's available and so we don't forget and have a meal fall to the back of the freezer. I refer to this during the cooking session to make sure I haven't forgotten anything.
Lastly, clean out your refrigerator and freezer before you go shopping.
Tips for cooking day
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- Parent Category: Bulk Cooking
- Written by Deleyna
Keep all of your lists and recipes handy.
Sort your food, paying attention to keeping cold things cold and hot things hot. Lay out the pots you'll need and keep track of items.
Have 2 or 3 egg-timers handy for keeping track of different items as they cook or freeze.
Start by preparing vegetables. Sort, clean, chop and lay them out where you can grab them quickly.
Have one set of measuring spoons for liquid ingredients and one for dry.
Keep a supply of small bowls and pinch bowls on hand for holding intermediate stages of dishes.
Plan to have something just finishing up at lunch and dinner time.
Bribe family members to help clean up with offers of whatever their favorite treats are from the bounty that will fill your kitchen. Try to rinse pots and pans as soon as they are emptied to prevent foods from drying and getting caked on. Whenever possible, reuse items.
Freezing Vegetables
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- Parent Category: Bulk Cooking
- Written by Deleyna
If you find yourself with a pile of fresh vegetables that you're not going to use on your cooking day, the easiest way to preserve them is often to freeze them. Many vegetables, however, will change in consistency when frozen, causing them to become rubbery or tough. One way to prevent this is to slightly cook them first. For example: baby carrots. If you just pop the bag of carrots into the freezer, you won't be pleased with the mushy orange rubbery bits that defrost later.
To prepare veggies for tray freezing, bring a pot of water to a boil. Drop the veggies into the water and watch for a color change. The carrots will turn bright orange. Broccoli will turn a darker green. As soon as you note the color change, fish them out quickly! The idea is not to completely cook them, but just to alter the texture enough to allow them to freeze well. Rinse them under cold water to stop the cooking, spread them out on a cookie sheet and get them into the freezer right away. Once the outside has frozen solid, you can move them into freezer bags for storage.
Save the water for soup stock!
I've also found that lightly sautéing certain vegetables like mushrooms and celery works very well.
Others like onions seem to do fine just diced and tossed into the freezer. Experiment and find which way works best for the types of cooking you do.
Tips for shopping day
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- Parent Category: Bulk Cooking
- Written by Deleyna
Make sure you have your grocery list sorted by where the items will be in the store: frozen, fresh vegetables, meats, etc. Don't try to go shopping for bulk-cooking without a well thought out and prepared list.
Put a cooler or two in the back of your car for meats and other frozen goods so they don't thaw or get over-heated. If you aren't buying frozen foods at the first stop, you may want to throw in some ice packs to ensure the food stays at a safe temperature. An added bonus to this is that you can bring the coolers in and keep them handy in your kitchen as you cook.
Clean out the refrigerator and freezer before you go. Have spaces ready to receive the items. You'll be tired when you bring all of that food in and you don't want to just toss it in anywhere. Keeping things where you can find them easily on cooking day will help.
Shopping day is left-over day. Any leftovers that need to be eaten should be eaten this day to free up space for the incoming food. Inventory your freezer and staple items so you'll be ready to add your new list to the old one without losing any leftover meals you have from the previous cooking.
Clean your kitchen. Make sure everything is handy and in order where you can find it with a minimum of frustration. There's nothing as crazy making as having a pot boiling over on one burner, a timer going off on the oven, and not being able to find the one pan you simply must have for the next dish. Cooking day will be fast paced. Get your tools ready in advance.
Tray Freezing
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- Parent Category: Bulk Cooking
- Written by Deleyna
When freezing quantities of small items that you'd rather not have freeze together into a lump (like meatballs or fresh vegetables), place them on a baking sheet in the freezer for about 15 minutes or until the outside of the item is frozen solid. Then transfer them into freezer bags or other packaging. By having the outside frozen, they won't stick together.
