Freezing eggplant parm?? Please help!

[Jezabel03]

Hi,

I want to make eggplant parm in advance and freeze it. I was wondering if anyone has done this, and if you have, how it turned out when you went to cook it. I think I did it a couple of years ago and it turned out fine, but I can't quite remember. Thanks!

~Jez

[Suzanne]

You mean doing the layering and then freezing it, later cooking it? No problem! Just be sure when you wrap it for freezing you DON'T have it in a foil pan covered with foil. You'll get an electrical-chemical reaction that will eat little holes in the metal and leave yucky grey spots on the food. If you have to freeze it in metal, line it with plastic wrap first, and make plastic wrap the first layer when you cover it.

I usually let mine thaw before I put it in the oven. If you want to cook it directly from the freezer, first of all don't forget to take off the plastic. And you might want to cook it at a slightly lower temperature, for a lot longer time.

Hope this helps.

[Jezabel03]

Wow, that is exactly the answer I was looking for! I'm glad you warned me about using a foil pan, because I had planned on it initially.

Thank you so much for the informative answer!!

~Jez

[chef1x]

OMG

Jezabel, please don't take my little tirade in the wrong way, but I can't resist sharing my feelings on this subject

JUST this very morning, I heard a commercial on the radio stating that two-thirds of the eggplant in the US is grown in NEW JERSEY, and ZING, it came to me, NO WONDER!!! I used to like eggplant parm et al, UNTIL I moved to NY. My former bosses were always bugging me to make veal parm heroes, chix parm that, eggplant parm something. With all the nice produce available, including all the asian varieties, WHY this treatment of big ugly AMERICAN eggplant. UGH. I HATE eggplant parm! And NOW, someone wants to FREEZE it!!?? What's next??!!
Jezabel, you are aptly named.
Surely you must be in the tri-state area??



Ahem, besides that, if I went into some kind of regressive therapy, I'm pretty sure I could recall having a defrosted eggplant something, and even enjoying it; the freezing helps remove the unwanted moisture from it, possibly, mind you, I AM NOT advocating this or any other procedure involving eggplant!!

[Jezabel03]

You must be Kreskin because I am indeed in the dreaded tri-state area! And I loooove eggplant-- never liked it before I became pregnant, and now I crave it every once in a while. In addition, eggplant parm is the only dish I make that a) I can do without looking at a cookbook or doing any measuring b) people say is the best they've ever had. Go figure!

Thanks for your post, it made me laugh.

~Jez, quite aptly named.

[chef1x]

Does everyone SEE this??!!

SEE? I told you.... It's another one of the many NJ conspiracies.

What's a Kreskin?

AHHHHHHHH!!! She's pregnant with MORE!!

hide me

[Pastachef]

LOL, Chef 1X. Isn't Kreskin a psychic or prophet? Suzanne, That's great info about the foil and aluminum pans. I found this out the hard way, though not with eggplant Parm. Eggplant Parmesan is a favorite at the sorority and they're having it for dinner this evening.