freezing tetrazini

I made a big double batch of turkey tetrazini today, enough to fill two lasagna pans. I am going to bake one of them for dinner tonight, and I want to freeze the other for later. My question is, should I freeze first and bake later, or bake and then freeze? The turkey, pasta, and sauce are all cooked already.

Previously I've baked the tetrazini and cooled it before freezing, but I wonder if it would be safe and of better quality if I froze it now and defrosted and baked it later when I want to use it. What do you think?

My personal vote would be freeze first and bake after so your crispy bits on top stay crispy. I do not have research data to back this assertion up, however.

Since no one jumped in to say I'd be running a botulism factory in my freezer or anything like that, I am inclined to do what you suggest -- freeze first and bake later. Otherwise my past experience has been that that whole defrosted/reheated dish turns out looking like the reheated leftovers that it is.

If memory serves, food stays better longer frozen if uncooked. I read that long ago, and, believing it, have always ... well, pretty much mostly...adhered to it.

One thing I know for a fact: uncooked, defrosted, then cooked, inevitably *tastes* more like itself than trying to re-construct defrosted already prepared food.

YMMV,

Geo

I never knew that. Thanks.