Freezing sauces: All information for different types of sauces – homemade

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Can you freeze sauce? The question arises if there are leftovers after a (festive) meal or if you want to prepare a larger portion in advance. With our information you will know exactly which sauces freeze well and what you should keep in mind.

The good news is that many sauces can be frozen, or rather most of them. We differentiate between different types of sauces based on basic ingredients: vegetable sauce, cream sauce, flour sauce, gravy or meat sauce such as our best Bolognese. Also check out our tips for freezing sauces. This means you can easily keep leftovers for several months.

Which sauces can be frozen?

Whether or how well sauce can be frozen depends primarily on the base ingredient. We distinguish between the following 5 types of sauce.

These sauces can be easily frozen:

• Sauce with vegetables such as tomato sauce can easily be frozen for about 6 months. An alternative is to preserve tomato sauce by boiling it down.
• Gravy or minced meat sauces They can also be stored in the freezer for up to 4 months. For a gravy that contains a lot of starch, please note the information for flour sauces. A little starch for binding does not affect freezing.
• Sauces with cream such as our creamy mushroom cream sauce are suitable for the freezer for up to 3 months. Even if these are occasionally a bit chunky at first, they can be stirred until creamy again when thawed. This also applies to sauce with plant-based cream.

These sauces can only be frozen to a limited extent:

• Flour based sauces such as béchamel or a dill sauce are not ideal for freezing: after defrosting, they become chunky and solid instead of remaining creamy. The taste is less affected than the appearance. Our tip: Add a little more liquid (water, milk or vegetable broth) when defrosting, so frozen flour sauces can often be saved.
• Fat-based sauces such as cheese sauce, butter sauce or hollandaise sauce can change their consistency after freezing and are therefore less ideal for freezing.

Freezing sauces: 6 tips

1. temperature: We generally recommend allowing all sauces to cool to room temperature before freezing to save energy.
2. Freshness: Sauce is best cooked fresh and frozen for as long a shelf life as possible.
3. Portioning: The frozen food is best frozen straight away in the correct portion size.
4. container: Make sure the container is labeled as freezer-safe. Various materials such as plastic, glass, silicone, freezer bags or ice cube trays are possible.
5. Label Don’t forget, so that a few months later you’ll know what’s in it and when the frozen food came from.
6. Heat: Ideally, frozen food is thawed slowly in the refrigerator or at room temperature. It’s quicker at low heat in a pot with a lid.

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