How to freeze your own produce & meals, without cell wall break down? I've just spend 30 minutes reading online, and got a bit frustrated. I want to be able to freeze my own grown vegetables &amp; even meals to a very high standard. I can't quite be bothered with liquid nitrogen, but I'd like to get great quality and I'm up for almost anything.

Given things lose quality due to cell wall break down, what I'd like is for someone with experience to explain, how I can get good results, freezing food.


I get the feeling a traditional freezer just isn't cold enough, how do we get around this? Is there a certain temperature? Are there colder freezer's than normal? If I increase the surface area of the food, does that prevent cell wall break down? Any techniques?
What sort of quality have you had with freezing foods? Any recomendations?
...far from an expert, but I think there are two issues.  First, the speed with which you can get an item frozen.  Quicker freezing means smaller ice crystals.  I assume this leads to a reduced cell structure breakdown. LN might get you there quickly, but the item will warm up when you put it in your freezer. The second issue is, not only is a home freezer not cold enough for prolonged storage without cell structure breakdown, but it probably also has an auto defrost cycle that cause temperature fluctuation.  This probably leads to additional cell structure breakdown as things warm and cool over time. There are definitely other pieces of equipment, blast freezers and super low temperature freezers, however most make little economic sense for the home.  

Personally, my best success has been with vacuum sealed foods...used in weeks, not months.