Are you a lover of hamburger buns? Do you usually hold BBQs where you use buns for your hamburger? Perhaps the bought the buns in bulk or you had an overestimate than the number you will need in your previous hangout and you are left with more than a dozen buns that you are sure will not remain fresh until the next bash.
Usually, hamburger buns can last for about five to seven days if you store at room temperature in the original package. However, please note that several variables such as humidity and the tightness of the package can affect this estimation. You can freeze the buns if you don’t want to waste the leftovers.
Your hamburger buns can be frozen for about three months without any worry about having a freezer burn. However, if you don’t want them to dry out or become soggy after you thaw them, you should consider following these few steps to freeze properly.
5 Secrets To Perfectly Frozen Hamburger Buns
- Ensure that the buns are at room temperature. Do not wrap them for freezing when they are warm because they will steam in the freezer and it will result in condensation that is not good. The condensation will turn into a freezer burn if you allow them inside your freezer for too long. In case you decide to thaw them before it gets to the freezer burn stage, you risk them being soggy as a result of the condensation and this might be worse. Ensure the buns are at room temperature and not warm.
- Consider our second secret to be the individuality. You may think you are being wasteful, but endeavor to wrap each of the buns with plastic wrap separately. This will help protect them away from getting any air into the delicate crusts. This will ensure they do not stick together and neither do they dry out. The individuality will also help you to defrost just the ones you need without defrosting them as a whole only not to finish them. It also helps an individual to eat without necessarily waiting for another family member before eating. Ensure you use a double-sealed freezer container or bag of high quality if you are not going to make use of the plastic wrap.
- Consider our third secret to be saving the date. You will need to write the dates they are store in your freezer on the plastic wrap you used to individually wrap them. This will help you to be aware of how long you have stored them in your freezer. They can only stay fresh in your freezer for three months. If you want to get the best result, use them fresh.
- Consider our fourth secret in how to layer them. It is better to store them in single layers at least making sure they are like this until they are all thoroughly frozen. You can proceed to stack them after they are frozen, if you try stacking them before you allow them to freeze, some of them will squish under their fellows’ weight and will not allow them to perfectly come back to life after you have defrosted them.
- The most important secret is this fifth one about bananas. Don’t ever make the mistake of freezing the hamburger buns just beside bananas. Your hamburger buns will get saturated by the flavor and scent of the bananas.
How To Thaw Frozen Hamburger Buns
After you have perfectly frozen your hamburger buns, one thing you will not want to do is to ruin all the hard work when you are defrosting them. Defrosting them does not involve many steps, but some tricks that you should try.
The first thing is to unwrap them immediately you take them out of your freezer. Put them on your paper towel so that any excess moisture will be drawn without the bun drying out. Observe them and once you realize that they are already thawed halfway, flip over so that the right moisture content will be in the buns and they will not get soggy at the bottom. Because hamburger buns have light weight and are very airy, they thaw and warm up quite quickly. If you want them toasted or warm, you can proceed with that as they are frozen. Yes, you are allowed to do that.
Steaming Your Buns
You can also steam your buns to warm them up but you have to take extra care so that they will not get soggy. Use a bamboo steamer or double boiler if you possess any of them by placing the buns in any of them for 10 to 20 seconds. In case you do not have any of the two, boil water inside your pot and proceed to use tongs to hold the buns for some seconds over your steam.
Defrosting & Warming Hamburger Buns In the Microwave
It could be quite tricky to use the microwave to warm your hamburger buns inside a microwave because seconds could make a huge difference. Use a paper towel to completely wrap the buns so that they will not dry out or become soggy. The best is to separately keep the bottom and top. You can begin with 10 seconds, try to check them and you can proceed further for another five to 10 seconds only if you are not satisfied with the level of its hotness. Flip them before you return them to the microwave.
Toasting Hamburger Buns In The Oven, Stovetop, or Grill
You have to use a heat source you have already warmed up to toast your buns irrespective of the way you are cooking the burger patties. Wait till the patties have just five minutes to go before you put your buns beside them if you are using the grill or the oven. You must diligently monitor them so that you don’t get them over-toasted. If you are going to use the stovetop to cook your patties, you can proceed to use that same pan that you used for the patties and you can get a kind of meaty boost in the buns’ flavor through the process said above.
Freezing & Reheating Burger Patties
You must have some burger patties left if you have leftovers of buns, what do you do with them? You can also freeze them. You should follow the same process with the buns, allowing your patties to completely cool before you wrap them as individuals to prevent air or moisture. Whenever you are ready to use them, allow them to first defrost completely inside the refrigerator. You can then warm them on the grill or stove when you notice they are not frozen any longer. The result will be as if they have just been cooked, though a bit quicker. Be careful to allow the burgers to completely cook before you try to freeze them because there are likely to be bacteria sealed in the half-cooked burger meat which you will not like.
What About Hot Dogs?
Hamburgers and hot dogs are usually seen to be in the company of each other. It is very much likely that you will have some hot dogs leftovers if you have leftover hamburgers. The good thing is that you can freeze, thaw, and warm-up hot dog buns, the exact way you did with hamburger buns. Hot dogs have preservatives contained in them and they can stay in a refrigerator for about two weeks if they are yet to be cooked. You can also put them in your freezer for about two months.
Your cooked hot dog can also be frozen, wrapping it individually the same way you did with buns and burger patties. The way you will thaw or warm them may differ depending on the method you used to cook them at first. You may boil them to defrost and warm them if you boiled them at first. You can also toss them over your stovetop or a grill. If you originally grilled them, you are not allowed to boil them, allow them to defrost and reheat them using the same method you used to cook them.
Related Questions
How can you tell if your hamburger bun has gone bad?
Check for mold, most of the molds grown on bread have blueish color but they can also be white making it very difficult for you to see. You can smell the bread and also carefully observe to see anything that may look slightly fuzzy. In case you notice mold on any bun, it is better to throw away the whole package.
Does freezing bread ruin it?
Your bread will feel and taste stale if it contains too little moisture which will allow it to dry or if it contains too much moisture that will allow it to grow mold. Freezing your bread could be one of the best methods to allow it to remain fresh for a long time until you want to eat the bread. Bread can only stay inside the freezer for at most three months to make sure they are still very fresh.
How do you keep hamburger buns warm?
There is a way you can keep your hamburger buns warm and they will not dry out or soggy, if you have previously had a BBQ, you will be familiar with this. All you have to do is to wrap the hamburger buns in tinfoil or put them inside a basket using tea towels to cover them.
