Meal preparation may save your life by reducing your weekly cooking time; when you order groceries online, it can cut down on your shopping time. While many dishes are simple to make in advance, you may wonder about your grandmother’s mac and cheese recipes or something that uses an incredible American-style alfredo sauce.
You see the question, can you freeze a cream sauce? From here, you see many dishes that are prepared similarly. Cream of mushroom, cream of chicken, béchamel sauce, and many a creamy pasta dish make great dinners. You may already know that some dairy doesn’t freeze well, so what about cream-based sauces?
In our guide, you can learn more about can you freeze cream-based sauces and how you need to do it. By the end, you’ll have a better understanding of can you freeze cream sauces, can you freeze creamy mushroom sauce and can you make ahead casserole that will be safe in the freezer. Most of all, you’ll know if you can freeze cream-based sauces, so your meal prep can include many favorite dishes. (Learn How To Freeze Green Tomatoes)
Can Sauce With Cream Be Frozen?
Creamy mushroom sauce is a versatile sauce you can even turn into a soup. However, you can use it to change the flavor of any everyday meal.
Here are some examples of things you can do with your creamy mushroom sauce:
- Use as a steak topping
- Coat chicken or pork chops in creamy mushroom sauce
- Use your creamy mushroom sauce in place of pasta sauce
- Add flavor to your soups
- Use creamy mushroom sauce with beef stroganoff
- Make creamy mushroom sauce and meatballs
For meal prep, your options are wide open, yet it helps to understand what’s in a cream sauce, so you’ll know whether or not you can freeze cream-based sauces.
How to make creamy mushroom sauce?
Here is a typical recipe for how to make your own creamy mushroom sauce. To help you better understand the ingredients you are working with for freezing the sauce.
What You’ll Need:
- Heavy cream
- Corn flour or cornstarch (add a little milk to thicken), chopped parsley
- Butter
- Oil
- Sliced mushrooms
- Salt and pepper
- Thyme, garlic, and chopped parsley
Directions
- Heat together your butter and olive oil.
- Thyme, salt, and pepper are added as the mushrooms are sauteed in the pan.
- The mushrooms should be fried till golden brown.
- Fry a little bit longer after adding garlic or garlic cloves.
- Add the corn starch mixture and cream.
- After bringing the sauce to a simmer, let it cook for 5–10 minutes until it thickens.
- Add the parsley and more spices if necessary.
- When the time spent slicing the mushrooms is added, this method takes less than 30 minutes.
- You may conveniently save time by preparing other dish components while the sauce is simmering.
Now, if you want to add the sauce to a creamy pasta dish, here is all you need:
The pasta will cook more as you reheat and absorb more moisture from the dish.
To compensate, undercook pasta before adding, so it is al dente, then add extra white sauce or other liquids to the casserole to compensate. (Read Can You Freeze Cottage Cheese)
Here is how you go about freezing tuna noodle casserole, green bean casserole, or other casserole dishes for meal prep:
- 16 oz pasta cooked until al dente
- 1/2 cup of additional broth or sauce
- Freeze topping separately and cover before placing thawed casserole into the oven.
If you have mushrooms, green beans, or other vegetables in your white sauce releasing moisture as they cook, you can toss these in cornstarch to absorb moisture. You can also sauté the vegetables before adding them to the sauce to add flavor and eliminate extra water.
Most recipes use the second option as the creamy dish tastes better
Can You Freeze White Cream Sauce?
Following the above, you can find more about how to store your mushroom sauce for future use properly.
Freezing your creamy mushroom sauce is very simple. There are no complicated steps to follow, and you don’t have to worry about the cream.
It will freeze just fine. However, some things can prepare you for using it after freezing, which we will get to shortly.
Here are the steps for storing creamy mushroom sauce:
- You can store creamy mushroom sauce in the fridge for up to 5 days. To do this, spoon it into an airtight container and place it in the fridge.
- Allow the sauce to cool to room temperature.
The following information will help you properly store your mushroom sauce for future use.
It’s pretty easy to freeze your creamy mushroom sauce. There aren’t any complicated steps to follow, and the cream is not a concern.
It will freeze fine, yet there are a few things to help prepare for using it after freezing.
The steps for preserving creamy mushroom sauce are:
- For up to five days, creamy mushroom sauce can be kept in the refrigerator.
- Spoon into an airtight container and put it in the refrigerator to achieve this.
- Let the sauce cool until it reaches room temperature.
Freezing Creamy Sauce:
- Pour the sauce into a freezer bag, airtight freezer-safe container, or double wrap and freeze.
- The freezer container should be labeled, sealed, and dated.
- Place into your freezer.
- For roughly 6 months after freezing, your sauce will remain tasty.
How do you handle a cream-based sauce as it comes out of the freezer?
Give the sauce enough time to defrost fully, or you can transfer it from the freezer to a skillet and reheat it over high heat.
Place the sauce in the refrigerator overnight or for at least 6 hours if you intend to let it thaw. Once thawed, heat over medium-low and stir occasionally until cooked through. (Read Can You Freeze Cotija Cheese)
If your Sauce Splits?
Although a cream-based sauce is prone to splitting, our recipe uses corn flour or corn starch.
The best way to keep your sauce from splitting is by adding these.
If your sauce splits, you can help restore it to its original texture and consistency by adding a few tablespoons of water to the mixture.
How Long Does Cream Sauce Last In Freezer?
A versatile sauce that freezes well is bechamel, sometimes known as white sauce. Make a batch ahead of time, then freeze it.
You may wonder if creamy mushroom sauce can be frozen because of the cream content. The good news is that freezing your creamy mushroom sauce or white sauce won’t hurt anything.
Can You Freeze Dishes With Cream In Them?
There is no way to freeze cream. This is because the cream’s water and oil could separate when it thaws. However, because other ingredients in your cream-based dishes provide protection, dishes with cream can be frozen.
Can Creamy Alfredo Sauce Be Frozen?
Cream-based sauces can be challenging to freeze since they have a propensity to split while stored.
Alfredo sauce keeps well when frozen for up to three months. After that time, you can still eat the sauce, but if you keep it for too long, the flavor and texture might alter.
Can You Freeze Cream Casserole Dishes?
Cottage cheese, sour cream, and creme fraiche do not freeze well, although casseroles with a lot of dairy are lovely.
Finish the casserole immediately or put leftovers in an airtight container to keep in the fridge for two to three days.
Can You Freeze Dishes Using Double Cream?
Although double cream can be frozen, it is usually better frozen than whipped cream. The cream has a gritty texture because the fat molecules adhere to one another.
You can still use cream in cooking even though heat usually breaks down the fat molecules in cream.
If you freeze heavy cream, be sure there is a gap so the cream in your recipes can expand.
Can You Freeze Sauces In A Jar?
Both solids and liquids freeze well in glass jars. The jars themselves can be frozen while still holding soups, sauces, baby food, apple sauce, and other liquid things.
However, unlike fruit and vegetables, the jars don’t have air pockets to let the frozen food expand.
How Long Does A Cream Sauce Last In The Fridge?
If making recipes fresh with cream sauce, you can keep these covered with plastic wrap or an airtight container in the fridge for up to 7 days; all they need is reheating.
If frozen, then the thawed recipe, eat the food inside a couple of days, so the white sauce doesn’t go off.
It’s crucial to allow the sauce completely cool after making a fresh batch of Alfredo sauce before storing it.
The food quality in the freezer may be harmed if hot sauce is kept there directly.
Before storing, newly made Alfredo sauce should ideally cool
for around one hour.
Alfredo sauce should not be left out after cooling for over two hours because at that point, bacteria multiply rapidly in food, rapidly reducing the sauce’s shelf life.
To avoid freezer burn, choose a freezer-safe container with an airtight lid when the Alfredo sauce is at room temperature.
Strong freezer bags should be used, and be careful not to overfill the bags because the sauce expands as it freezes.
Before sealing, squeeze out as much air as you can from the storage bag of the white sauce.
For quickest freezing and easiest stacking, filling the freezer bags with about an inch of sauce is ideal. (Read Can You Freeze Jambalaya)
Before storing the container in the freezer, date and label them.
To avoid repeated thawing and refreezing cycles, which might reduce the shelf life of Alfredo sauce, it is also helpful to freeze the sauce in smaller batches.
If the fresh cream, butter, and cheese used in the frozen Alfredo Sauce were nearing expiration dates, its shelf life might be less than three months.
If stored correctly in the freezer, homemade sauce created with processed ingredients may have a shelf life of up to six months.
Freezing leftover sauce is acceptable if the sauce was not left out for too long after being reheated.
