What kitchen appliances, cookware, and tools would help me efficiently prepare large batches of food for freez?

Question

Due to specialized circumstances In our family life I need to be able to prepare something on the order of 12 batches of each recipe and then vacuum seal and freeze them. So if a recipe for chili serves 8, I want to make 12 batches to make 96 servings. I need to do this with many recipes and an grouping them by type of ingredient for efficiency (chili, spaghetti made on same day, for example). What appliances, cookware, and tools would help me do this most efficiently? I have a child with a rare disorder who is on a prescribed diet and get food is time consuming to prepare and I want to do large scale good prep and freeze so I can stay ahead. Please help! What tools, appliances, cookware, machinery would you consider essential to this task?

Answer 1

Already cooked food doesn't keep as well as raw. I would be careful of making THAT large an amount of any one food. Smaller portions dry out easier, get freezer burned, etc.

Before tackling a 3 month supply of foods, why not go smaller and do a 1 month supply of what you want to make. That way you can tweak your method when you find out what works and what wont.

First things first. You need a huge freezer. Without that you are dead in the water.

restaurant size pans are also needed. Longer stirring spoons are definitely a must. Nothing worse than stirring a pot of something and the spoon is so short the tips of your fingers get burned.

ANY restaurant supply store can help you with that.

You won't need no more than 2-3 longer spoons.

Ask at your restaurant supply house about used kettles. Sometimes when a restaurant goes out of business, restaurant supply houses sell thier stuff for them...You could easily pay $20 for a $90 heavy duty extra large kettle by selecting the used version.

Answer 2

I have read your first question and have come to the conclusion that you need to pick up a good book on canning and preserving foods. We do this for just the two of us and always have good ingredients for cooking on hand that is prepared by us, so we know exactly what is in it. It will take up less freezer space and if you do it correctly all you need to do is have shelf space to store it. Don't concentrate on individual meals, but on the ingredients you need to make them because like a can of tomatoes it can be used in multiple recipes. Most fruits and vegetables can be canned/preserved in a water bath canner, any thing with a meat product must be pressure canned. First two pieces of equipment for this you will need and a quality food processer is a big help for doing large quantities. Pick up the mason jars when they are on sale and they are re-useable so all you need to really purchase is the lids the next time. We have a small garden and do this every year along with fruits we get from other sources like farmers markets. There are many good sources of info in the internet for doing this also. This has been done for many more years than it's been convenient to go down to the corner store an buy processed foods. You just need to educate yourself about doing this. We even do our own sausages, smoked and fresh, it's something that is very addictive to start with product and know you have made it without all the crud that is used in processed food from the stores. Good luck and I wish I could have helped you out more.

Answer 3

First off, you will need an excessively large professional kitchen type freezer and will have to be sure your electric wiring will support that freezer, plus your other appliance etc. that are on that line. You will also need a professional food processor and some huge (12 qt or larger)) professional size dutch ovens and 12-18 inch skillet. You will pretty much have to replace most of your kitchen equipment with professional size equipment. You will also need a professional FoodSaver machine because the regular household ones will overheat when sealing that many bags and may even burn out.



I understand why you would want to freeze so many meals, but have you thought of the time it woud take to fill and seal 96 feezer bags of food? Of course once you have accomplished your goal, you might have some time to relax and not cook.

Answer 4

Large Crock Pot. You can cook large pieces of beef, more than one chicken, pork roasts, the list goes on and on. Go here for over 1200 Crock Pot recipes:

http://www.cooks.com/rec/search?q=crock+pot

Fill the Crock Pot in the morning, set on Low, the food will be done in 8 hours.



Another thing you might want to think about and try are the frozen dinners at grocery stores. Always buy the top brands. They are delicious and perfect for one person meals.



You can also buy sealed pre-cooked meats. Ask a clerk where to find these meats. They are not in the freezer section, but are found in the "cold" section usually where the meats are located.