Labeling food units

[cjsmith]

For all you folks out there who make large batches of stuff and then divide it up for storage, to eat later:

How do you label the containers?

Me, I'm freezing and refrigerating big piles of soup, and I'm sticking masking tape on the lids of the containers and then writing the contents and date on the tape. When I eat the stuff, I peel off the tape before washing the container. This masking tape thing seems like a pain in the butt, but I'm not sure I can come up with anything better. Grease pencil? Writing directly on disposable bags (vacuum-sealed or whatever)? What do you folks do?

Comments

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

When I bother to mark it, I use the tape method. Unless it's a ziploc-style bag, in which case I just write directly on it. Ziploc bags are great for soup, you can stack up a bunch of them in the freezer.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Do you sometimes not mark it? Do you have some kind of a system for remembering which things in storage are the oldest? Without the numbers, I'd have a really weird assortment of ages in the freezer ;-)

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

I frequently don't mark it. But there are really only about 4-5 different things that I regularly make for freezing, and they're pretty readily identifiable.

[mama-hogswatch.livejournal.com]

Label and date, CJ. Label and date.

Fridge, too!

(Can you tell I used to live with a chef?)

[aelfie.livejournal.com]

If you actually find a grease pencil, let me know. I've been searching everywhere for them and can't find one.


I use ziploc freezer bags mostly. But for soup like items I've got some quart freezer containers that have a space to write on them. Ball point seems to come off okay...but I still want that damn grease pencil!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I really want a grease pencil. With one of those, I can write an end time on the side of the crock pot, too. Handy when you're running two of them or when you haven't slept properly since May and can't remember what you did.

I will totally let you know if I find one. I haven't yet been to an art supply store.

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

Art supply or hardware should have them.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a true hardware store, the kind that used to be on the corner when we were kids. (Of course, when we were kids, the corner drugstore would have had grease pencils too.) I know where one of those wonderful little old hardware stores can be found, but it's in Louisville. :-) Perhaps the big chain stores like Home Depot would have something like that. I'm not often near one these days.

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

You might try Rural Supply in Los Gatos. That's where I go for chicken feed. It's a proper hardware store of the old school.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Have you tried a hardware store? That's usually where I find them.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

I use a Sharpie. Running the container through the dishwasher tends to remove a lot of it, and so I don't run out of room.

Speaking of which, it's time for me to do a little inventory of the freezer, see if there's anything that's heading towards expiration.

[evelynne.livejournal.com]

I do the same thing (Sharpie) and the DW takes care of it after a while, but I'm also not opposed to just crossing stuff off and writing in the new contents. :) I use the plastic containers my Indian takeout arrives in.

[ladyqkat.livejournal.com]

Plastic bags - sharpie marker with date made/purchased and contents

Reusable containers - Dymo labler (purchased for somethng else but comes in handy for this

I buy meat in largish (for us) quantities, divide it into meal sizes, wrap it in deli wrap paper, then foil, then place into a plastic bag labled with the date purchased and what it is.

As long as I can remember we have had a freezer and I learned a long time ago to make sure everything is labled and dated. Freezer burn sucks.

[datagoddess.livejournal.com]

I use a dry erase marker - if it won't come off, going over it with the marker again and wiping works well.

[butterfly-smile.livejournal.com]

We use these amazing labels that are made out of a material that when you wash the container it disappears (when you wash it, it melts away) It is biodegradable. We also you labels that you can erase and us over again.

[davidlevine]

Cool. What are they called?

[pixiecrinkle.livejournal.com]

I often use the large Stonyfield yogurt containers for freezing, and I can write on those with a roller ball pen. It either washes off in the dishwasher, or by the time I've filled up all the space, the container is lost or worn out.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

i use tape

[nosrednayduj]

I use regular white labels that are intended for mailing and stuff. The stickier the better, otherwise the stickiness freezes and you have unlabelled food and labels littering the bottom of your freezer. Sometimes they stay on in the dishwasher, and they always leave a residue on top of the lid. But who cares? Stick a new one on next time. You're not serving with your freezer lids to fancy guests, eh?

[meglimir.livejournal.com]

any of the above, whatever is to hand at the time! heh

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

sharpie, when i remember. but i only have the fridge-top freezer, and it's far from being ful right now.

i second the motion of doing soup in ziplock bags and freezing them flat for easier storage. they thaw quicker than soup bricks, too. :)

[jwg.livejournal.com]

You could use a permanent marker to identify each container with a name or number and then keep a chart about what is in which container.

[apparentparadox]

That's a great idea!

[davidlevine]

We use a refillable china marker like this one: http://www.buyonlinenow.com/viewproduct.asp?sku=LIS1620BBK It marks most anything and washes off with soap and hot water (though some plastics don't come completely clean).

You can get them at office supply and art places. The refills are getting harder to find but can still be obtained online.

I'm not sure what the difference is between a "grease pencil" and a "china marker." Perhaps they are the same thing by two different names.

Label printer

[sommerfeld2.livejournal.com]

Those little hand-held battery-operated thermal label printers which print onto tape work really well for this purpose. You don't have to worry about decoding your handwriting later, and the labels peel off when you want to remove them but stay put in the freezer.

Re: Label printer

[lindalee.livejournal.com]

I've started doing this, too, but have been wondering if I'm being wasteful.

If I use a ziploc, I just write on it with a Sharpie.

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

1 Quart and 2 Quart resealable bags and vacu-bags. 1 straw to draw air out of non-meat resealable bags. 1 pen made to perma-write on those bags:

- Quantity
- Abbreviation for item in bag
- Date of storage

We try to use the things put in the resealable bags before the vacu-bags.

[tendyl.livejournal.com]

I write on the disposable bags or tinfoil with a black permanent marker. If it's going in for long term in a plastic container, I use scotch tape. That comes up easier than masking tape.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh interesting. I find masking tape comes up very easily -- TOO easily, unless I apply it at room temperature. If I put it on when the container's hot or cold, it utterly fails to be tape at all. :-)