Can I freeze milk and bread?

[Muncher]

It was such a horrible cold winter. We go lots of bread and milk every week and I found myself wandering through the blizzards to buy this.

Can I store milk (in the plastic bags) and bread in the freezer? And if yes, can I defrost the bread in the fridge or must it be outside?

[bebesush]

I freeze both especially milk when I stock up from Costco. I let it thaw out in the fridge when needed.

[rogerrabbit168]

puttting bread in freezer is fine, when you are ready to eat, pop it into the toaster and you don't notice any difference, we do it all the time, as above mention, when you buy so much from costco, its pretty hard to eat it all before the expiry date

milk, on the other hand, taste different after its frozen, but that might just be me

[theguyz]

Bread freezes and tastes great afterwards.

MILK --- NO NO NO

My suggestion is buy milk for a weeks supply, or even 2 weeks and keep in fridge. Chances are when you start to run out you will be near a store that sells milk, unless you are a HERMIT and never go outside.

[CSR]

Blizzard>? What blizzard?

MY friends on rez tell me they freeze milk, ew...

[gherikill]

How many days does bread stay fresh after it has thawed.

Assuming that it was frozen as soon as you bought it.

[Grassgreen]

You can drink milk that has been frozen, but it tastes gross.

If you didn't freeze bread, you'd need to hit the store like 5 times a week

[tanmanwayne]

For our family, freezing bread is a regular occurrence. Prevents mold from growing.

But I have noticed a difference in the taste of milk once frozen, but it is also dependent on the type of milk that you drink.

I have found that the higher the fat % in the milk, the worse it tastes after being frozen.

We've moved from Homo -> 2% -> 1% -> skim due to the amount of milk my older DD drinks.

I honestly think it's the separation and reintegration of the fat in the milk which causes it to taste a little "wonky" after thawing.

With skim milk? No difference, and my kid loves it! (I do too...but that asian lactose intolerance thing is a real mood killer!)

Anyways...that's my take!
Cheers!
Tano :cheesygri

[maggieofar]

I used to freeze milk all the time when I lived in a very very small town with no store (the closest 'real' store was a 450km drive one way) so we would stock right up when we did go grocery shopping.
When it was thawing I would shake the container (I would buy the 4L plastic jug version) vigorously occasionally in order to prevent the formation of these tiny little lumps, I would also give it a quick shae before pouring it as it seems to separate slightly after being frozen. It looks kinda scary frozen as it turns a yellowish colour, but returns to normal after being thawed.
We didn't notice any flavour change - 2%

Bread, no problem freezing that either.

The milk thaws alot faster if it sits in a sink of cold water as well.

[flypretty]

we recently got our milk accidently frozen because of a fridge problem:lol: i found it tasted weird and possibly even bad after it thawed out a bit. kinda sourish as if it went bad..i have no idea, i just know i had to pour it down the drain:( just becareful since its dairy..you don't wanna take any chances

bread is a diff story, depends whether you're picky about freshness

[nalababe]

If you're worried about milk buy a tetra pack or plastic bottle version...they taste the same and have a shelf life in the months (or more). This is how a good chunk of Europe keep their milk.

When you freeze milk, you disrupt the homoginization of the fat.

Bread is ok...but not the same...even in the toaster.

Anyway, unless you are talking about fresh bread just out of the oven, I cannot imagine why you couldn't just make something else instead of keeping a store in the freezer.

[NorthYorker]

Milk - 2% and under usually freezes fine ( I had couple of occasions when milk turned lumpy after thawing, but I could not figure out the reason, may be it was spoiled to begin with). 3.5% usually turns lumpy.

Bread is fine, if you are planning to toast/cook it after thawing (WonderBread and such). Otherwise you need to thaw it in warm oven, covered with damp cloth. It generally does not worth the trouble.

[RenegadeX]

Just in case anyone here regularly stores bread in the fridge .. that's the WORST place you can put bread. Yet I've noticed that almost every Canadian I know who doesn't have a breadbox does this! In a fridge, retrogradation (that's crystallization of the statch molecules in the bread which makes bread "stale") occurs at about 6x faster than at room temperature. If you want to keep bread fresh for as long as possible, keep it in a dark, moisture-free and room-temperature environment.

In order to reverse retrogradation, bread must be heated to at least 140-degrees.

That said, I freeze newly-bought sliced sandwich-bread all the time (Costco sells them in 6-packs)... and just throw it on the counter for a few hours to defrost and then toss it in the cupboard, where it always seems to be good for about 5-6 days. Bread's never stale and at least to me, tastes like it had never been frozen. I usually use frozen bread within 3-4 months, though I'm not quite sure how far you can push it. I probably wouldn't go past 6.

If after taking it out of the freezer, you want to use it immediately, break off a slice or 2 (sometimes a few stick together) and pop them in the microwave on Defrost for a minute, THEN pop them in the toaster. I find it's noticeably better doing it this way than using the toaster's Defrost setting.

If you want to eat sandwiches straight away, Defrost in the microwave and then let the bread cool for 5 minutes before using.

As for fresh uncut loaves, wrap 'em in foil and freeze them. When you want to use the bread, throw it into the oven, still in the foil, at 450-degrees for 10-15mins, then take out of the foil and cook a couple minutes more to crisp.

[CingKrab]

If you're worried about milk buy a tetra pack or plastic bottle version...they taste the same and have a shelf life in the months (or more). This is how a good chunk of Europe keep their milk.

Yeah, the OP can probably do with some UHT milk:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uht_milk

[kitkatneko]

yeah I never understood why north america dont have UHT milk...?!
I saw some once but it was outrageously priced

[jonkaho]

i usually toast the bread after its been frozen.