The freezer is one of the greatest assets of modern technology. It’s a great way to avoid food waste, prepare meals in advance and always have a ready-made meal on hand. While freezing food is a common practicenot everything holds up well to such cold temperatures. Some foods, including mayonnaise, do not retain their texture once frozen, so the defrosting result is poor compared to the original dish. If you ever plan freeze a casserole that you’ve made with mayonnaise, you might want to think twice, unless you’re setting yourself up for a pretty lousy result.

Casseroles are great make-ahead meals when they’re filled with things like tomato sauce, but if you add a lot of mayonnaise to them, that mayonnaise will almost certainly separate as it thaws. Mayonnaise is prepared by emulsifying eggs and oil, and in a refrigerated state or at room temperature, this mayonnaise holds up well. But when it freezes, ice crystals form. When these ice crystals defrost with the emulsion, they disrupt the cell walls, causing the eggs and mayonnaise to separate. The end result is a type of curdled mayonnaise that, while safe to eat, is much less appealing.

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There is a workaround for mayonnaise-based casseroles

There is a workaround: you can freeze everything except the mayonnaise, then add it later. Mayonnaise could be hiding in your store-bought vinaigretteso read the ingredients before making any kind of casserole with creamy dressing. Or, if you’re making something where mayonnaise is the star (for example, a spinach and artichoke casserole probably has a mixture of cream cheese and mayonnaise), you can still make most of it at ‘advance.

Prepare pasta, meat, vegetables and any other ingredients that can be frozen in advance. Then freeze everything in an airtight container or dish the same way as if it were fully prepared. When it comes time to defrost it, that’s when you can prepare the mayonnaise mixture that will likely hold the casserole together. While this doesn’t work when you need a meal in a pinch, it’s a good alternative if you’re planning ahead for a vacation or party. You can always buy all the ingredients at once and prepare most of them in advance, then simply prepare the casserole when you’re ready to cook and serve it.

Read the original article on Chowhound.