Why does freezing risotto fail so spectacularly?

I've had good luck freezing short and long-grain rices in cup-sized containers; it's a great time saver compared to heating up the rice cooker for each serving. However, a finished pumpkin risotto (see the old archives for the recipe) came out of the freezer with a texture more akin to porridge than the al dente risotto that went in. Any thoughts?

Walt

The rice in risotto is saturated with water. Freeze it and it crystallizes and expands, breaking up the rice. What exacerbates things is that the particular rices used in risotto have the "creamy" starches in greater proportion than the "firm" starches, so the grains can more easily be disrupted.

Believe it or not, I'll second Stuart.

Yep, I'm in agreement, as well. I find it just as easy to make each new batch of risotto from fresh rice. I do, however keep all my rices in the refer, but I let the required amount I am going to use come to room temps. before beginning the recipe.
I'm wondering if cooking large batches of rice, then storing the measured amount into containers is not more time consuming than starting with a fresh batch of rice for each meal

I just refrigerate it and make arancini. Mmmmmm, arancini, hggghhhhrrrrrr.....

The rice in risotto is saturated with water. Freeze it and it crystallizes and expands, breaking up the rice. What exacerbates things is that the particular rices used in risotto have the "creamy" starches in greater proportion than the "firm" starches, so the grains can more easily be disrupted.

Ah, thank you. Carani-whatever-io rice is certainly creamier than even sushi rice, so it makes sense that it would behave differently. We just had a huge batch of risotto left over from Valentine's Day and making fried cakes out of it would have made a stack a foot high...

As for making rice and risotto a batch at a time, in my kitchen it takes exactly the same amount of work to make six cups as to make one, and putting each serving in a 1-cup Ziploc container makes portioning and reheating trivial. My wife eats low carb so I literally need only a cup at a time.

Walt

Ah, thank you. Carani-whatever-io rice is certainly creamier than even sushi rice, so it makes sense that it would behave differently. We just had a huge batch of risotto left over from Valentine's Day and making fried cakes out of it would have made a stack a foot high...

Y'know, some of us could have helped you out with that problem....



Mike

I just refrigerate it and make arancini. Mmmmmm, arancini, hggghhhhrrrrrr.....

*Homer drool* Arrrrggggggggg

Stuart's got it exactly right. The "creamy" starches are so creamy precisely because of all the water that's bound to them. This crystallizes out at freezing temperatures and disrupts the structure of the rice grains. When you defrost it, it disintegrates into mush. OK if you don't mind risotto-flavored pabulum, but pretty revolting if you wanted the original risotto.

-Paul W.