Yes, but only if the dressing is vinegar based; creamy coleslaw separates into oily curds and a puddle of water. Mayonnaise is an emulsion held together by egg yolk, and freezing shatters it. Freeze the shredded cabbage in a sweet brine instead, then dress it after it thaws.
Creamy slaw and vinegar slaw split in opposite directions
Mayonnaise is oil suspended in a thin water phase, with lecithin from the egg yolk standing between the two. Freeze it and the water phase turns to ice, crowding the oil droplets against each other. Once those droplets touch they merge, and thawing leaves grease floating on cloudy liquid. Whisking will not rebuild it.
A vinegar dressing has no emulsion to break. Sugar, acid, oil and salt all come through the cold chemically unchanged. That is why the old freezer slaw recipes passed around in church cookbooks are always the sweet and sour kind and never the creamy kind.
Salting the cabbage first is the step that decides everything
Cabbage runs around 92 percent water. Shred it, freeze it wet, and ice crystals rupture the cell walls, so the shreds thaw limp and weeping. Salting pulls a large share of that water out before freezing starts. Less water means less ice, and less ice means the strands keep some spring.
Toss shredded cabbage with about a tablespoon of salt per medium head and let it drain in a colander for an hour. Rinse the salt off, then wring the shreds dry in a clean kitchen towel. What comes out should feel firm and bouncy rather than soggy.
Freezer slaw, start to finish
- Shred the cabbage, carrot and onion exactly as fine as you want them on the plate. Frozen shreds never get thinner later.
- Salt, rest one hour, rinse well, then wring the shreds out in a towel until no more liquid comes.
- Simmer vinegar, sugar, a little water, celery seed and mustard seed until the sugar dissolves, then cool the brine completely.
- Pour the cold brine over the dry shreds and pack into bags or tubs, leaving an inch of headspace for expansion.
- Flatten the bags, press the air out, write the date on the outside, and freeze them lying flat.
Thawing it, and what it is good for afterward
Move a bag to the refrigerator the night before you want it. Skip the counter and skip warm water, because shreds sitting in their own warming liquid go soft fast. Drain the brine off, taste, and add a splash of fresh vinegar if the flavor has flattened.
Thawed slaw performs better as a topping than as a side dish. Pile it on pulled pork, push it into fish tacos, or lay it across a hot dog, all places where tang matters more than crunch. Wanting creamy slaw is not a problem either; thaw the plain shreds and stir in mayonnaise on serving day.
As for how long to keep it, read the date on the bag as a flavor deadline and not a safety one. Nothing is growing in solidly frozen cabbage. What you are racing is the slow fade of color and sharpness, which tends to show up somewhere past two months.
