With origins in Persia, koftas might be simple, but they can be a bit of a faff to make. So, can you batch-prepare koftas and then pop in the freezer?
Can You Freeze Koftas?
Yes, you can freeze koftas for up to 3 months. Wrap each kofta individually in a loose layer of baking paper, and then in a tighter layer of cling film. Once wrapped, you can pop the kofta into bags and then freeze.
Do Do Koftas freeze well? Yes
Can you refreeze Koftas? No
How to Freeze Koftas
Freezing koftas isn’t too tricky, but you can lose flavour and texture if you don’t follow our steps:
- Wrap: Wrap each kofta in a layer of loosely wrapped baking paper. This porous material will prevent moisture from settling directly on the koftas, leading to freezer burn.
- Wrap Again: The layer of air you create between the baking paper and the cling film is where any frost will collect during freezing, which allows your kofta to be stored very well.
- Portion Out: Portion out the koftas by bagging them up in large freezer bags or by placing them into Tupperware. This is a crucial thing to do, as it will make sure that you can avoid refreezing any kofta, which would make them unsafe to eat.
- Freeze: Freeze the kofta as close to the centre of the freezer as you can for up to 3 months.
3 Tips for Freezing Koftas
Now you know how to freeze them, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing koftas to have the best results:
Don’t Cook From Frozen
Cooking koftas from frozen will not allow them to cook as you might like. Most likely, it will lead to them being burned on the outside and cold in the centre. Totally thaw the koftas beforehand!
Freeze With Aromatics
A large part of making great meat products is ensuring they have as much flavour as possible. To ensure that you impart a lot of flavours, you can freeze the koftas with additional herbs. Grab a handful of thyme, oregano or rosemary and pop them into the bag with the koftas.
Avoid High-Fat Meat
Fatty meat tends not to freeze as well as lean meat since the fat and the meat are separate. Therefore, use lean meat if you know you’ll be freezing and thawing the koftas.
How Long Can You Freeze Koftas?
You can freeze koftas for around 3 months before their texture starts to degrade. While they’ll still be safe at that point, their quality will reduce quite a lot.
To ensure that you get the entire 3 months, make sure you follow the steps that we laid out above.
Raw and prepared koftas can be kept in the fridge for a couple of days. Once cooked, they can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for around 3 days.
How Do You Defrost Koftas?
You can defrost koftas by placing them in the fridge overnight and allowing them to slowly thaw.
Not only will this make sure that the koftas can be cooked well, since they’ll be closer to room temperature, but also they will be stored at a safe temperature once they’ve totally thawed.
Can You Refreeze Koftas?
No, you cannot refreeze koftas. The reason for this is that you cannot refreeze any meat product.
The only exception to this rule would be if you’d thawed and cooked a raw kofta. The cooked kofta could then be refrozen, once it had cooled. However, it couldn’t be refrozen if it were thawed after that.
Do Koftas Freeze Well?
Yes, koftas do freeze well.
The main reason for this is that so many meat products freeze well – they’re typically very dense, and water doesn’t tend to penetrate them.
This works to create a product that isn’t likely on the receiving end of freezer burn, which is ideal for a frozen item.
Related FAQs
If you’ve still got questions about freezing koftas or koftas in general, then these may help:
Yes, although traditionally made with lamb mince, koftas made with most types of meat can be frozen for around 3 months.
Sources
We have verified the information on this page using the following resources:
