Gelatin is the ingredient you add if you want to make jelly or any jelly-like food product. It is added to mouses, tarts and all sorts of desserts. You often buy it in powder or leaf form and mix with water to make the gelatin.
It isn’t always easy to judge how much gelatin you need and putting too much into a recipe can be disastrous for the texture of the food. So, what do you do with any excess? Can you freeze gelatin?
No, unfortunately, gelatin cannot be frozen. It doesn’t freeze well and in most cases, it won’t even set fully solid in the freezer. It isn’t worth it so if possible use up your gelatin instead.
Do Does Gelatin freeze well? No
Can you refreeze Gelatin? No
How To Freeze Gelatin
As mentioned already, we wouldn’t recommend that you freeze gelatin. It is a great product, but it just isn’t suitable for freezing.
There is no need to worry though you can always keep it in its powder or leaf form for ages! So when you use gelatin in a recipe try and mix up a little at a time to ensure you don’t let any go to waste.
Made up gelatin can be kept in the fridge for a few days, so you do have time to use up any gelatin you have leftover.
Can You Freeze Jelly?
Jelly contains gelatin, and you can’t freeze this either for the same reasons as you can’t freeze gelatin. Unfortunately, this is a shame because it would be awesome to keep jelly in the freezer for snacks and treats!
However, all is not lost because you can keep your jelly made and in the fridge for a long time. It should remain good for up to a week! Plenty of time to eat up all that jelly.
Does Gelatin Freeze Well?
Gelatin doesn’t freeze well, in fact, it doesn’t freeze at all! The structure of the gelatin, the stuff that makes it hold together, is destroyed when frozen and by the time you come to thaw it out, it becomes a liquidy mess rather than jelly-like.
This is the same if you have added gelatin to any of your recipes. Whether your recipes can be frozen once you have added gelatin will depend on how much gelatin you have added. If you have only added a little to a mousse, then you may find that it survives.
However, foods high in gelatin should be avoided such as jelly.
It’s best to pop your foods containing gelatin into the fridge instead and eat them within about a week to ensure they don’t go bad.
Related FAQs
If you’ve still got questions about freezing gelatin or gelatin in general, then these may help:
Can You Freeze Mousse With Gelatin?
Be warned, however, that you are most likely going to notice a drastic change in the texture of your mouse once it has been frozen. It may no longer be light and fluffy. Instead, you may find it somewhat grainy and inconsistent in parts.
This can be applied to a variety of desserts that require a light and airy texture such as Angel Delight.
What does that mean, foods high in gelatin should be avoided? Is turkey broth okay when it’s gelatinous?
Excellent question! Yes, you can freeze turkey broth. While we don’t yet have an article on it specifically, you can follow the same directions as you find here: https://freezeit.net/can-you-freeze-bone-broth/
Thanks for pointing out that we need an article covering “Can you freeze turkey broth?” specifically. We’ve been working on adding new content each week and this needs to go on our list!
For this article, we’re referring to things like “Jello” or other similar desserts and foods.