Freezer bag filling
Make freezer bag filling easy with hot or cold food in preparation for freezing as convenient serving portions. No mess or need for help and easily regulate portion size.
Small freezer bags make a wonderfully efficient and hygienic way of containing feed sized portions of food for frozen storage. Unfortunately, filling a fine floppy freezer bag with often hot food is not easy or free of mess.
Freezer bag filling method
A plastic container, with a perimeter that is a little less than that of the freezer bag, can be cut off at a suitable height to hold the bag and the contents when ‘filled’.
” The cut edge of the container can be gently flamed with the heat of a small propane burner flame (or cigarette lighter) and this will make a soft rounded edge on the rim of the container that will prevent damage to the thin plastic freezer bags. It may take a minute or two. It will last for many years if the TidyBird does not throw it out first.”
Timtinker
Before filling, the overhanging bag portion can be rolled over the outside of the container to form a ‘cuff’ with one hand. The other hand can form a ‘fist’ to holds the bag down to the bottom of the container. This leaves the bag held wide open. The food portion/s can be quickly added from a measuring scoop without any mess.
Preparation for freezing
Another bowl with the same width as the filled freezer bag can be used to safely hold the filled bags and transfer them to the freezer. Many bags can be held in one bowl (Three or four per layer and two or three layers deep). The excess bag length can be pegged to the bowl to stabilise the bags while each layer is being formed. This part of the bag can be labelled (best before freezing) and be rolled up to seal the contents after freezing.
Bag air removal and forming
Before placing the bags in the freezing bowl they should have the air removed and at the same time they can be squeezed into an even shape along the length of the ‘sausage shaped’ portion. This makes better storage and more efficient use of freezer space.
This de-airing and forming can be done by gently pulling the filled bag upwards and over the edge of a kitchen bench. The contents (even fish fillets) can be quickly massaged to remove all the air and make the contents of the bag have a regular parallel shape for efficient freezing and storage.
[Add video of bag levelling and air removal]
A bowl for systematic packing of food in bags for freezing so that the frozen food can be stored efficiently and systematically in readiness for convenient use. The bag content, in this case, is home-made banana ice cream.
Bag length matter
Having, all bags frozen with a standard length (the natural width of the bag) makes for very efficient freezer storage when the frozen bags are removed from the freezing bowl. Boneless fish fillets also pack and store well this way if all the air is squeezed out before freezing.
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Tim
