If you’re planning a longer holiday, don’t forget that the vegetables in your fridge won’t go into hibernation. Here are a few tips on how to look after your food ahead of the holidays.
Have you ever got carried away with your fresh veg order or stocked up on butter and then realised that the holidays are just around the corner? It would be a shame to throw all of this lovely food into the compost bin. An easy solution would be to freeze some of the food. Simply blanch the vegetables briefly, drain, steam off the excess moisture and then transfer them to the freezer well wrapped. Did you know that you can also cook lettuce? Once you’re back off holiday, you can whip up a delicious lettuce soup, for example.
You can also freeze food such as butter or opened jars of jam, providing they are consumed quickly once defrosted. It’s common knowledge that eggs can be stored outside of the fridge. Once they’ve been chilled, however, they should remain in the fridge. If you have a lot of eggs, you can freeze these too – without the shell, of course. And depending on what you want to make with them later, you can freeze the egg whites and egg yolks separately.
Vegetables such as celery and carrots will also keep for a couple of weeks in the vegetable drawer. Stefanie Löffler, Cooling Expert at V-ZUG, has the following advice: “Always make sure the vegetables are well wrapped to prevent them from drying out”.
If you decide to empty your fridge ahead of the holidays, you can set it at a higher temperature to save energy. V-ZUG has even incorporated a holiday function into its CombiCooler V4000 in case you want to empty your fridge. Once this function is activated, the refrigeration section operates at 14°C, while the freezer compartment remains at the usual temperature.
Of course, the best way to ensure that food doesn’t spoil in the fridge while you’re away is to eat it up beforehand. Ideally eat up everything in the fridge a couple of days before you leave. This method of cooking is always a fun challenge and encourages creativity!