Potato Freezing Instructions (Without Blanching)

There are few meals that can compete with the potato in terms of the number of diverse ways you can use a single item.

Potatoes are rich in nutrients, and their simplicity makes them highly useful in the kitchen. You may roast, bake, fry, and do just about anything else to your potatoes to guarantee that they turn out just as you want them to.

But, potatoes, like other perishable products, will not keep indefinitely if not consumed. You will come into a circumstance when you will need to preserve potatoes, whether you have some potatoes that you aren’t sure what to do with or a batch of leftover potatoes after a dinner.

The Problem with the Fridge

With most perishable items in the same category as potatoes (commonly considered a vegetable, but technically it isn’t), most would assume that storing the potato in the fridge first would be the best line of action, but this may not be the best course of action.

As a general rule, potatoes should not be kept in the refrigerator unless they are in a recipe that requires refrigeration owing to other perishable components such as eggs or milk.

This is because potatoes need a cold, but dry environment for storage, and storing potatoes in the fridge increases the quantity of a specific sugar in the potato as well as the naturally existing acrylamide.

Acrylamide is a naturally occurring molecule found in starchy foods such as potatoes that have been cooked at high temperatures. Since acrylamide has been known to cause cancer in other species, there is speculation that it may potentially impair human health.

The quantity of acrylamide present in a standard baked potato is so little that it is insignificant; nevertheless, when potatoes are stored in the refrigerator, the atmosphere encourages the production of even more acrylamide.

Potatoes should not be stored in the fridge for the purpose of your personal health unless they are part of a meal that must be stored in the fridge for other reasons.

In these instances, the dishes will often not survive long enough for excessive levels of acrylamide to be created. It is just excellent practice and habit to avoid storing potatoes in the refrigerator if possible.

This leaves just two options for keeping your potatoes in your kitchen: the pantry and the freezer. Potatoes may be stored on the counter for three to four weeks if kept cold, dark, and dry, but if you have cooked, sliced, or skinned the potato in any manner, you should keep it in the freezer instead.

When it comes to freezing potatoes, there are many techniques to select from, depending on the state and condition of the potatoes in issue.

Freezing Potatoes

If you cannot keep plain potatoes in the fridge and the skin of the potato has been broken (or you simply will not use it in the next three to four weeks), you must store the potato in the freezer.

Typically, you would blanch vegetable-adjacent plants before freezing them to maintain their quality, but this isn’t always an option with potatoes.

The method you use to freeze potatoes is nearly completely dependent on the kind of potato you’re dealing with and the state it’s in. The method you freeze a potato while preparing it for a roast differs greatly from how you freeze mashed potatoes.

Regrettably, this also implies that there is no one universal technique for preserving your potatoes; nonetheless, understanding how to freeze each kind of potato will be well worth your time in the long run. You never know when you’ll need to store potatoes.

Let’s start with one of the most basic potato preparations: mashed potatoes. Unlike most other types of potatoes, you won’t have to blanch mashed potatoes before freezing them since they no longer need blanching to maintain quality. Mashed potatoes may be stored indefinitely because of the manner they are prepared.

You must prepare and boil the potatoes as usual in order to effectively freeze them. You don’t need to do anything special if you know you’ll be freezing any of these potatoes.

After your mashed potatoes are finished, just pour them into sealed freezer bags or portion-sized containers to store.

Some individuals store all of their mashed potatoes in the same container; this is OK, but it may be more difficult to separate a single serving size when it’s time to defrost.

Mashed potatoes may be frozen for around six months before the texture changes and they become practically a different meal than what you are accustomed to. When you’re ready to use the potato, take it out of the freezer and place it in the refrigerator to thaw.

After they’ve thawed, you can reheat them in the oven or microwave; they’ll be ready to serve once they’ve reheated.

The next dish will be filled potatoes, often known as twice-baked potatoes. Similarly with the mashed potatoes, prepare and cook these potatoes according to package directions.

Keep in mind that the more cheese or sour cream you add with the filled potatoes, the more freezer-friendly they will become and will freeze more easily.

After the potatoes are sufficiently cooked, cover them individually in foil or plastic wrap before placing them in an airtight freezer bag. Twice-baked potatoes may be stored in the freezer for approximately three months, unless they include an ingredient that spoils sooner.

Thawing twice-baked potatoes entails placing them in the refrigerator to defrost before heating them in the oven or microwave before serving.

Baked potatoes will freeze similarly, but will not survive as long in terms of quality.

This means that, although the potato itself will probably survive three months or so, the flavor and texture will degrade more rapidly, meaning that it will not be in the same state as when you initially placed it in the freezer, while being fully safe to eat.

These are just a handful of the ways for freezing potatoes that you might investigate. In general, if you can avoid blanching the potatoes, you can frequently just seal them in an airtight container and place them in the freezer.

Only some types of potatoes, however, can tolerate without being blanched, and this is something to keep in mind as you prepare your meals and consider what you can and cannot store for the next several months.