Buying In Bulk

I've been a big fan of buying in bulk for a long time and you've heard me blog quite a bit about how to buy family packs of chicken or whole pork loins on sale and break it up for frozen storage.  However, I haven't discussed other items like dry goods and things you wouldn't ordinarily think you could freeze.  I thought I'd take a minute to talk about some of those things.

How Do Dry Goods "Go Bad"?
Things like flours, nuts, whole grains, and cereals are highly affected by heat because they contain natural oils and oils can break-down and become "rancid" under warm conditions.  If you've ever stored a tub of vegetable shortening for several months in a warm cupboard or a bottle of oil in a location near your oven, you probably noticed the waxy, almost motor-oil odor and taste it acquired.  Or perhaps your bag of whole wheat flour, which has a lot of the natural oil still in it, developed a bitter flavor and an off-odor when stored in similar conditions.  This is called rancidity.  While eating rancid flour or baked goods that have gone rancid probably won't do you any harm, it certainly won't taste very good.  The moral of the story is that if something has any amount of fat in it, you want to keep it cool.

Light and air can also affect the quality of most dry goods.  Air oxidizes foods (causes them to change color and flavor).  Air with an odor to it (such as a musty basement) will transfer that odor into your food--especially foods with fats in them.  Because of this, you want to store your dry goods in airtight containers and store those containers in areas where they're kept cool and preferably, dark.

Let's Get Started...

There are a number of things I like to buy in bulk besides meat and I have very particular ways of storing them.  Here are a few...

Cereal -  Name brand cereal is often upwards of half-price per pound when you buy double-sized boxes at the wholesale club.  Thankfully, they're usually packaged in normal-sized bags within the big box, so all you need to do is keep one bag fresh at a time.  If you eat a lot of cereal, this shouldn't be a problem.  If you don't, plastic cereal containers may help.  With any box of cereal, I like to make sure I fold open bags down inside the box and clip them with bag clips as you would potato chips.

Rice - We've all seen 25+ pound bags of rice and wondered, "Who could EVER eat all that rice?"  If you do the math, you're saving a *lot* of money by buying the big bag even if you don't consume it that fast.  The trick is how to store it.  The good news is that white rice doesn't go bad nearly as fast as brown rice because the bran, which contains all of the natural oil, has been removed.  All you need is a good air-tight bin to put it in.  We like to use dog food bins like these.  They're a bit of an investment but worth every penny.  They even come with wheels so you can roll them in and out of the pantry.  If you have a relatively odor-free basement, that's an even better place to store these as it tends to be cooler.  You can keep a smaller container upstairs that gets refilled from the larger bin as needed.

Sugar - I love baking and we drink a lot of Kool-Aid (that's a subject for another day).  Needless to say, a five-pound bag of sugar doesn't last long around here.  That's why I buy sugar in 25-pound bags and store it in the same dog food bins I mentioned above.  The important point to note is that sugar is incredibly hygroscopic, meaning that it attracts water and any odors carried in the moist air.  You want to keep your bin in a relatively moisiture-free environment and open it as little as possible, else you'll end-up with a solid brick of smelly white sugar.

Flour - If you do a tremendous amount of baking, you can do the same with flour as with the sugar.  However, keep in mind that flour is highly affected by heat.  Many recommend that it be stored in the freezer.  I find that we don't have any clean odor-free places in our house that are cool enough and I don't have the freezer space for 25 pounds of flour (nor the containers that fit into the freezer).  Instead, I buy flour in 10-pound bags, which is still more economical than the 5-pounders and I try to use it quickly.

Nuts - Nuts seem to get extremely expensive in this country and I can't figure out the reason since most of them are domestic products.  As with most other things, you can often find a great per-pound discount by buying in bulk.  But at up to $10 per pound, you don't want those nuts to go rancid.  Recently, I've taken to storing nuts in quart sized canning jars in the freezer.  It seems to work really well.


Chocolate Chips - A 12-oz bag of quality chocolate chips seems to run $3.50 or more lately at the supermarket.  If they happen to have your favorite brand at the wholesale warehouse, you can often save quite a bit of money.  Chocolate chips are pretty shelf-stable at room temperature.  If you plan to store them longer than 6 months or your house runs particularly warm, consider storing them in glass jars in the fridge or freezer.

Cheese - Most cheeses freeze and thaw remarkably well.  The trick is to portion it before freezing so you don't end-up having to defrost a large brick of it all at once.  For blocks, cut into pieces sized such that you can use them within 3-4 days of defrosting.  Wrap each block tightly in 2 or more layers of plastic wrap.  the closer the wrap gets to the cheese, the less freezer burn you'll get.  For shredded cheese, portion into 1-pound increments and pack into heavy zip-top bags.  Get as much air out of the bags as you can (or use a vacuum sealer if you have one).  Shredded cheese will develop freezer burn faster than block cheese because it has more surface area.  However, it thaws much faster--making last minute weeknight pizza a possibility.  It's your choice.  Whatever you do, don't try to defrost cheese in the microwave.  The obvious WILL happen.  And yes, I speak from personal experience.

Butter - If you like to bake with real butter but don't like the $4 price tag, then once again, the wholesale club is your friend.  I've gotten butter for as little as $2 per pound in the past, but it comes in huge 5 to 6 pound multi-packs.  Because it's nearly all fat, butter stores marvelously for months in the freezer.  Just make sure you leave butter in its original packaging.  Butter takes on "freezer funk" (read: odors) very easily and the original packaging is designed to withstand it better than your best plastic wrap.

Milk Products - Cook's Illustrated magazine did a test awhile back where they attempted to freeze, thaw, then use heavy cream.  It turns out that this works quite well (although I think they did notice that it didn't whip-up quite as well).  As long as you're not relying on it for structure in a recipe (like whipped cream), feel free to freeze milk, cream, cream cheese, yogurt, ricotta cheese, and other dairy products if you find you've purchased more than what you need for one recipe.

Coffee & Tea - The research is pretty clear that coffee and tea are highly susceptible to light and heat.  However, disagreements abound as to whether or not you should store your coffee beans (or grounds) in the freezer or fridge.  It makes sense that it'll keep the essential oils from oxidizing or going rancid.  However, some people who are really finicky about their coffee claim the oils don't dissolve into as nice of a brew once they've been frozen and defrosted.  Bottom line?  Freezing or refrigerating coffee will give you a longer shelf life but may affect the flavor.  Use your own judgment and follow your taste buds.

'Tis the Season...for Pick-Your-Own

One of the most wonderful things about summer is that you can get great deals on berries and fruits by picking them yourself at "Pick-Your-Own" farms.  Plus, it's a fantastic family outing at the same time.

Here in New England, we've already had a great strawberry season (good thing after last year's soggy mess) and we're moving quickly into blueberry, raspberry, and blackberry season.  I didn't personally get out to get strawberries but I'm not going to miss the blueberries--however hot it usually is when they're ready to pick.

Many folks like to go out and pick berries but don't know what to do with the abundance they bring home.  Strawberries, in particular, go from great to mush very quickly.  Here are a few ideas for storing and serving.

• Make Refrigerator Jam - Most people assume that making jam is difficult and that it requires a lot of fancy equipment.  The truth is that if you make a small batch and use very clean containers, you can keep it in the fridge for a few months in an ordinary plastic leftovers container.  No canning or special equipment involved!
• Freeze Them - If you have the freezer space, most berries freeze pretty well to be used later in the year in baked goods or for a summer-tasting treat.  Freeze blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries in a single layer on a large baking sheet (uncovered).  As soon as they're hard like marbles, transfer them to a zip-top bag and put into the back of the freezer far from the door so they don't accumulate  moisture and freezer burn.  Strawberries need to be washed, thoroughly dried, hulled, and cut into quarters.  Place the quarters into quart-sized zip-top bags and freeze.  The defrosted result will be a little mushy, but it's perfect as a cheesecake topping, waffle/pancake topping, or for mid-winter strawberry shortcake.
• Make and Freeze Pie Filling - This is a neat trick.  Prepare your favorite berry pie filling.  Instead of filling a pie, line a pie plate with plastic wrap and spray lightly with nonstick spray.  Pour cooled filling into the pie plate.  Freeze until solid and, using the plastic wrap as a sling, remove the frozen "pie" from the plate.  Wrap in several layers of plastic and foil and keep frozen.  When you want to use it, prepare your pastry crust, drop-in the frozen berry slab, and add the top crust.  Bake as usual.
• Make Juice - If you happen to have a juicer or a food mill or even a wire mesh strainer, you can make juice.  Puree the berries in a food processor and add a little hot water to loosen it up.  Add to a sauce pan and bring mixture up to a boil.  Once it reaches a boil, turn off the heat and let it cool.  Strain through a food mill or strainer and pour into containers to freeze.  In the winter, you can add this juice to some freshly brewed iced tea, lemonade, or add sugar and drink it straight-up.
• Dry Them -  If you happen to have a food dehydrator, dried berries can be awesome additions to salads and they can be re-hydrated with a little warm water and added to muffins and pancakes and other treats.  You can even make "fruit leather," a homemade equivalent to fruit roll-ups.  Scour the Internet for recipes.

As I come up with more ideas, I'll be sure to share them here.

Weeknight Dinners: Planning So You Don't Have to Plan...

Let's face it. We'd all like to be Rachel Ray and whip-out dinner on the weeknights in 30 minutes. We'd all like to have the forethought and the time to plan ahead for 3-4 meals and do the main cooking on Sunday like Robin Miller. The reality is that most of us manage weeknight eating more like Gordon Elliot's Doorknock Dinners, opening the cabinets minutes before it's time to eat and trying to cobble-together a somewhat nutritious meal.

What I do is expect this behavior and play to it rather than try to change it. While we don't all have time to plan a menu out every week and go shopping for specific recipes, we do have the ability to put a few great meals into our toolbox that can be made with ingredients we keep in our pantries, fridges, and freezers. We can also take steps when we come home from the grocery store or when we're cooking other things to make weeknight cooking less of a chore and as quick as possible.

Make Prep a Part of Your Grocery Store Trip
Most of us do our weekly grocery shopping and then take the time to put things away. If you can squeeze in just a few more minutes to do some basic cooking prep as part of that process, you'll do yourself a big favor later in the week. For example:

• Veggie Prep - Know those pre-washed bags of veggies that are so expensive? Save your money and do it yourself. When you get home from the store, immediately wash your veggies, herbs, and salad greens, peel and cut them up, and place them into zip-top bags. For greens and leafy herbs, place a paper-towel into the bag and squeeze out as much air as you can without crushing the greens. Later in the week, a salad, vegetable side dish, a snack, or a stir-fry are just a zip-top bag away and no chopping!
• Divvy-up the Meat - Everyone knows you can save lots of money by buying the "family sized" packages of chicken, beef, or pork. When it's on sale, I buy 3 or 4. However, freezing the entire package rock solid makes it pretty much useless on a weeknight. Instead, when you get home from the store, break these packages up into two-person or four-person servings in quart or sandwich-sized zip-top bags before freezing. Trim any gristle or fat off while you're at it. If you like meat chunked or sliced for certain recipes, do that too while you're at it. Not only are you portioning and pre-cleaning the meat, but you're making it possible to defrost it in the microwave on a moment's notice when you forgot to take dinner out of the freezer that morning. Three to five minutes at half power should do it for a quart-sized or sandwich-sized bag.
  
• Season or Marinate In the Freezer Bag - Once you have all of your meat broken-up into portions, add 1/4 to 1/2 of a cup of your favorite marinade or sauce right to the bag before freezing. If you can remember to take it out of the freezer the morning you plan to serve it, it'll marinate itself as it defrosts! Note that this won't work with microwave defrosting. The microwave will cook the meat because of the oil in most marinades.

Make One Meal Work For the Next
Very often, a meal contains an ingredient that we can use later for another meal. When that happens, try to cook extra and store it in the freezer, even if you have no idea what you'll need it for. For example:

• Grilled or Baked Chicken - Chicken can be added to just about anything, including pasta dishes, stir-fries, and salads. If tonight's meal consists of grilled or baked chicken, throw an extra few pounds on. If you're roasting a whole chicken, buy a larger one or buy two. Put a portion aside before serving and after dinner, pack it into zip-top bags and freeze it. I like to cut it into pieces before freezing and, if you have the space, freeze it on a flat tray and toss into a bag once frozen. This allows you to take-out only as much as you need.
  
• Pasta - Whenever I'm making shaped pasta (penne, elbows, farfalle, etc.), I always cook the whole box or an extra box if time permits. Pasta freezes exceptionally well and reheats from a frozen state in 1-2 minutes in the microwave. Just put it in a gallonsized zip-top bag and place it in the freezer. When you want a bowl, take it out, crack it on the counter to loosen the pieces, and take-out as many handfuls as you need. Reheat for 1-3 minutes in the microwave. You can even put jarred sauce right on the frozen pasta before reheating or toss it frozen into sauce that's simmering on the stove. This works with spaghetti too but you'll need to pre-portion it in smaller bags because you can't break it apart into portions while frozen.
• Rice & Grains - Rice and grains are great for meals but the healthier varieties, like brown rice, take up to an hour to cook. Thankfully, they freeze and reheat just as well as pasta. When you're making rice, cook extra and portion it into serving-sized bags for the freezer. Defrost and reheat in the microwave. A stir-fry or fried rice is now never more than three minutes away.
  

Subscribe to the "Rule of Three"
Instead of planning-ahead for each meal, I have a "rule of three" when making dinner. A balanced dinner should have a protein, a starch, and one or more vegetables. While this would never pass muster with the FDA's food pyramid, it does discourage a steady diet of pasta and cereal, something most of us are guilty of when we just don't feel like cooking.

The rule of three can mean either three separate items like seasoned chicken or fish, roasted potatoes, and steamed fresh broccoli or a one-pot meal like a casserole with chicken, noodles, and green peas. When shopping, you don't have to plan each meal out, but make sure your cart has a nice variety of veggies (fresh and frozen), starch (potatoes, rice, pasta, bread, and other grains), and protein (chicken, fish, pork, beef, even tofu if you like it). If your cart is heavy on the cookies, pasta, and potato chips, something's wrong.

Frozen Veggies
Frozen Veggies are a great thing to have around because they keep well, cook quickly, and can be added to dishes by the handful. In particular, I keep broccoli, corn, and green beans around at all times. When I need a quick veggie side dish, I doctor them up, usually by reheating in a frying pan with some butter (the real thing), salt, and a fresh or dried herb. Fresh sage leaves pair great with sweet corn, for example.

Keep Sauces & Seasonings Around
There are a lot of great and helpful sauces and seasonings at the supermarket and some of them are even reasonably healthy. Why not let them help you out when you have no time?

• Cream Soups - I always have a can of Campbell's Cream of Celery Soup in my pantry. It can be used as a base for everything from chicken pot-pie to a quick veggie and meat blend in a cream sauce over rice. Plus, it's low-sodium and nearly fat-free if you use low-fat milk or water. The same goes for cream of mushroom, golden mushroom, and broccoli cheddar soup (try making mac and cheese out of the cheddar soup). Vary the amount of added liquid to get the consistency you want for a particular dish.
  
• Good Marinara - Keep a jar of good Marinara around. It's good for mini pizzas, pasta dishes, or even doctoring-up veggies like zucchini. If you can't afford JM Creative's (shameless plug), I recommend Newman's Own Organic Marinara. It has the least amount of "other stuff" in it and is the closest I've been able to find to "just tomatoes".
• Marinades - Marinades make quick work of adding a kick to flavorless white meats like chicken and pork. Add it to the meat in the morning and you'll have a great grillable meal in the evening with no effort. Try Teriyaki, Citrus, and others.
• Seasonings - There are some great mixed seasonings and dry rubs out there that you can sprinkle on a piece of meat with a little olive oil and salt moments before throwing it onto the grill or into a hot pan. Check out Penzy's Spices and The Spice and Tea Exchange for ideas. Allow me to recommend the Tuscan seasoning from Spice & Tea Exchange. It's out of this world.

"Let the Oven Be Your Sous Chef"
The oven is a wonderful cooking tool because it cooks evenly, slowly, and doesn't require much tending to, leaving you to do other things. Chef Michael Chiarello says, "Let the oven be your sous chef!" I couldn't agree more.

• Roasts and Chickens - Want a nice roasted chicken or pot roast for dinner? Prep and season it the night before or in the morning for work (if you're one of those early riser types) and put the entire pot into the fridge. When you get home, put the whole thing into the oven and walk away. Or, better yet, instruct a spouse or kid to put it in at a certain time and a certain temperature before you get home.
• Two Dishes in One - I love to cook veggies and meat all in one dish. For example, place two to four split chicken breasts in a large ceramic or glass baking dish. Toss cubed root veggies (potatoes, carrots, parsnips, onions, squash, sweet potatoes, etc.) around them. Bake the whole thing for 45 minutes to an hour until the chicken and veggies are done, checking every 15 minutes to turn the veggies. If one finishes before the other, take it out and cover with foil. You won't believe the rich, intense flavor the veggies pick-up from the meat juices.

Dessert
Let's say your weeknight dinner happens to involve a good friend as a guest. You can still impress them with your "mad cooking skillz" by whipping out a dessert at a moment's notice!

• Cookies - When I make cookie dough, I usually portion the entire batch and freeze half of the dough balls on a sheet in the freezer. Among other things, it keeps me from eating the entire batch at once. Once frozen, I put them into a container or zip-top bag. When you want fresh cookies, take them out, plop them onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, and bake for the original time plus one minute (usually less than 10 minutes). This is just like the frozen dough cubes you can buy at the store, except fresh and you know what went into them.
  
• Quicker Quick Breads - Quick breads like Banana Bread, Zucchini Bread, Pumpkin Bread, and Corn Bread all freeze well and defrost quickly in the microwave or on the countertop if you remember to slice them first and wrap tightly in a few layers of plastic wrap. The same goes for brownies and cakes. I try to make extra to freeze whenever I can. Doctor up a slice for dessert with ice cream, whipped topping, fruit, or cream cheese.
  
• Streussal Topping - Streussal or "crumble topping," usually made from sugar, flour, butter, and sometimes oats, is essentially a cookie dough and freezes just as well. Find a recipe for fruit crisp and make a batch of the topping to keep in the freezer and freeze it loosely like sand. Next time you need a quick dessert, toss some berries or sliced fruit into a baking dish, add some of your frozen topping, and bake in the oven for a delicious, warm, fruit crisp. Ask your guest to pick-up some vanilla ice cream on their way over (they usually insist on bringing something anyway) and make it even better.
  

Everything But the Oink

There's an old saying about pigs and how you can use, "Everything but the oink," (or everything but the squeal). The saying refers to the idea of taking advantage of 100% of the food we raise, leaving as little waste as possible. Whether it's a pig, a cow, a chicken, or farm-fresh vegetables, the more of the item we use and the less we throw away, the better we're doing for ourselves and the environment. The Native Americans knew this better than just about anyone.

Yesterday, I tackled 20+ pounds of apples that I picked last week and I can truly say that I feel fantastic about having sucked as much out of those apples as I possibly could. It took a few old-school cooking techniques (like using a "ricer") and it was a challenge, but what a great feeling now that I'm done. Here's what I made:

• Spiced Apple Rings (6 jars, 16oz each)
• Canned Apple Pie Filling (10 jars, 16oz each)
• About a quart plus of rosy-pink all-natural unsweetened applesauce
  
• One "mile high" deep-dish apple pie
• Three mini apple pies
• Eight jars of apple jelly (made earlier in the week)
• Three jars of brown sugar sweetened applesauce
  

The applesauce was made by boiling the skins, cores, and other discarded pieces of apples down untill they were soft and then mashing them through an old-fashioned ricer. Because the red skins of the apples contributed their red color, the sauce has a beautiful pink hue.


In the end, I was left with a small pile of actual skin, seeds, etc. that weighed just 2 pounds 9 ounces. That's 2% or less of the original apples, which I think is pretty fantastic.

Since I don't have a compost pile, the final remains were sent down the garbage disposal in hopes that they will once again join the environment and help things to grow, depending on how my city processes waste.

Fooducation: Learning About Half-Sour Pickles

As an experienced cook, it's always fun when something crosses my desk (or my dinner plate) that's new information. That came this week in the form of a good-sized bag of pickling cukes that I picked up at a local farm stand.

You see, there's this restaurant nearby that makes its own pickles to serve with bread at the beginning of the meal. They're by far the most delicious things I've ever tasted. They're essentially the type of pickle you expect to get with a deli sandwich but crisp and fresh-tasting. I generally eat the entire bowl.

Last year, I attempted to duplicate the recipe and just plain couldn't. I was starting with a basic dill pickle recipe and began adding and removing individual ingredients to try to get that distinct garlicky flavor. I just couldn't do it. Eventually, I gave-in and emailed them for the recipe. I was pleasantly surprised that they were more than happy to give it to me. I was even more surprised to see the secret ingredient listed as, "pickling spices."

That's right. They used a packaged product, and here I was rummaging through my spice rack, assuming the answer was in there. I chuckled, filed the recipe for a future batch, stocked my pantry with a jar of pickling spice, and moved on.

Just the other day, when I acquired the beautiful batch of pickling cucumbers, I pulled-out the recipe, now ready to give it a try. After reading the ingredients a little more closely, I was perplexed. There was *no* vinegar involved. "Hrrrm," I thought. That's typically the case when making sour pickles, a labor intensive process involving fermenting the pickles at room temperature in a brine for several weeks. The natural bacteria in the air causes the production of lactic acid in the brine (as opposed to acetic acid found in vinegar) and pickles the pickles naturally. Eventually, you shut-down the reaction by refrigerating the pickles.

The pickle recipe I had in my hand said "Half-Sour Pickles," which, according to some Googling, are made using the same process, except they're stopped a few days into the process before they become completely fermented. The recipe in my hand did not do that. It called for leaving the pickles on the counter for an hour, then refrigerating them for a week.

Confused, yet not willing to distrust the restaurant's chef, I mixed-up a small batch anyway and did as instructed. The brine smelled exactly like the restaurant's pickles, so I figured that was a good sign. They've been sitting in the fridge for about 5 days now (they require 7 days) and I tasted one. They seem to be working, though not quite there yet.

So what's the deal? After mulling over my research and thinking about the flavor of the restaurant's pickles, I've come to the conclusion that this is a "modified half-sour pickle." You see, real sours and half-sours are made with a brine, a combination of water, salt, and flavorings (in this case, garlic and pickling spices). The brine provides flavor and the right conditions for the natural bacteria to do its thing. To make half-sours, you'd leave them to ferment for up to 3 days. For full-sours, you'd let them go 1-2 weeks. The scary part is that this whole process is a balancing act of letting the "good bacteria" do its job while attempting to keep the "bad bacteria" (the kind that'll make you sick) out of the brine. Since most people are not lab scientists, making sour pickles at home is a bit like playing Russian roulette, except with better odds unless you know what you're doing.

In this case, the brine was the same but there was no fermenting period other than the hour spent on the counter "loosely covered". According to my research, even if we assume a few lonely bacteria got in there during that hour, the bacteria slow-down and don't really do much when exposed to refrigerator temperatures. So how, exactly, are my pickles pickling?

What I think is happening is they're not actually pickling. That is, they're not converting to pickles as a result of acid. Instead, they're being brined--preserved with salt and absorbing the flavors in the liquid. That would explain the lack of pungent vinegar taste. It's possible that there's a little acid production going on, but probably not very much.

Whatever the case, they're darned tasty and I'd like to share them with you:



Half-Sour Pickles
Courtesy of Gregg's Restaurant

Washed pickling size cucumbers, cut into spears or 1/4-inch slices

1 ½ tablespoons pickling salt

1 ½ teaspoons pickling spices (Such as these)

¼ teaspoon hot pepper seed or flaked red pepper

8 small gloves garlic

1 half-gallon glass jar with cover (or 2 wide-mouth quart canning jars)

Fill jars with washed cucumbers. Pack them in tightly. Mix salt, garlic, pickling spices and pepper in a bowl with about 2 cups of hot water; stir until the salt is dissolved. Add some cold water until the liquid feels comfortable to the touch, not hot. Add to the cucumbers. Add more water (warm) if necessary to fill the jar. Let stand on counter, loosely covered, for about 1 hour. After 1 hour cover tightly and refrigerate for 7 days. Taste on the 7^th day.

Note:

All ingredients can be purchased at any market. You may vary the recipe to your liking or size of jar. Pickles do not keep very long since there are no preservatives. Enjoy!

Cooking Tips: Buying Milk in Bulk

A common problem for singles and couples is that most foods are way more expensive when purchased in small containers versus large ones. Sure, you can freeze a lot in individual serving sizes, but there are some things like fresh veggies, condiments, and perishables that just don't freeze well.

Two weeks ago, while we were getting ready to leave for vacation, I realized that I had the better part of a gallon jug of milk left and I couldn't bring myself to toss it (or guzzle it for fear of a stomach ache on the plane and a boost to my cholesterol levels). On a whim, I poured it into a clean plastic juice bottle that I had saved and tossed it into the freezer. I had read in an article from Cook's Illustrated that you can freeze heavy cream with little noticeable taste difference (although it won't whip correctly), so I figured Milk should work too.

As it turns out, it worked! When I got home, I tossed the frozen bottle into the fridge to defrost and the milk tastes just as good as when it went in. In fact, catch it with some leftover ice in it and it's even better because it's super cold.

So, next time you're staring at a gallon of milk that's 50 cents more than the half-gallon next to it, don't hesitate to buy the big one and freeze half. Just make sure you use a sturdy container with a screw-cap (pop-caps may release due to expansion pressure) and leave 1-2 inches of head space so the milk can expand without exploding the bottle. Oh, and don't defrost it at room temp for obvious reasons.