Cooked Meat and Poultry

Pre-cooked joints, steaks and chops do not freeze successfully, since the outer surface sometimes develops an off-flavour, and reheating dries out the meat. Fried meats also tend to toughness, dryness and rancidity when frozen. Cold meat can be frozen in slices, with or without sauce. Good cooked dishes for freezing include casseroles, stews, cottage pie, galantines and meat loaves, meat balls, meat sauces, and meat pies. It is very important that all cooked meats should be cooled quickly before freezing. Where ingredients such as meat and gravy are to be combined, they should be thoroughly chilled separately before mixing.