Another freezer ?

[sarahkeast]

I am considering buying ANOTHER freezer. I have one under fridge an undercounter one in kitchen, but am frankly fed up with cramming them and not having room for anything !

I have a large conservatory [unheated] with a corner that is crying out for a freezer, not definate on size but chest type would be a drag as it would mean clearing the top whenever we went in it.

Sooooo, do I need another one ? I am about to tackle my spuds, which came out pretty slug damaged, so was planning on, chopping out the nasty bits, boiling and freezing, and hopefully there will be lots of other stuff coming in soon.

And any recommendations ? I want good low energy consumption, max capacity and under £200, yeah right. Which reviews are showing a few Beko, but I have no idea. I have seen some for not much more than £100 in Currys, not sure how good tho.

And no, nothing suitable on freecycle for a while.

[gregorach]

I would not freeze potatoes, they go weird and horrible. Nor is there any need to freeze potatoes, as they keep just fine for many months provided you keep them cool, dark and humid. Same goes for a lot of other produce - much of it can be stored without freezing, or even refrigeration, if you just pay a bit of attention to the proper storage conditions.

[gregorach]

Although slug-damaged potatoes don't keep very well at all... Ignore me.

[grahamhobbs]

I must admit I'm of a similar opinion as Gregorach, I would seriously question the need for a freezer for vegetables. Firstly fresh vegetables in general taste so much better, so the priority should be to get fresh produce from your garden all year round. Then think about ways to store them without using a freezer or by preserving in other ways eg.bottling, pickling, salting, etc.
We have only a small freezer at the bottom of our fridge and have at times frozen small quantities of veg but to be honest I think it a waste of time, because we prefer fresh so much more, we ended up only eating it because we felt we couldn't just throw it away.

[sarahkeast]

I agree with you Graham, fresh food is so much nicer, but as a working single mum, it just isnt realistic. If the kids have activities after school I get something out in the morning that will be ready to heat and eat when we get home from school. On other days I will batch cook; soup, lasagna, pasta stuff and freeze left over portions.

I was just looking for a way to store less than perfect spuds. I figured if they were partially cooked they could at least be added to soups or made into mash/toppings/potato cakes etc later in the year.

[Thomzo]

I had a Beko a few years ago and it was fine. I stupidly sold it with the house.

Zoe

[mrsflibble]

we NEED another freezer so I can batch-make food like spagbol and chilli, pies, curries etc....

blanch your veg before freezing.

[baldybloke]

I usually do a couple of big cooks a week and do reheats inbetween. I don't seem to have time for anymore than that. The freezer is also useful for keeping some surplus veggies.

[Thomzo]

I'm currently freezing blackberries until I have enough to make jam.

Zoe

[Green Aura]

Sarah, if you want lower energy consumption and higher storage capacity I'm afraid you definitely need to have a look at a chest freezer.

Every time you open the door of an upright one you can see the cold pouring out of it and the freezer has to work so much harder to regain it. As cold air sinks it stays in place in a chest freezer.

And all those drawers reduce the capacity so much in an upright freezer - you'll end up cursing what at first seemed like a really good idea. You can get a much smaller chest freezer to accommodate the same amount of stuff - comparatively.

Have a look at Comet Clearance - they sell loads of ex-display and returned items that have only cosmetic problems. And their delivery prices aren't bad either - they quoted us £26 to deliver a freezer way up here - way down on usual charges.

[Odsox]

I'm a great believer in Beko, I think they are a bargain and reasonably good quality. We have a Beko fridge and a Beko smallish freezer, both are A+ rated, both work well and both were a good deal cheaper than any other make.
As to freezing vegetables, I'm in the yes camp ... although I would qualify that by saying that I only freeze peas, broad beans and sweetcorn.
It's all very well saying that you should only eat veg in season, but on Saturday I picked at least 12 large ripe sweetcorn cobs together with the same the weekend before and probably the same next weekend. We have runner beans every day without fail so it would be impossible for the two of us to eat a fraction of them, so instead we have 4 kg of corn kernels in our freezer for eating on cold wet windy winter days when I can't face venturing down the garden to pick sprouts.

[Millymollymandy]

A large amount of my freezer capacity is given over to freezing fruit. I wait until autumn and the apples come in and then make jams, jellies and cordial from currants/elderberries/blackberries etc which are not all ripe at the same time, plus lots of chutney. I find it just makes life much easier to pick and process a smaller batch at a time, wait until there is enough of any one thing, then make the bramble jelly or whatever at a later date when convenient.

[gregorach]

Sweetcorn is absolutely worth its freezer space, because it's so much better if it's blanched immediately after picking. I aim to have mine done within an hour of picking... Same goes for peas.

Not that it looks like I'm going to need to bother for either this year.

[mrsflibble]

I'm a Beko fan too. just took a nose in my own kitcvhen and was shocked to learn that all appliances we've bought in the last two years are Beko lol.

their customer service is amazing too.

[sarahkeast]

Got a Beko coming on Thursday, cant wait.

I found them online for £145 from Te$co and A$da but got fed up almost instantly having to put up ALL my details to 'log in' to buy the thing ! So called local electrical store and they will deliver one for £155. Def worth the extra tenner.