Holiday Leftovers – What to Freeze and What Not to Freeze

Got holiday leftovers? There’s only so much time to eat it all up and it’s too delicious to waste, so here’s some info to help with your leftovers.

Holiday Leftovers in the Fridge

Whether it’s Thanksgiving leftovers or leftovers from another big family celebration, here’s a reminder of how long typical holiday foods like turkey, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and other dishes can be kept in the fridge.

Tips for Storing Leftovers

• Follow the 2 hour rule – only keep cooked or cut food out for 2 hours, bacteria growth becomes dangerously high beyond that.
• Eat strategically – eat the most perishable foods first.
• Cool thoroughly – store leftovers in the fridge once they are cooled – you don’t want to heat up the fridge and compromise everything in it!
• Use shallow containers – shallow containers helps cool food more quickly and let you divide large amounts so you can freeze some right away, or send some home with guests.
• Wrap well – cover well to avoid texture, flavor and quality loss.
• Use soon – most leftovers should be used within 3-4 days, freeze right away if you know you can’t use it all.

Freezing Holiday Leftovers

Here’s a quick reference chart to help you sort out which holiday leftovers you can successfully freeze and which won’t freeze well.

Let me be clear, you can toss just about any food in the freezer, as long as it was safe to eat before freezing, it will be safe to eat after freezing. However, some foods, like the ones on the “What Not To Freeze” list, do not freeze well due to loss of texture and appearance. You probably have an aunt or brother who freezes EVERYTHING – that’s cool, it’s safe enough; I’m just a little more particular about texture and appearance! Frozen Caesar salad – no thanks! Frozen leftover turkey – yes please!

Want More?

This chart is designed specifically for holiday leftovers, if you want general, year round what to freeze and what not to freeze info, click the button.

Tips for Freezing Success

• remove as much air as possible
• cool food completely before freezing
• wrap and seal well with freezer quality containers or bags
• use leftovers within 3-4 months for best quality
• freeze in usable portion sizes for convenience and ease of thawing
• don’t freeze food you don’t like – the freezer will not make it taste any better!
• don’t freeze food that has been left at room temperature for more than two hours – the freezer won’t make it safe
• it’s okay to refreeze food that has already been frozen – the quality deteriorates every time, but the USDA says …

“Once food is thawed in the refrigerator, it is safe to refreeze it without cooking, although there may be a loss of quality due to the moisture lost through thawing. After cooking raw foods which were previously frozen, it is safe to freeze the cooked foods. If previously cooked foods are thawed in the refrigerator, you may refreeze the unused portion. Freeze leftovers within 3-4 days. Do not refreeze any foods left outside the refrigerator longer than 2 hours; 1 hour in temperatures above 90 °F.”

Tips for Thawing Frozen Food

•  Thaw food safely. Freezing does not kill pathogens, it just slows them down. Once the temperature reaches the danger zone, 4°C-60°C (40°F-140°F) their numbers will increase rapidly.  After two hours at those temperatures, bacterial loads can be dangerously high.
• Thaw food in the fridge, in cold water baths or in the microwave.
• Not all food needs to be thawed before using. For example, fruit used for baking is best if not thawed. I also don’t thaw veggies before I toss them into soups or casseroles.

Tips for Freezing Cookies

Gosh, I almost forgot one of the most important items – the cookies!

Cookies, especially drop cookies (choco chip, oat, etc.) and rolled cookies (sugar cookies, shortbread) are excellent candidates for the freezer. In fact, I like to make sure I always have some cookies in the freezer for welcomed, but unexpected guests. I’ve discovered that many of my friends prefer partially thawed cookies – who knew that partially they were such a treat!

Cookies are best eaten within three months, but will last a year or more (unless you have a teenager in the house!).

Cookies that don’t freeze well are delicate cookies like meringue cookies, wafers or those with custard fillings.

It is best to freeze cookies without frosting, fillings, icing or other toppings. Add them when you serve them for a fresh touch.

Favourite Leftover Recipes

In our house, leftovers start with making a delicious stock with the chicken or turkey carcass (at Easter it’s ham stock from the ham bone). The next day we have soup and sandwiches. Any leftover dessert or leftover pie is usually finished by noon the day after! We eat leftover pumpkin pie for breakfast! By the following two nights there’s usually enough of everything to simply reheat the dishes and enjoy a second go-around. After that I get creative with using up food in new dishes. The leftover sweet potatoes turn into waffles or scones, the leftover cranberry sauce turns into fruit leather and the ham, chicken and vegetables turn into a pot pie and so on. Here’s a few recipes for you to try.

Sweet Potato Waffles

Ham Egg ‘n Cheese Muffins

Chicken or Turkey Pot Pie

Mashed Potato Patties

Shepherd’s Pie

Meatloaf Leftover Ideas

Fried Rice

Ham Bone Soup Stock

Chicken Soup Stock

Vegetable Soup Stock

Cranberry Sauce Fruit Leather

Are there other holiday foods you’re curious about freezing? Drop me a line and together we’ll figure it out!

Sign up to get articles by Getty delivered to your inbox. You’ll get recipes, practical tips and great food information like this. Getty is a Professional Home Economist,  speaker and writer putting good food on tables and agendas.  She is the author of Manitoba’s best-selling Prairie Fruit Cookbook, Founder of Fruit Share, a mom and veggie gardener.