can you freeze potato salad and homemade guacamole sauce?
Freezing bursts the cells inside the avocado, causing it to lose water, which makes them mushy. That’s OK if it’s just avocados; they were already going to be mushy in guac anyway. If you’re just going to add flavorings like lime, chili, garlic, etc. it might be a little different in texture coming out than going in, but it’ll taste fine. Not as good as fresh, but fine. However, if your guac contains tomatoes, or to a lesser extent onions, they’re going to get very mushy and kind of unpleasant in the freezer. Don’t try. If you are going to freeze the mashed avocados, squeeze in some lime (to prevent browning) and put them in a ziplock bag. Squeeze all of the air out before freezing; air contributes to freezer burn. Potato salad is even worse. The same cell-bursting activity that happens in avocados goes on in potatoes as well, making the result both mushy and watery. Unlike guac, potatoes are supposed to be firm. Worse, it interferes with the emulsion in your mayonnaise, causing it to
The question is will you want to eat it after it thaws. Concerning Potato Salad and Guacamole Sauce, I would not recommend freezing them. The ingredients used in both dishes do not come out of freezing in good condition. Eating it after freezing will not be harmful, it will be ugly and taste like, well, lets just say it won’t taste like fresh or day old(which usually tastes best after flavors have blended).
To clarify, if your potato salad has a significant amount of mayonnaise, then NO, this should not be frozen. The freezing process will break the emulsion (the tenuous blend of oil, water, and “diplomatic” emulsifier), thus causing some watery effluent to come out of your potato salad. Guacamole, on the other hand, should be OK to freeze, although it will probably require some stirring and will further puree chunkier preparations. Of course, if any component of this condiment was previously frozen, it’s generally considered bad practice to refreeze it.
