Article: Whatever item you're going to store in the freezer, the best way to keep it protected is tightly-locking freezer bags that have had all the air squeezed out of them. To prevent "freezer burn," which occurs when items become both frozen and dried out, freezer bags are the safest and simplest method. Plastic tubs or tupperware containers are also effective at storing some kinds of food more effectively. Especially juicy berries or cooked meat can sometimes be less desirable to store in bags, as well as soup and other things that would be difficult to defrost. To use the food after freezing it, you'll have to defrost it in the refrigerator. For this reason, it's usually good to freeze food in portions that you'll use. So, don't freeze that entire salmon, freeze a single dinner-sized portion at a time, so you'll have what you need when you need it. Is that last summer's blackberries or some venison from 1994 at the back of your freezer? When things get iced-up, it can start getting hard to tell the difference. To avoid the headache of positively identifying everything, try to label and date everything that you put into the freezer, so you'll be able to recognize it quickly and easily. Meat should stay fine in the freezer for up to six months, but will start drying out and becoming less palatable beyond that. It's safe to eat, still, since it's frozen, but the flavor will start to taste more and more like the freezer and less and less like the food that went into it. It's usually recommended that vegetables should be cooked before freezing them, rather than cutting them up and freezing them raw. It's more difficult to return vegetables to their natural, unfrozen state. Frozen vegetables are easy to throw right into soups, stews, and stir-frys, making it an excellent way of managing leftover produce items. To blanch vegetables, cut them into bite-sized pieces and dip quickly into salted boiling water. No more than a minute or two, and immediately take them from the boiling water into a waiting bath of icy water to shock them and stop them from cooking. They should still be firm, but partially cooked. Place portion-sized amounts of vegetables into freezer bags and label and date them. Allow the vegetables to cool completely before freezing. How to freeze fruit depends partially on what you'll be doing with them. If you've got a bunch of berries to make pies with, go ahead and sugar them to create the filling before you freeze them up, so it'll be much easier later. If you're freezing peaches, you might want to remove the skins before you put them in the freezer, because it'll be too difficult to take them off later. Generally, you want to cut most fruits into bite-sized pieces before freezing, to promote more even freezing. You could put a whole apple into the freezer, but it'll be hard to do anything with it later.
What is a summary of what this article is about?
Freeze food in tightly sealed plastic freezer bags. Freeze food in appropriate portions. Date and label everything. Freeze raw or cooked meat for 6-12 months. Blanch vegetables before freezing. Put the fruit into the freezer that you want to take out.