This is probably a long shot, but does anyone have a good recommendation for a small microwavable, reusable container (preferably plastic or otherwise hard to break)?
I often cook up rice and break it up into ~100g portions, which I freeze and re-heat later. Right now they take up way too much freezer space because I put them in Hillshire Farms containers.
I'm open options other than rigid containers, but rigid containers seem easiest to clean.
@pganssle I meal prep for breakfast and lunch and we love using deli containers (e.g. DuraHome on amazon). They're great for breakfast meal prep, soups, chilis, rice, etc. Love how they stack (esp. in a drawer) and wash in the dishwasher
@ejodlowska These 8oz ones look pretty close to what I want: https://www.amazon.com/DuraHome-Containers-Microwaveable-Heavy-Duty-Dishwasher/dp/B01FKGJ5NG
They don't get cloudy or pitted or anything in the microwave? If so that might be a winner.
@pganssle No cloudiness nor indentations...however, if you warp it to fit it into your dishwasher, it may come out that shape
@alex That's a good start if the material doesn't pit in the freezer, but it's a bit tall. My freezer is one of those ones that has a big drawer that pulls out from the bottom, so vertical space is at a premium.
@alex Or maybe I'm being thrown off by the proportions of the stuff around it. The ones I like are 11cm x 11 cm x 5 cm, and this is 8 x 8 x 6, so maybe it's not so bad.
@pganssle yeah total volume is a bit less. https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/bestaemma-food-container-with-lid-glass-50495763/ is a bit more than your current
Professional rice eater here (over two decades of experience :ablobsunglasses:), I wonder how are those to be stored, @pganssle. There exists smaller rice cookers that can make down to ~300g at a time, which can last a day kept warmed or refrigerated for a few more (assuming your cool compartment is significantly larger than the frozen one).
PP has a melting point close to cooking oil’s smoke point so I thought it’d be impossible for such container to be soften when microwaving water-rich food like rice, but I guess superheating could be possible since we usually overdo the uneven heating to make sure all the rice is reinitialized. When in doubt, you can try putting it in a ceramic bowl (and cover it with a plate).
@cnx Well I mean whatever Hillshire Farms containers are made of (Gladware I guess?) work just fine, they're just the wrong size.
I would probably be interested in new ways to preserve the rice better, but honestly I'm not too picky about my rice. A lot of it gets eaten by my children, who do not have especially sophisticated palettes. "I can go pull something out of the freezer and have food in front of the kids in 5 minutes" is a major driver of my reasoning.
In my experience, freezing the rice as soon as it's cooked tends to retain the maximum moisture (though it's possible that texture suffers — I haven't noticed that so much, but I also use a microwave rice cooker, so from what I gather I'm already a rice philistine).
Ah yea @pganssle, I got the context now. 100 ml containers are pretty small and all I’ve seen are meant for condiment so they might not be the best at heat resistance. Stabbing a block of retrograded rice in half is no fun either, so I suggest getting the smaller containers and microwaving the rice in a ceramic bowl/plate (bonus point if your children’s plates are microwave-safe). When it’s still moist all it takes to clean should just be rinsing under water.
(I eat rice almost every meal and would prefer freshly cooked one, not that reheated ones are worse, they are just different. But because we eat it regularly in large quantity we can set it up in advance; it’s still 5 minutes, just many hours before the meal.)
@cnx I think when the rice is frozen it's likely to be stuck to the sides of the container, so taking it out of the container it's in is not ideal.
We have round white Corningware ceramic bowl containers, with plastic lids, some of them with short handles. They're great for storing or freezing and reheating single portions of rice, soup, stews or similar. (We don't microwave the lids as they warp eventually if you do.)
@pganssle Snapware square 1-cup in plastic. More expensive than would be ideal, but they last forever, stack super tightly when not in use, and you can buy replacements for just the lids, which do eventually break at the hinges.
@pganssle freeze in ice cubes and place in ziploc bags when frozen.
@pganssle IKEA has some, like https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/ikea-365-food-container-square-plastic-60452174/ that are listed as microwave safe. (They also have glass variants, not sure how well those would work in a freezer, though.)
I have a bunch of 4.5" x 4.5" x 2" rubbermade containers that are about the right size, but if I microwave those they usually develop pits or cloudiness.
I'd love something small and shallow like that, but made of gladware or something.