As a shrimp boat deck hand. Everything gets frozen within an hour of catching. You do not want fresh shrimp sitting on a boat for hours or days as you motor back to port.
I've also worked in a seafood department and I would not touch most of the stuff in the counter cause of how many days that same stuff will be put out.
i work at whole foods and they do too lmao. the our whole fish *may* be different, but salmon, halibut, shrimp etc are always frozen and thawed out, even with the larger price tag at whole foods
It's standard practice in the meat/seafood business to flash freeze their product as soon as possible to maintain maximum freshness. So when frozen meat/seafood arrives at the store, employees thaw the product to make it look nice to the customers.
You left out the best example of all: frozen vegetables. They’re often times *fresher* than fresh veggies because they were flash frozen at peak ripeness mere hours after harvesting.
Which in turn means they hold more of their vitamins as opposed to cut but not frozen before storage/shipping veggies. God knows how long those have been lying around oozing/decomposing their nutrients...
@@victorchen9170 You must not have had flash frozen then, flash freezing preserves the texture. _Slowly_ freezing, like for example putting stuff in your home freezer, produces the ice shards that damage tissue and ruin the texture of things.
Especially the steam in the bag variety. Aldi has a bag with enough veg for 2 for a dollar and it just needs to steam in the microwave for 4 minutes and you're set.
Frozen vegetables are the way to go! After the veggies (and fruit!) get harvested, they get frozen immediately and often contain higher numbers of vitamins and other stuff. So they are usually way healthier than the fresh ones.
As someone who grew up incredibly close to the coast and could actually get the "yea i caught this 6 hours ago" seafood, most places are simply too far away for that level of freshness for their seafood. The frozen stuff is the way to get that level of quality to your kitchen without your intestines revolting in protest. Its still good, i promise you.
Coming from someone who lives in a port town in washington, the hardest thing to find STILL is fresh seafood at a restaurant, especially if you don't wanna pay am arm and a leg
Also in the case of salmon, I like it cooked to about 50 C, which probably isn't hot enough to kill Anisakis. So if I don't want worms I can either cook it to a higher temperature (doesn't taste as good), flash freeze it (what they do commercially), or put it in a cold residential freezer for over a day (the worms can actually survive being frozen and then thawed a few hours later, but they die substantially faster at the colder end of recommended residential freezer temperatures).
All commercial fishing requires catches to be immediately flash frozen, so truly never frozen fish really isn’t a thing (aside from some outlier special cases).
i think half of WHY people are like "frozen isn't as good" is because they probably grew up like me where bags of frozen veg were just thrown in a microwave and came out soggy and bland. tactical use of the mixed veggie packs in a stir fry will rock your world, trust me
I know that microwave tech with the bags has come along, but also some vegetables have different tastes than when we were kids (brussel sprouts are a good example) and I think freezing tech has come a long ways too. Idk, microwaved or baked veggies just taste different to me now.
Freezing tech has also come far in the past few years. Used to be that the freezing process was slow, killing the texture, moisture content and such. But now flash freezing is a thing, and frozen goods maintain most of their original cellular structure, and don't weep nearly as much.
came here to also comment this, but it would just be redundant! flash-frozen seafood (and other foods in general) saved my butt when i simply didn't have time to go to the grocery store after work. i could just take a serving of shrimp or what have you out of the bag and let it defrost in the fridge for the next night's dinner :)
It's honestly sort of crazy how many people don't realise that probably all of the sea food in the chilled section of supermarkets was frozen up until it hits the stores.
Frozen peas are such a lifesaver. I could be putting together the worst kind of struggle meal, but once I dump a serving of peas in a small bowl, microwave for a couple minutes, and then season them GENEROUSLY, suddenly a worst case scenario has been turned into a (semi)balanced meal
I've found frozen peas to have a better texture and flavor than the fresh peas, unless I went and picked them from my garden. Although when it comes to snap and snow peas, I have definitely preferred the fresh over the frozen product. Couldn't tell you why that is, I'm guessing the freezing process damages the pod and makes the texture mushier when it's cooked?
@@thejustlawofshamash that makes sense, freezing introduces a lot of interior moisture and with certain vegetables it alters the actual texture inside. That can be a good thing when you want to just steam some veggies quick, or if they're thinly sliced and ready to be stir fryed
Peas aren't vegetables. They are a starch/carb similar to potato and corn. The pea pod (i.e. the shell) is a vegetable though. So if you are eating the pods, then you can say you are eating vegetables but the peas themselves are not vegetables.
Every. Single. Person. That I have said the “sushi fish is all flash frozen for safety anyway” has argued with me. It rocks their world. “It can’t be true! My sushi is fresh! FRESH!!!”
I worked part-time in sushi chain resto in Japan and I could confirm almost every raw item in the menu was frozen at some point. Not only it can keep the price down by prolonging shelf life, it makes the raw seafood safer to eat as well.
I remember a food documentary about the sushi chef with the most awards in NYC (himself a Japanese man, though), and he said that freezing improves the product.
It is possible that some sushi fish in Japan are not frozen... but tuna basically always is. (All of the tuna that I saw in the Tsukiji market was frozen solid, except for a few that were being sold in the stalls that had been thawed for sampling purposes) The only major exception I know of is farm-raised salmon which may or may not be frozen.
I know you've dabbled with the short form video with the 21 Tips and Trick Video but I really think you've hit the nail on the head with this series. Great work.
Average UA-camr: I will make shorts for engagement because they are popular Based NetShaq: I will make shorts to explore new educational design opportunities
I've only recently started scrolling shorts and I'm surprised Shaq hasn't been at it longer, he's a master at cutting the fat and delivering content concisely, perfect for short-form!!
Frozen fruit is the game changer for me. Fruit spoils so quickly and is so expensive when not in season. Yes, sometimes you need fresh. That's fine and you can buy fresh for that. The rest it just makes sense to buy frozen! Also frozen fruit makes nice and cold smoothies and "nice"cream
People with oral allergy syndrome also eat a lot of frozen fruit! I eat most of my fruit from frozen, because the freezing alters the protein enough that I can eat it. The exception for me is blueberries- I still have to cook those. My favourite frozen fruit is mango and sweet cherries!
Also you can get some fruits and flavors you just can’t get fresh. Example: “Fresh” blueberries in California either come from Washington state or Chile - they are big, watery, mushy and tasteless. If you want flavorful Maine wild blueberries the only option is frozen. 🤷
I love some frozen fruit! Especially banana and berry mixes, but I've had a couple of bags of frozen blueberries that were just... weirdly gritty. If it was fresh I would have just rinsed it off, but the grit was frozen into the berries' skin? Bizarre and unpleasant. That said, frozen strawberries are some of the best little summer treats
It's standard practice in the meat/seafood business to flash freeze their product as soon as possible to maintain maximum freshness. So when frozen meat/seafood arrives at the store, employees thaw the product to make it look nice to the customers.
Also it takes such an insignificant amount of time to thaw shrimp. The only time I could find it necessary to buy unfrozen would be if I somehow forgot I needed shrimp in like 5 minutes.
I don't know about other parts of the world but in NZ fish is often snap frozen so it's frozen in the boat after it's been caught and filleted so it's actually fresher than "fresh" fish
Yeah, that's standard practice in the "west" at least. Only way you can get fresher is catching it yourself and cooking on shore. There is, of course, poorly frozen food too, but properly frozen won't diminish the quality.
As someone with chronic fatigue, while I would love to shop daily and pick out fresh veggies for roasting, that's not my reality currently. Frozen veggies are a life saver and can be chucked into any recipe or cooked anyway.
Eyyy, another chronic fatigue babe out here! I like glass noodles in my cooking because they require basically nothing outside of hot water and a minute of my time. I can even chuck em in the microwave if I don't have the energy to put them in a pot.
I also have CFS as well as a bunch of other chronic conditions, so cooking is very challenging- which sucks, because I love it. Shortcuts like precut frozen onions are a wonderful addition to my life! Along with jars of chopped garlic, tubes of herb pastes, etc. Not my first choice, but it's great they're available so when I _do_ have a little energy, I can throw something together a little more easily without overwhelming my body. 😊
@@dorabrooks76Freeze your garlic paste/minced garlic in ice cube trays or divided into squares in a ziplock! Will stay fresh longer and be ready to add a measured amount to any dish
More Schwarzenegger impressions! "Let off some steam" would probably work in a cooking video, but "I'm the party pooper" from Kindergarten Cop is a personal favorite.
Frozen fresh food is a godsent. Imagine collecting It in their BEST state and then Freezer It to preserve all the nutrients and flavours for a long time.
I’ve got roughly 5 years experience cooking, I’ve never seen or heard of ANY restaurant that doesn’t use frozen chips (French fries) and that includes insanely high end places, they just get more expensive pre-blanched frozen chips
The veggies I grab out of my garden and put on the table the same day are definitely superior to frozen ones, but the things I grab from the grocery store and sit around in the fridge until I feel like washing and chopping again assuredly are not! Frozen foods fan for life!
Modern flash freezing is incredible! The water freezes so fast that it doesn’t expand as much and therefore doesn’t break as many cell walls (still happens a little). Plus it’s done in a relatively dry environment and then bagged immediately so that large ice crystals don’t form. Unless you’re buying cheap frozen goods, odds are you’re not going to tell the difference between fresh and frozen on most items
@1betterthanyou1There are definitely foods that shouldn't be frozen, or freezing (or, more correctly, blanching and freezing) changes the texture, but by and large a substantial portion of what we eat can successfully be frozen. Some foods I *prefer* from frozen! Freezer burn can be an issue, but as long as you stock and rotate the food correctly (first in-first out), there is little issue. I have found meat languishing in the bottom of my freezer dated 2 years ago, and it was fine. Having a decent quality chest freezer, IMO, is the best for both economics and storage. I have 2! But we're also a family of 7 and we bulk-buy meat etc locally and freeze garden produce etc so we need capacity.
Ramsey. 100% Ramsey. He's spent decades beating it into the heads of the public that frozen is not just inferior, but inherently wrong. Of course, he himself has been busted for using packaged and frozen food in his places, but that's "totally different" he says. sigh
Speaking as someone who remembers frozen foods from 50 years ago, it was 100% TRUTH back then that fresh was superior. If you haven't had broccoli spears prepared from a solid frozen block from a box, you will _never_ appreciate how much better the technology for individually frozen products is today.
Thank you for mentioning the seafood part. Also, a lot of raw meat that you buy prepackaged in the refrigerator/meat section arrived frozen. So technically you are freezing it twice if you take it home and freeze your meat. This might vary depending on the local and state laws and what labels they are using, but generally speaking a pack of chicken breast or jennie-o ground turkey was frozen before it was placed on that shelf.
A friend worked in a higher-end restaurant with crowd-pleasing yuca fries. They used frozen yuca sticks. He said fresh-cut yuca might fry in 5 minutes but might take 40, meanwhile frozen ones are predictable. As far as I can tell starchy foods like bread and potatoes handle the freezer completely fine.
Potatos need to be prepared thoroughly before Frozen to get them fine. If not they can become a mess.of fibers and almost unedible Frozen fries are precooked before Frozen donthat they could remain NICE after freezing
I have the time and ability to make my own roast potatoes and fries at home, and I absolutely freeze them for future consumption. 10lbs of potatoes for $6 or a bag of frozen fries for $6 for 500-750g is a no-brainer for me. I heard the same about frozen peas technically being fresher than fresh, because they are frozen while fresh and then transported, while fresh are transported and slowly losing freshness lol. Love this series ❤ hope the family is well!
Another important note is that frozen food is usually better for the environment if it's not in season. Freezing things takes less energy than shipping them from overseas.
I buy tons of frozen produce. I live in Canada, and with our short growing season, fresh produce is expensive most of the year! I also freeze a lot of our garden surplus. One year a farmer I knew had excess kale and was selling it for $5 per grocery bag full. You better believe I bought many bags, then blanched and froze and ate it all winter! We are also privileged enough to bulk-buy most of our meats, produced locally. It comes frozen, and it's the best darn meat you've ever eaten. The "fresh" grocery store stuff can't hold a candle to it. Having it wrapped and frozen makes it economical and preserves the quality.
Organic frozen fruit and veggies are usually much cheaper than fresh, and they won’t go turn bad in a matter of days! Frozen fruit, quickly thawed in the microwave, mixed with yogurt scooped from a bulk tub is my favorite budget breakfast
Another note about frozen product is that its usually healthier and tastier than non frozen - especially with frozen produce. It is picked at the height of ripeness when all of the good flavor and nutrients are at their peak. The only degredation would likely be texture for produce.
I love your content for one simple reason. You are one of the few people who don't shame cooking ingredients/techniques/tools. There is so much garbage out there, but its not as simple as fresh is good, or all organic or any matter of other simplified statements. Its not that these labels are good or bad, its about knowing what they mean and the pros and cons of each. Cooking is an Ancient practice that evolved alongside every culture on the planet, and is still evolving with us. No culture is better or worse than another, the same goes with cooking.
And frozen vegetables/fruits are often picked at peak ripeness instead of before they are ripe (so they can ripen on the shelves and last longer in stores) So frozen is great for a lot of foods!
There have been tests done on frozen veggies: they had much more vitamins than the fresh ones, which languished in room temperature displays for as long as they will have when you get around to buying them. To say nothing of them aging further in your home! Everything that survives freezing intact has a good chance of being better if frozen immediately after harvest.
And also remember that frozen berries for example retain more vitamins as they are frozen immediately after being picked instead of staying out like the "fresh" stuff
Frozen fruit is also the idea for smoothies. Not only is it riper, but the cells are broken by the ice crystals allowing for a smoother blend. You can also leave out the ice if you don't thaw the fruit first
My god, I barely cook, but I live your videos. They feel perfectly timed, not rushed, just the right amount of information, and you seem just like a great guy!
I have told so many people in my life this! They seriously don't believe me. Lots of grocery stores actually have it listed on labeling that it is thawed for your convenience. That seems to be the only way to get people to believe me. Thank you for sharing this with all that watch it
I’ve always used frozen veggies for fried rice since a child. As an adult buying my own groceries… frozen shrimp and fries are GREAT at staying good for so long while still maintaining quality. Biggest difference in how good frozen fries are is how good you reheat it and season it. Of course in the microwave will be bad, but in the air fryer, periodically seasoning? Pretty great and hits the spot… Edit: I think the only thing I may not go for is seafood, purely because I’m not the best at thawing it quickly, so the one time I tried and cooking it, it turned to mush a bit (also because it was a type of fish I never tried making before).
Never mind that vegetables and berries starts loosing nutrients and minerals from the moment theyre harvested.. and so the ones that are frozen inmediately after harvesting often/usually contains more such than fresh.
Frozen vegetables. As someone who doesn't want to cook often, being able to pull out a bag, put it above a bowl of water and forget about them for 20 minutes is such a nice thing and I'm so glad I learned about it.
I agree with this to a point. I'd say frozen fries are great UNLESS you are looking for anything seasoned. I love me some Jack in the Box curly fries or spicy potato wedges, but it's hard to get stuff from the supermarket that goes ham on the seasoning like that. It's for that reason that whenever I make spicy fries or wedges, I always make them from scratch so I can load them up with chili powder, paprika, coarse fresh pepper, and pink salt. Delicious.
Thank you! When I learned about the history of flash freezing and how it actually maintains the nutritional value of many vegetables longer than just refrigeration, I have been a fan of the frozen I knew from childhood. Turned out that when Mom went on about nutritional value rants, she was actually right and my stubborn head just needed verification even though it was something she studied in college and actually taught a few nurses about some nutrition research that they didn't know because CEUs weren't required at the same quantity and frequency back then.
Frozen shrimp is my go-to quick weeknight dinner protein. Even the big ones are thawed really easily and quickly, just toss them in a mixing bowl, fill with cold water and theyll be thawed in 20 mins tops
Worked at Whole Foods in the Meat and Seafood department, can confirm the shrimps part. For chicken I was even asked to go to the aisle and open some Mary’s packs when we ran out.
I’ve watched the fresh seafood counter pull packages of thawed shrimp and crab from the refrigerator and refill the appropriate seafood sections with them. Even had someone tell me to just buy the frozen shrimp because it was on sale while the “fresh” wasn’t.
Love the video thank you for the information, and I agree freezing food helps to keep the properties of that food better for longer vs other methods. Food often are shipped from another country and no one wants spoiled food. So people have found ways to keep foods better for longer like inert gas to stop oxidation when possible, freezing to kill germs, bacteria, and parasites, cooking and canning, dehydrating, fermentation, pickling, and or most likely a combination of many processes to Ensure that best quality of the product for delivery. Yes there's nothing quite like getting truly fresh product but fresh does not mean is has the best flavor As things grow in seasons. Thank you for the video.❤
If you REALLY care about unfrozen sashimi and you live near the sea, you can go to a fish market in the very early morning and find some fish which were caught 5 minutes ago, take them home and cover them with salt and spice and put it in the fridge for a few hours, then smoke it if you want. Alternatively you can live on a little island like Cyprus and just go to a restaurant near the sea or near a river, the river trout, sea bream (tsippoura), octopus and squid are always extremely fresh.
I work at a restaurant where we also cater to companies lunch with a fixed menu, we produce the meat and sausages ourselves but we usually use the frozen things first of course and its still a great meal.
Buying frozen fruit was a game changer in terms of diversifying my diet. I only shop for myself so it's impossible to get through a large amount of fresh fruit before they rot. Now, I can have a ton of fruit options for whatever I'm craving at the moment instead of forcing myself to try and use up a bunch of raspberries or whatever.
I used to work at a grocery store in the seafood department and yes, the shrimp you buy at the counter is just the store brand frozen shrimp. While we didn't have a sushi bar, we did have never frozen salmon. We had the wild caught salmon which was frozen, and the farm salmon which was never frozen.
Freezing can change some foods for the worse though. It can change the texture and reduce flavor. For example frozen tomatoes or tofu will not taste the same after thawing. But they also don't sell these things frozen usually.
Good short. Freezing carrots also enhances the flavour. If you have a fresh quality carrot, freeze it over night and bake it low to deepen/intensify and sweeten its flavour. Great for roasts.
I spent so much time trying to create the perfect french fry (when I was unemployed a few years ago). One of the steps is freezing them! It takes over 2 hours straight through, but there's a ton of prep before the freezing step, so I can get a bunch ready the night before and just fry the day of if I'm time constrained.
Frozen veggies are a good example for this, they get flash frozen right after harvesting, so they actually retain a lot of nutrients, especially if you use a method of preparing them that will also retain more nutrients like steaming or microwaving.
Most fruits and vegetables also have dramatic benefits to being frozen. Not only does it keep the food fresh substantially longer, but it also preserves a lot of the macro nutrients in the food. Note: for most foods if you plan on keeping them in the freezer it's best practice to buy them pre frozen. Slow freezing allows for large ice crystals to buld up which can damage the food on a microscopic scale and reduce the quality; this is why all the food you see in your freezer at your local grocery store was flash frozen.
For the seafood thing-from my experience that varies. Read the tags or ask the workers, they will tell you if it has been frozen. Our *fresh* seafood came packed in ice to keep it cold. The ones that said previously frozen were just the thawed ones from the frozen section
Worked at a fresh seafood deli for almost a decade growing up- we had 5lb bags of frozen gulf shrimp out for grabs on the floor in front, I was the one in charge of defrosting said bags in the back and putting them out front to sell by the lb. Same exact gulf shrimp just defrosted and you don’t have to buy the whole 5lbs. OCCASIONALLY we would get in actually fresh unfrozen shrimp shipped to us on ice from NC but other than that, it was all the same frozen gulf
frozen foods are great. been buying frozen fruit for smoothies and parfaits and frozen vegetables are so so good for fried rice and stir-frys. andnthose bags of frozen shrimp are a godsend. even if you do frorget to defrost them, you're only a warm.bowl of water and 15 minutes away from having shrimp
I can tell you as a Kroger meat department employee we take the frozen bags of shrimp thaw them and put them in the display counter
As a shrimp boat deck hand. Everything gets frozen within an hour of catching.
You do not want fresh shrimp sitting on a boat for hours or days as you motor back to port.
I've also worked in a seafood department and I would not touch most of the stuff in the counter cause of how many days that same stuff will be put out.
@user-tz6jl7qt8k well you worked at a sh1tty store
i work at whole foods and they do too lmao. the our whole fish *may* be different, but salmon, halibut, shrimp etc are always frozen and thawed out, even with the larger price tag at whole foods
It's standard practice in the meat/seafood business to flash freeze their product as soon as possible to maintain maximum freshness. So when frozen meat/seafood arrives at the store, employees thaw the product to make it look nice to the customers.
You left out the best example of all: frozen vegetables. They’re often times *fresher* than fresh veggies because they were flash frozen at peak ripeness mere hours after harvesting.
My mom had her own garden, and she will freeze or can anything that isn't used immediately after being picked.
Which in turn means they hold more of their vitamins as opposed to cut but not frozen before storage/shipping veggies. God knows how long those have been lying around oozing/decomposing their nutrients...
Frozen veggies are terrible. Completely ruins the texture. Some are fine, like peas and corn, but I'm never buying frozen broccoli again.
@@victorchen9170 You must not have had flash frozen then, flash freezing preserves the texture. _Slowly_ freezing, like for example putting stuff in your home freezer, produces the ice shards that damage tissue and ruin the texture of things.
Frozen fruits too
i’m a frozen vegetable lover for life. they never go rotten and they’re so easy to throw into a dish
Especially the steam in the bag variety. Aldi has a bag with enough veg for 2 for a dollar and it just needs to steam in the microwave for 4 minutes and you're set.
Frozen vegetables are the way to go! After the veggies (and fruit!) get harvested, they get frozen immediately and often contain higher numbers of vitamins and other stuff. So they are usually way healthier than the fresh ones.
Really? I need to do this cause i either buy day of or they jusr go bad
I like to put them in the steamer above my rice in my fancy zojirushi rice cooker. Almost zero effort to make veggies and rice
Frozen spinach and broccoli and are the way to go
As someone who grew up incredibly close to the coast and could actually get the "yea i caught this 6 hours ago" seafood, most places are simply too far away for that level of freshness for their seafood. The frozen stuff is the way to get that level of quality to your kitchen without your intestines revolting in protest. Its still good, i promise you.
Coming from someone who lives in a port town in washington, the hardest thing to find STILL is fresh seafood at a restaurant, especially if you don't wanna pay am arm and a leg
Also in the case of salmon, I like it cooked to about 50 C, which probably isn't hot enough to kill Anisakis. So if I don't want worms I can either cook it to a higher temperature (doesn't taste as good), flash freeze it (what they do commercially), or put it in a cold residential freezer for over a day (the worms can actually survive being frozen and then thawed a few hours later, but they die substantially faster at the colder end of recommended residential freezer temperatures).
All commercial fishing requires catches to be immediately flash frozen, so truly never frozen fish really isn’t a thing (aside from some outlier special cases).
@merkazoidduff7651 yea no exactly. It's really a timing thing more than a freshness thing at the end of the day.
Fort Lauderdale here, fresh seafood is kind of overhyped. If you catch it and cook it tho it hits different.
i think half of WHY people are like "frozen isn't as good" is because they probably grew up like me where bags of frozen veg were just thrown in a microwave and came out soggy and bland. tactical use of the mixed veggie packs in a stir fry will rock your world, trust me
Frozen food still goes bad stored from months in a household freezer that's constantly being opened too.
@@LibertyMonk this is true, and steamer bags have holes so they are more likely to soak up smells and moisture.
I know that microwave tech with the bags has come along, but also some vegetables have different tastes than when we were kids (brussel sprouts are a good example) and I think freezing tech has come a long ways too. Idk, microwaved or baked veggies just taste different to me now.
@@Hi_Im_Akwardp😊 k
😊😮m😅 Mm liululkh😊😊hyh
Freezing tech has also come far in the past few years. Used to be that the freezing process was slow, killing the texture, moisture content and such. But now flash freezing is a thing, and frozen goods maintain most of their original cellular structure, and don't weep nearly as much.
Flash freezing sea food has been one of the best inventions. You wind up with safer food and no deterioration to taste. It’s simply a win-win.
came here to also comment this, but it would just be redundant! flash-frozen seafood (and other foods in general) saved my butt when i simply didn't have time to go to the grocery store after work. i could just take a serving of shrimp or what have you out of the bag and let it defrost in the fridge for the next night's dinner :)
It's honestly sort of crazy how many people don't realise that probably all of the sea food in the chilled section of supermarkets was frozen up until it hits the stores.
You can also sort of mimic IQF at home with some tactics and techniques
Significant food discovery indeed. Less food waste, super fresh seafood, fruits, veggies, no preservatives.
If you think there is no deterioration to taste you must have never tasted actually fresh fish on the coast.
"freeze the frites" "all of my favourite french fries come from the freezer" - the alliteration in these sentences tickled my brain.
He's a savant with the scripting as well as the delivery, right??
Fry frozen french fries for fire fighter friends
Frozen peas are such a lifesaver. I could be putting together the worst kind of struggle meal, but once I dump a serving of peas in a small bowl, microwave for a couple minutes, and then season them GENEROUSLY, suddenly a worst case scenario has been turned into a (semi)balanced meal
I've found frozen peas to have a better texture and flavor than the fresh peas, unless I went and picked them from my garden. Although when it comes to snap and snow peas, I have definitely preferred the fresh over the frozen product. Couldn't tell you why that is, I'm guessing the freezing process damages the pod and makes the texture mushier when it's cooked?
@@thejustlawofshamash that makes sense, freezing introduces a lot of interior moisture and with certain vegetables it alters the actual texture inside. That can be a good thing when you want to just steam some veggies quick, or if they're thinly sliced and ready to be stir fryed
Peas aren't vegetables. They are a starch/carb similar to potato and corn. The pea pod (i.e. the shell) is a vegetable though. So if you are eating the pods, then you can say you are eating vegetables but the peas themselves are not vegetables.
@@privacyvalued4134 oh shut up. There's no need for that pedantry. Nobody's going to give you points for being annoying in a UA-cam comment section.
@@privacyvalued4134lol ok
Every. Single. Person. That I have said the “sushi fish is all flash frozen for safety anyway” has argued with me. It rocks their world. “It can’t be true! My sushi is fresh! FRESH!!!”
Not in Japan, it isn't. Not if it's caught locally.
@@ambercolie1200 that’s awesome, I should have mentioned that this is happening in Las Vegas lol
I worked part-time in sushi chain resto in Japan and I could confirm almost every raw item in the menu was frozen at some point.
Not only it can keep the price down by prolonging shelf life, it makes the raw seafood safer to eat as well.
I remember a food documentary about the sushi chef with the most awards in NYC (himself a Japanese man, though), and he said that freezing improves the product.
It is possible that some sushi fish in Japan are not frozen... but tuna basically always is. (All of the tuna that I saw in the Tsukiji market was frozen solid, except for a few that were being sold in the stalls that had been thawed for sampling purposes) The only major exception I know of is farm-raised salmon which may or may not be frozen.
I know you've dabbled with the short form video with the 21 Tips and Trick Video but I really think you've hit the nail on the head with this series. Great work.
Average UA-camr: I will make shorts for engagement because they are popular
Based NetShaq: I will make shorts to explore new educational design opportunities
Agree. I’ve been watching them all
Yes. It's how i found him.
I've only recently started scrolling shorts and I'm surprised Shaq hasn't been at it longer, he's a master at cutting the fat and delivering content concisely, perfect for short-form!!
Frozen fruit is the game changer for me. Fruit spoils so quickly and is so expensive when not in season. Yes, sometimes you need fresh. That's fine and you can buy fresh for that. The rest it just makes sense to buy frozen!
Also frozen fruit makes nice and cold smoothies and "nice"cream
People with oral allergy syndrome also eat a lot of frozen fruit! I eat most of my fruit from frozen, because the freezing alters the protein enough that I can eat it. The exception for me is blueberries- I still have to cook those. My favourite frozen fruit is mango and sweet cherries!
Frozen is perfect if you're cooking it into a syrup or something similar.
Also you can get some fruits and flavors you just can’t get fresh. Example: “Fresh” blueberries in California either come from Washington state or Chile - they are big, watery, mushy and tasteless. If you want flavorful Maine wild blueberries the only option is frozen. 🤷
I love some frozen fruit! Especially banana and berry mixes, but I've had a couple of bags of frozen blueberries that were just... weirdly gritty. If it was fresh I would have just rinsed it off, but the grit was frozen into the berries' skin? Bizarre and unpleasant.
That said, frozen strawberries are some of the best little summer treats
@@WillemPennCalifornia grows blueberries. Harvest times are; January-May on the Central Coast; May-July on the San Joaquin Valley.
It's standard practice in the meat/seafood business to flash freeze their product as soon as possible to maintain maximum freshness. So when frozen meat/seafood arrives at the store, employees thaw the product to make it look nice to the customers.
Also it takes such an insignificant amount of time to thaw shrimp. The only time I could find it necessary to buy unfrozen would be if I somehow forgot I needed shrimp in like 5 minutes.
Takes more time to go to the store to buy shrimp than it takes to thaw it out.
@@Eyro_Elloyn for sure! I suppose if you are getting U-10 or something you wouldn't have time but idk wtf anyone is doing with U-10 shrimp.
I don't know about other parts of the world but in NZ fish is often snap frozen so it's frozen in the boat after it's been caught and filleted so it's actually fresher than "fresh" fish
Yeah, that's standard practice in the "west" at least. Only way you can get fresher is catching it yourself and cooking on shore.
There is, of course, poorly frozen food too, but properly frozen won't diminish the quality.
As someone with chronic fatigue, while I would love to shop daily and pick out fresh veggies for roasting, that's not my reality currently. Frozen veggies are a life saver and can be chucked into any recipe or cooked anyway.
Eyyy, another chronic fatigue babe out here! I like glass noodles in my cooking because they require basically nothing outside of hot water and a minute of my time. I can even chuck em in the microwave if I don't have the energy to put them in a pot.
@@MoondustManwise I'll have to try that! Nice tip, thanks for sharing! ❤️
Fresh vegetables aren't all that fresh...
I also have CFS as well as a bunch of other chronic conditions, so cooking is very challenging- which sucks, because I love it. Shortcuts like precut frozen onions are a wonderful addition to my life! Along with jars of chopped garlic, tubes of herb pastes, etc. Not my first choice, but it's great they're available so when I _do_ have a little energy, I can throw something together a little more easily without overwhelming my body. 😊
@@dorabrooks76Freeze your garlic paste/minced garlic in ice cube trays or divided into squares in a ziplock! Will stay fresh longer and be ready to add a measured amount to any dish
More Schwarzenegger impressions! "Let off some steam" would probably work in a cooking video, but "I'm the party pooper" from Kindergarten Cop is a personal favorite.
Finally someone talks about the benefits of freezing!
Frozen fresh food is a godsent. Imagine collecting It in their BEST state and then Freezer It to preserve all the nutrients and flavours for a long time.
I’ve got roughly 5 years experience cooking, I’ve never seen or heard of ANY restaurant that doesn’t use frozen chips (French fries) and that includes insanely high end places, they just get more expensive pre-blanched frozen chips
The veggies I grab out of my garden and put on the table the same day are definitely superior to frozen ones, but the things I grab from the grocery store and sit around in the fridge until I feel like washing and chopping again assuredly are not! Frozen foods fan for life!
Modern flash freezing is incredible! The water freezes so fast that it doesn’t expand as much and therefore doesn’t break as many cell walls (still happens a little). Plus it’s done in a relatively dry environment and then bagged immediately so that large ice crystals don’t form.
Unless you’re buying cheap frozen goods, odds are you’re not going to tell the difference between fresh and frozen on most items
Exactly! Idk where this myth came from you explained it clearly and correctly, imma show it to the frozen food haters lol
To me it was from Gordon Ramsey specially when I started watching Kitchen Knightmares🤣🤣🤣
@1betterthanyou1There are definitely foods that shouldn't be frozen, or freezing (or, more correctly, blanching and freezing) changes the texture, but by and large a substantial portion of what we eat can successfully be frozen. Some foods I *prefer* from frozen!
Freezer burn can be an issue, but as long as you stock and rotate the food correctly (first in-first out), there is little issue. I have found meat languishing in the bottom of my freezer dated 2 years ago, and it was fine. Having a decent quality chest freezer, IMO, is the best for both economics and storage. I have 2! But we're also a family of 7 and we bulk-buy meat etc locally and freeze garden produce etc so we need capacity.
Ramsey. 100% Ramsey. He's spent decades beating it into the heads of the public that frozen is not just inferior, but inherently wrong. Of course, he himself has been busted for using packaged and frozen food in his places, but that's "totally different" he says. sigh
Speaking as someone who remembers frozen foods from 50 years ago, it was 100% TRUTH back then that fresh was superior. If you haven't had broccoli spears prepared from a solid frozen block from a box, you will _never_ appreciate how much better the technology for individually frozen products is today.
@@meatguyf1375it depends, he's right about certain ingredients that feel or taste worse when frozen
I always prefer frozen fruit, its a lot sweeter due to when they pick them and they have more vitamins in them
Every once in a while I'll dump frozen raspberries in an insulated water bottle and drink raspberry water all day. It tastes so good
Dude I love these little shorts. Super informational in an even more condensed manner. I'm learning A LOT.
Thank you for mentioning the seafood part. Also, a lot of raw meat that you buy prepackaged in the refrigerator/meat section arrived frozen. So technically you are freezing it twice if you take it home and freeze your meat. This might vary depending on the local and state laws and what labels they are using, but generally speaking a pack of chicken breast or jennie-o ground turkey was frozen before it was placed on that shelf.
A friend worked in a higher-end restaurant with crowd-pleasing yuca fries. They used frozen yuca sticks. He said fresh-cut yuca might fry in 5 minutes but might take 40, meanwhile frozen ones are predictable. As far as I can tell starchy foods like bread and potatoes handle the freezer completely fine.
Potatos need to be prepared thoroughly before Frozen to get them fine. If not they can become a mess.of fibers and almost unedible
Frozen fries are precooked before Frozen donthat they could remain NICE after freezing
I have the time and ability to make my own roast potatoes and fries at home, and I absolutely freeze them for future consumption. 10lbs of potatoes for $6 or a bag of frozen fries for $6 for 500-750g is a no-brainer for me. I heard the same about frozen peas technically being fresher than fresh, because they are frozen while fresh and then transported, while fresh are transported and slowly losing freshness lol.
Love this series ❤ hope the family is well!
You forgot to add that frozen vegetables retain more of their vitamins and minerals than fresh.
Ever since I got the sous vide, I just buy frozen chicken and use that. It’s still juicy.
Another important note is that frozen food is usually better for the environment if it's not in season.
Freezing things takes less energy than shipping them from overseas.
I buy tons of frozen produce. I live in Canada, and with our short growing season, fresh produce is expensive most of the year! I also freeze a lot of our garden surplus. One year a farmer I knew had excess kale and was selling it for $5 per grocery bag full. You better believe I bought many bags, then blanched and froze and ate it all winter!
We are also privileged enough to bulk-buy most of our meats, produced locally. It comes frozen, and it's the best darn meat you've ever eaten. The "fresh" grocery store stuff can't hold a candle to it. Having it wrapped and frozen makes it economical and preserves the quality.
Organic frozen fruit and veggies are usually much cheaper than fresh, and they won’t go turn bad in a matter of days!
Frozen fruit, quickly thawed in the microwave, mixed with yogurt scooped from a bulk tub is my favorite budget breakfast
Only time i *avoid* *Frozen* *Foods* is if they're *Cooked* and then *Frozen* but it's still safe!!!
Another note about frozen product is that its usually healthier and tastier than non frozen - especially with frozen produce. It is picked at the height of ripeness when all of the good flavor and nutrients are at their peak.
The only degredation would likely be texture for produce.
I love your content for one simple reason.
You are one of the few people who don't shame cooking ingredients/techniques/tools.
There is so much garbage out there, but its not as simple as fresh is good, or all organic or any matter of other simplified statements.
Its not that these labels are good or bad, its about knowing what they mean and the pros and cons of each.
Cooking is an Ancient practice that evolved alongside every culture on the planet, and is still evolving with us.
No culture is better or worse than another, the same goes with cooking.
And frozen vegetables/fruits are often picked at peak ripeness instead of before they are ripe (so they can ripen on the shelves and last longer in stores)
So frozen is great for a lot of foods!
This is so damn helpful! Good on you for these takes.
There have been tests done on frozen veggies: they had much more vitamins than the fresh ones, which languished in room temperature displays for as long as they will have when you get around to buying them. To say nothing of them aging further in your home! Everything that survives freezing intact has a good chance of being better if frozen immediately after harvest.
Frozen shrimp takes like a minute to defrost in a bowl of water anyways. Save your money
Enjoying the use of “frites” ☺️🇧🇪🇧🇪🍟
And also remember that frozen berries for example retain more vitamins as they are frozen immediately after being picked instead of staying out like the "fresh" stuff
Frozen peas and other such vegetables, too (when there's no fresh available/it'd take too much time)
"It will CHEEL." -Doug Marcaida in Forged and Frozen.
Frozen fruit is also the idea for smoothies. Not only is it riper, but the cells are broken by the ice crystals allowing for a smoother blend. You can also leave out the ice if you don't thaw the fruit first
Your detail oriented explanations that are fact checked and precise, are well appreciated by this viewer. Thank you.
this series is such a good idea. Thanks for the education!
I love the combination of “haven’t the time” and “throw ‘em” in the same breath. 💖 You rock and this series is fantastic!
My god, I barely cook, but I live your videos. They feel perfectly timed, not rushed, just the right amount of information, and you seem just like a great guy!
Exactly. All freezing is for is to preserve. Just as salt doesn't make food inferior, freezing doesn't either.
The way you articulate and speak is super satisfying
I have told so many people in my life this! They seriously don't believe me. Lots of grocery stores actually have it listed on labeling that it is thawed for your convenience. That seems to be the only way to get people to believe me. Thank you for sharing this with all that watch it
Now I'd LOVE to see a canned vs frozen comparison
I’ve always used frozen veggies for fried rice since a child. As an adult buying my own groceries… frozen shrimp and fries are GREAT at staying good for so long while still maintaining quality.
Biggest difference in how good frozen fries are is how good you reheat it and season it. Of course in the microwave will be bad, but in the air fryer, periodically seasoning? Pretty great and hits the spot…
Edit: I think the only thing I may not go for is seafood, purely because I’m not the best at thawing it quickly, so the one time I tried and cooking it, it turned to mush a bit (also because it was a type of fish I never tried making before).
Never mind that vegetables and berries starts loosing nutrients and minerals from the moment theyre harvested.. and so the ones that are frozen inmediately after harvesting often/usually contains more such than fresh.
Frozen vegetables. As someone who doesn't want to cook often, being able to pull out a bag, put it above a bowl of water and forget about them for 20 minutes is such a nice thing and I'm so glad I learned about it.
I love how you just put topics to bed! Great work!
MANS SPITTING STRAIGHT FREEZE 🗣🗣🧊🧊
Thank you for your service king!!
Frozen is also great for veg like peas, corn and edamame. When they’re canned they are always brown vs the fresh bright colours of frozen
Love this whole series of shorts!
I agree with this to a point. I'd say frozen fries are great UNLESS you are looking for anything seasoned. I love me some Jack in the Box curly fries or spicy potato wedges, but it's hard to get stuff from the supermarket that goes ham on the seasoning like that. It's for that reason that whenever I make spicy fries or wedges, I always make them from scratch so I can load them up with chili powder, paprika, coarse fresh pepper, and pink salt. Delicious.
Frozen fruits are also great since they’re frozen when they’re fresh. The best way to get good berries in the off season is to
Also, frozen berries are great for smoothies, and if you microwae them, they are still good to eat and put on things.
Thank you! When I learned about the history of flash freezing and how it actually maintains the nutritional value of many vegetables longer than just refrigeration, I have been a fan of the frozen I knew from childhood. Turned out that when Mom went on about nutritional value rants, she was actually right and my stubborn head just needed verification even though it was something she studied in college and actually taught a few nurses about some nutrition research that they didn't know because CEUs weren't required at the same quantity and frequency back then.
I don't know where I'd be in life without frozen spinach
Frozen shrimp is my go-to quick weeknight dinner protein. Even the big ones are thawed really easily and quickly, just toss them in a mixing bowl, fill with cold water and theyll be thawed in 20 mins tops
I love this series so much, keep up the excellent work
Dude IS been FIRE lately with these shorts
So interesting. Thank you. You give me good confidence!
The Batman & Robin’s Arnold impression was spot on lmaoooo
Worked at Whole Foods in the Meat and Seafood department, can confirm the shrimps part. For chicken I was even asked to go to the aisle and open some Mary’s packs when we ran out.
My man keep dropping knowledge like it's loose change 🙏 I KNEW my frozen fries were legit thank you Shaq
I need this guy to make videos for every aspect of life
loving this series
I’ve watched the fresh seafood counter pull packages of thawed shrimp and crab from the refrigerator and refill the appropriate seafood sections with them. Even had someone tell me to just buy the frozen shrimp because it was on sale while the “fresh” wasn’t.
Love the video thank you for the information, and I agree freezing food helps to keep the properties of that food better for longer vs other methods. Food often are shipped from another country and no one wants spoiled food. So people have found ways to keep foods better for longer like inert gas to stop oxidation when possible, freezing to kill germs, bacteria, and parasites, cooking and canning, dehydrating, fermentation, pickling, and or most likely a combination of many processes to Ensure that best quality of the product for delivery. Yes there's nothing quite like getting truly fresh product but fresh does not mean is has the best flavor As things grow in seasons. Thank you for the video.❤
Always great video with much common sens, thank's man!
If you REALLY care about unfrozen sashimi and you live near the sea, you can go to a fish market in the very early morning and find some fish which were caught 5 minutes ago, take them home and cover them with salt and spice and put it in the fridge for a few hours, then smoke it if you want.
Alternatively you can live on a little island like Cyprus and just go to a restaurant near the sea or near a river, the river trout, sea bream (tsippoura), octopus and squid are always extremely fresh.
“That’s how suppliers kill potential parasites,” he says, as the anisaki dangling from my fork and I ponder immortality.
Flash freezing is so cool. Keeps the food super fresh and kills all harmful bacteria without any preservatives or changing the taste.
I didn't know my local store had good bread until I checked the freezer.
I work at a restaurant where we also cater to companies lunch with a fixed menu, we produce the meat and sausages ourselves but we usually use the frozen things first of course and its still a great meal.
Buying frozen fruit was a game changer in terms of diversifying my diet. I only shop for myself so it's impossible to get through a large amount of fresh fruit before they rot. Now, I can have a ton of fruit options for whatever I'm craving at the moment instead of forcing myself to try and use up a bunch of raspberries or whatever.
It's amazing how much better frozen peas are versus the canned one's
I used to work at a grocery store in the seafood department and yes, the shrimp you buy at the counter is just the store brand frozen shrimp. While we didn't have a sushi bar, we did have never frozen salmon. We had the wild caught salmon which was frozen, and the farm salmon which was never frozen.
If it weren’t for frozen vegetables that let me steam them in the microwave, I would never eat vegetables as a college student lol
So much knowledge shared, thank you.
For instance, cookies are much better when they're baked immediately after being frozen
Freezing can change some foods for the worse though. It can change the texture and reduce flavor. For example frozen tomatoes or tofu will not taste the same after thawing. But they also don't sell these things frozen usually.
The only time I’ve used frozen tomatoes is for pasta sauce
Good short. Freezing carrots also enhances the flavour. If you have a fresh quality carrot, freeze it over night and bake it low to deepen/intensify and sweeten its flavour. Great for roasts.
I spent so much time trying to create the perfect french fry (when I was unemployed a few years ago). One of the steps is freezing them! It takes over 2 hours straight through, but there's a ton of prep before the freezing step, so I can get a bunch ready the night before and just fry the day of if I'm time constrained.
Frozen veggies are a good example for this, they get flash frozen right after harvesting, so they actually retain a lot of nutrients, especially if you use a method of preparing them that will also retain more nutrients like steaming or microwaving.
The joke at the end made me chuckle. Whimsical guy
Bro trying to make dr freeze joke even the voice 😂
“Chill out” 👏
Most fruits and vegetables also have dramatic benefits to being frozen. Not only does it keep the food fresh substantially longer, but it also preserves a lot of the macro nutrients in the food.
Note: for most foods if you plan on keeping them in the freezer it's best practice to buy them pre frozen. Slow freezing allows for large ice crystals to buld up which can damage the food on a microscopic scale and reduce the quality; this is why all the food you see in your freezer at your local grocery store was flash frozen.
For the seafood thing-from my experience that varies. Read the tags or ask the workers, they will tell you if it has been frozen. Our *fresh* seafood came packed in ice to keep it cold. The ones that said previously frozen were just the thawed ones from the frozen section
Worked at a fresh seafood deli for almost a decade growing up- we had 5lb bags of frozen gulf shrimp out for grabs on the floor in front, I was the one in charge of defrosting said bags in the back and putting them out front to sell by the lb. Same exact gulf shrimp just defrosted and you don’t have to buy the whole 5lbs. OCCASIONALLY we would get in actually fresh unfrozen shrimp shipped to us on ice from NC but other than that, it was all the same frozen gulf
frozen foods are great. been buying frozen fruit for smoothies and parfaits and frozen vegetables are so so good for fried rice and stir-frys. andnthose bags of frozen shrimp are a godsend. even if you do frorget to defrost them, you're only a warm.bowl of water and 15 minutes away from having shrimp
Your doing god's work buddy, plus having good info in bite size portions no pun intended is very appealing
I always buy my ice cream frozen. It’s just something about it that feels better than when it’s room temperature.
This is a great series