Veg Stock concentrate

[judydawn]

Made this a few days ago from the EDC and decided to freeze portion of it in ice-cube trays as I'm sure I won't be using quite as much over the warmer months and the recipe now has a lot less salt in it to help preserve it.  Can anyone tell me please, why won't it freeze??

[CreamPuff63]

I am no expert, but am hazarding a quick guess perhaps it is still the salt content -- don't they throw salt on ice to melt it in snow countries? 

[Amanda]

Mine doesn't freeze, either, Judy.
I have assumed that it is the salt content and just keep it in the freezer anyway!

[cookie1]

CP63 I am fairly sure you are right. Doesn't salt affect the boiling and freezing temperature of water?(and vegie stock I'd say)

[judydawn]

I thought (after I posted) that this was probably the answer I would get.  Thanks girls.

[sharonr]

When I made this, I didn't use any salt at all as I don't generally cook with salt.  I put it in the freezer in ice cube trays thinking that it wouldn't keep very long in the fridge as it didn't have the salt.  But it didn't freeze without the salt either.  I have no idea why, so I ended up taking it out of the trays and just put it in a container in the freezer and now I just scoop out what I need when I need it.

[JulieO]

When I made mine I only used a pinch of salt to the whole mixture.  I put into ice cube trays that are 1 tblsp sized and they have frozen.  Not super hard as per ice cubes themselves, but still hard enough to keep their shape.  I had to prize them out with a flat bladed knife and then I put into a large zip-lock bag.  I take one out whenever I need to and add to water.  They don't take long to dissolve.

On the other hand, I also made the chicken and beef stock cubes, from the EDC, that were just like crumbs.  I put into smaller icecube trays, froze them and again put into a ziplock bag, but they are pretty crumbly and when I added to water and did a taste test, there wasn't much flavour at all.  I will just throw them into things as an added flavour, but will continue to do my old way of doing chicken stock (using chicken carcasses, veg etc).  I tend to do a big stock pot every so often making a few litres.  I freeze the carcasses from roast chickens that we have and also buy a bag of 5 carcasses for $2 from Lenards every once in a while and spend a morning cooking it up.  I leave to chill overnight so I can scoop off the solidified fat from the top and then put into containers in lots of 500ml and put into our extra freezer.  So much nicer than any of the ones you buy in the shops and again has very little salt. 

[brazen20au]

julie, if you try bron's recipe it is lovelyw ith lots of taste

gosh, i couldn't do stock without salt, i love my salt lol

[JulieO]

Thanks Brazen, do you mean Bron has chicken & beef stock recipes?  I may have confused you, the veg concentrate is good, no problems with that, it's just the chicken & beef stock cubes that I made was crumbly and pretty tasteless. 

I prefer stock with hardly no salt, as I like to add salt to whatever dish I am making, the ones in the supermarket are too salty for my tastes, even the salt reduced ones can be. 

[brazen20au]

i just use bron's vegie one and add some chicken or beef to it.

[Thermomixer]

They will freeze - but not in most domestic freezers for the reasons outlined.  Look at getting the Glad? bags with bubbles and cut off the sections as you need.