Butter - I like to buy lots of butter at a time, because it's one of those things I never want to be without. Butter from grass fed cows is seasonal, so I buy as much as I can afford when it's available and use it until it's gone. The rest of the time, I settle for organic, unsalted butter, and stock up when it goes on sale. Why unsalted? Because I don't know what kind of salt they're using! I would rather add a reliable, healthy salt later, like Redmond Real Salt or Himalayan Pink salt.
Egg Whites - Sometimes, recipes only call for egg yolks. It's a cryin' shame to throw out perfectly good egg whites, especially when you can freeze them for later use, in recipes like financiers, meringue cookies, and seven-minute frosting. I usually throw them in a container and label how many are in there, or freeze individually in ice cube trays.
Chocolate bars - I like to keep dark chocolate bars on hand for baking, so the freezer is the perfect place for them, so they don't melt or turn white - a process which was explained to me once, but I can't remember what it is or why it happens.
Cheese - I know this is weird, but since cheese usually gets moldy before I can finish it, so I've started dividing blocks of cheese into pieces and freezing the larger portion. Also, parmesan cheese can be easily grated from its frozen state; the tiny shreds of cheese return to room temperature rapidly.
Tomatoes - I always get more in my CSA box than I can eat before they go bad, so I've been popping them in the freezer. Apparently, once frozen, the peel comes right off, and the tomato can be used for sauces and soups and things in the winter months.
Vegetable bits – Sometimes, when preparing vegetables from the CSA box, there are valuable bits leftover, like pea pods, or the skins and ends of onions, or the ribs of chard, or the green ends of the leek. I wash these well and them store them in a bag in the freezer and when I’m ready, put them in the crock pot, cover them with water, and then cook overnight. In the morning, I strain the vegetables out and pour the liquid into jars for use in the near future, or freeze in muffin tins.
Coffee – I keep my coffee beans in the freezer once I’ve opened the package. It preserves the oils and flavors on the beans, which can dry out. I measure and grind my beans right from the freezer.
Meat - I don't care what anyone says about freezing meat, I do it. It's practical to have a good stock of meat in the freezer. I stock up on good quality, responsibly raised meats whenever I can. Whole Foods recently had a sale on grass fed ground beef, so I picked up about four pounds. Sometimes the Grocery Outlet has organic, pastured pork products at a steal - it's rare, so when I find them, I grab and freeze them! I also buy wild salmon steaks in bulk from Costco. And so on, and so on.
Flour - This sort of falls under the previous post, but I like to grind whole grain flours in big batches. To keep them from going rancid (as whole grain flours have a short shelf life), I keep them in a bag in the freezer. I also keep almond flour, which I get from Trader Joe's, in the freezer, to extend its life.
And just for funsies, here's a list of other things that I keep in my freezer, for no good reason/laziness:
Three containers of soup that I keep forgetting to eat
A bag of cookies my mom made that are, for whatever reason, better frozen
A giant chunk of pork fat that I need to render into lard
A bag of strawberries I picked to make jam with and never did
So, what do you think?
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