Batch cooking: cook once, eat all month

What batch cooking is

You cook two or three big pots in one go, split them into containers, label them and freeze them. That’s a cook day. On a weeknight, dinner is already made: you move a container to the fridge the night before and heat it through when you get in.

Any afternoon with a few free hours will do; a Sunday is the classic. Three pots make 24 portions, which is a dozen dinners for two: three a week for a month, between the nights you actually want to cook.

Is it worth it?

It changes three things, and it isn’t for everything. Here’s the honest version.

Time

You chop the onions once, wash the big pans once and stand at the hob for one afternoon instead of every evening. The cooking doesn’t disappear. It moves to a time that suits you.

Decisions

At 6pm, the question of what’s for dinner already has an answer, and it’s in the freezer.

Money

One planned shop instead of top-ups, bigger packs shared across dishes, fewer takeaways on tired nights and less thrown away. How much that saves depends on what you cook and where you shop, so we won’t give you a number. As an illustration, the shop for the example cook day in how to plan a cook day comes to £25.57 for 24 portions, about £1.07 a portion. Those are example figures; yours come from your own plan and your own supermarket.

What it isn’t good for

Some things don’t freeze. Eggs and cream don’t, so carbonara is made on the night. And you need room in the freezer: if yours is full of containers nobody can name, eat those down first.

Your first cook day in six steps

The order matters, so here it is in order. The worked example, with times and a priced shop, is in how to plan a cook day.

1. Make room in the freezer

   Count how many containers will fit. That’s your limit for the day.

2. Pick three dishes that share ingredients

   A bolognese, a chilli and a curry all start with onions, garlic and tins of tomatoes. Keep them to the hob so the oven doesn’t become the queue.

3. Decide how many portions

   Portions are people times nights. Eight portions of each dish, in containers of two, is twelve dinners for two.

4. Shop once, the day before

   One list for all three dishes, so nothing’s bought twice and you know the cost before you go.

5. Cook, then cool

   Portion it into containers and get it into the fridge or freezer within one to two hours of coming off the heat. The rules, and where they come from, are in freezing and defrosting safely.

6. Label and freeze

   Dish, date made and portions on every container. New ones go to the back, so the oldest comes out first.

What to cook first

Start with dinners you already make, in bigger pots. These six are a good first list, and all of them are among the 42 dishes in Nomstash.

• Lentil bolognese Freeze the sauce and cook the pasta on the night.
• Chilli con carne Shares onions, garlic and tins of tomatoes with the bolognese. Rice or a jacket potato on the night.
• Tikka masala A Friday dinner from the freezer. Freeze the curry and make the rice fresh.
• Lasagne If you want an oven dish, make it the only one. Bake it, let it cool and portion it into containers.
• Katsu curry The sauce goes in the freezer. The crispy chicken and the rice are made on the night.
• Soup Lunches as well as dinners. Freeze some in single portions.

And one to leave for a night you’re cooking anyway: carbonara. Eggs and cream don’t freeze, so Nomstash plans it for the night you make it.

Containers and labels

Clear containers with lids, all the same footprint so they stack, each sized for one dinner in your house: two portions for a couple, four for a family. Clear means you can see what’s inside. One size means the freezer packs like a shelf.

Then label every one. The Food Standards Agency’s advice is to label food you freeze, so you don’t end up with Unidentified Frozen Objects (UFOs). Write the dish, the date it was made and how many portions are in it.

Nomstash prints a label for every container with all three, plus a code like 5DZU-09LO and a QR code. Scan it to open the container in Nomstash or to mark it eaten.

Freezing safely, in short

Four rules cover most of a cook day. Each comes from the Food Standards Agency and links to the page it’s from.

Keeping track, oldest first

The container that gets forgotten is the one at the bottom. New containers go to the back or the bottom, and dinner comes from the front or the top. Keep a list on the freezer door and cross things off as you go.

Or let Nomstash keep the list. It counts every container you label, by portion size, and shows you the oldest first. Each evening it tells you what to move to the fridge for tomorrow. Here’s how Nomstash works, from the plan to the freezer.

All the guides

Start with these

• How to plan a cook day

  Three dishes that share a shop, a timed plan for one Sunday afternoon and 24 portions in the freezer by teatime.

• Freezing, defrosting and reheating, the safe way

  The FSA and NHS rules for cooling, freezing, defrosting and reheating, in cook-day order, each linked to its source.

For your situation

• Batch cooking before the baby arrives

  What to cook, how much to make and how to label it so anyone who comes round can find dinner.

• Batch cooking for someone you care for

  One cook day for two homes: smaller portions, familiar dishes and labels that are easy to read.