Can You Freeze Sweet and Sour Sauce?

3 minutes

Sweet and sour sauce is a central part of Chinese takeout food – it’s bright, sharp, and wonderfully rich in all the right ways. It makes a wonderful accompaniment to nearly any form of protein or veggies. But, how do you store leftovers?

How to Freeze Sweet and Sour Sauce

The first step to freezing some sweet and sour sauce is to ensure that the sauce you’re using is in the condition you’d like to freeze it in.

By that, we mean that you should ensure you’ve removed any pieces of food from the sauce or any pieces of detritus that may be in the sauce.

1. Cool: When the sauce is thoroughly prepared, ensure it’s entirely cooled to room temperature. If it is sealed in containers while still warm, condensation will form, and that moist, warm environment is where most food-borne diseases commonly thrive.
2. Bag Up: Portion the sauce into thick freezer bags that have a tight seal to them.
3. Remove Excess Air: When the food is cooled, press out as much excess air from the container as possible, before sealing the lid or sealing strip completely.
4. Freeze: When the container is sealed, transfer it to the freezer, where it will freeze solid for around three months.

3 Tips for Freezing Sweet and Sour Sauce

Now you know how to freeze it, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing sweet and sour sauce to have the best results:

Ensure the Container is Sealed
Making sure that the container is sealed is a great idea for several reasons, though there are two main ones: making sure that the sauce doesn’t spill from the container if it gets knocked or tilts in the freezer, and preventing the sweet and sour sauce from making your freezer smell.

Leave a Little Headspace
As sweet and sour sauce has a lot of water in it, it’s exceptionally wise to ensure that you leave a little headspace at the top of the container, as the sauce will expand during freezing.

Freeze at the Centre of Your Freezer
The majority of the aromatic compounds in this sauce can be lost through evaporation, which will mainly happen when the sauce is liquid. The centre of your freezer will be the coldest, ensuring it is kept solid.

How Long Can You Freeze Sweet and Sour Sauce?

You can freeze sweet and sour sauce for around three months.

After this point, some of the aromatic compounds in the sauce will have evaporated, leading to a degradation in quality sure to prevent you from enjoying the sauce as much as possible.

How Do You Defrost Sweet and Sour Sauce?

The best way to defrost sweet and sour sauce is to leave it in the fridge overnight.

This long-term thawing is ideal because it will allow you to use the sweet and sour sauce as though it were fresh – adding it to dishes easily, and using it to stews, marinade, and flavour different ingredients.

Can You Refreeze Sweet and Sour Sauce?

Yes, you can refreeze sweet and sour sauce. To do this, simply follow the steps outlined above, making sure to follow them as though you were freezing freshly-made sauce.

Does Sweet and Sour Sauce Freeze Well?

Yes, sweet and sour sauce does freeze well.

There’s no noticeable degradation in quality between when the sauce is first frozen and finally thawed, provided you don’t freeze the sauce for any longer than three months, after which the flavour will have noticeable deteriorated, leading to a poor quality final dish.

Related FAQs

If you’ve still got questions about freezing sweet and sour sauce, then these may help: