How can I salvage raw potatoes left in the freezer?
October 28, 2021 9:23 AM Subscribe
I foolishly put a sealed plastic bag of raw potatoes in my freezer on Monday. I retrieved them this morning, but now they've defrosted I find they've gone soft and spongy. I hate wasting food, so is there anything I can do to salvage them? Assuming I boil them in the normal way, will they be safe to eat? Thank you.
The texture is going to be spongy and weird. I tried freezing a frittata with potato slices and it was nearly inedible. It was kind of manageable when piping hot out of the oven, but not especially pleasant. Warm or cool, it was so strange as to be inedible. Compost happens. Buy new potatoes. The Idaho potato folks say no, as well.
posted by carrioncomfort at 9:37 AM on October 28, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by carrioncomfort at 9:37 AM on October 28, 2021 [2 favorites]
Hmm, how about something like a nice thick potato stew? Sometimes to thicken a stew or soup, I mash/smush some of the potatoes. So you'd want your stew to feature some other veggie or meat and the potatoes would almost become part of the broth. Sort of.
posted by bluedaisy at 9:57 AM on October 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by bluedaisy at 9:57 AM on October 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
I would think they'd be great for potato rolls.
posted by hydra77 at 10:00 AM on October 28, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by hydra77 at 10:00 AM on October 28, 2021 [3 favorites]
Potato leek soup? There's any number of recipes online and you typically blend it up at the end.
You can also just use any green vegetable--I often make it with roasted broccoli. Whatever you have (kale, broccoli, spinach, etc.) or is easy will also be good.
posted by sevenless at 10:07 AM on October 28, 2021 [2 favorites]
You can also just use any green vegetable--I often make it with roasted broccoli. Whatever you have (kale, broccoli, spinach, etc.) or is easy will also be good.
posted by sevenless at 10:07 AM on October 28, 2021 [2 favorites]
soup is the (delicious) answer. Puree it up with any kind of green veg and some broth and seasoning.
posted by fingersandtoes at 10:31 AM on October 28, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by fingersandtoes at 10:31 AM on October 28, 2021 [2 favorites]
They should still be safe; the issue with freezing-and-thawing is only going to be one of texture.
Anything where you don't need to have solid chunks of potato will be good; people have suggested potato breads, mashed potato, or potato soup, and any of those would work, because you're mashing/smushing/pureeing/whatever the potato so the texture of the potato itself doesn't matter anyway.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:47 AM on October 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
Anything where you don't need to have solid chunks of potato will be good; people have suggested potato breads, mashed potato, or potato soup, and any of those would work, because you're mashing/smushing/pureeing/whatever the potato so the texture of the potato itself doesn't matter anyway.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:47 AM on October 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
Do you bake? Because they’d be perfect (and timely!) for this pan de muerto recipe. I’ve made it and it’s delicious.
posted by jesourie at 11:01 AM on October 28, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by jesourie at 11:01 AM on October 28, 2021 [2 favorites]
They are safe to eat. What happened is the moisture in the center of potato froze into ice crystals, which expanded and broke the inner structure of the potato.
You can put it in soup, but it'll turn into slush, and no recognizable chunks.
Mashed potato is probably the best way to consume those, IMHO. Or anything that needs mashed 'tatos.
posted by kschang at 11:03 AM on October 28, 2021 [2 favorites]
You can put it in soup, but it'll turn into slush, and no recognizable chunks.
Mashed potato is probably the best way to consume those, IMHO. Or anything that needs mashed 'tatos.
posted by kschang at 11:03 AM on October 28, 2021 [2 favorites]
You can put it in soup, but it'll turn into slush, and no recognizable chunks.
Coming in to add that a cream-of-potato soup would still be perfectly fine in terms of soup usage. And - as a cookbook of mine says - a cream-of-potato soup is kind of like a blank canvas, and you can load that thing up like whoa - add some sour cream and bacon and cheese for a "Loaded baked potato" soup, add leek and different French herbs for a French style soup, etc.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:23 PM on October 28, 2021 [2 favorites]
Coming in to add that a cream-of-potato soup would still be perfectly fine in terms of soup usage. And - as a cookbook of mine says - a cream-of-potato soup is kind of like a blank canvas, and you can load that thing up like whoa - add some sour cream and bacon and cheese for a "Loaded baked potato" soup, add leek and different French herbs for a French style soup, etc.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:23 PM on October 28, 2021 [2 favorites]
Mashed or pureed are your options, even potato chunks in soup get sponge-y and unpleasant.
posted by theora55 at 1:20 PM on October 28, 2021
posted by theora55 at 1:20 PM on October 28, 2021
Use them to make this potato soup recipe, which goes through a blender as the final stage. After blending, I'd stick it back on the hob and chop in some streaky bacon, or slice a smoked sausage into it, but I'd imagine it's pretty good as-is if you'd rather not.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 2:27 AM on October 29, 2021
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 2:27 AM on October 29, 2021
Response by poster: Thanks, everyone. I'm not much of a cook, so I'm going to go with the potato soup/stew option.
posted by Paul Slade at 9:20 AM on October 29, 2021
posted by Paul Slade at 9:20 AM on October 29, 2021
This thread is closed to new comments.
Yes of course they are safe to cook and eat.
posted by SaltySalticid at 9:27 AM on October 28, 2021 [5 favorites]