Homemade Sausage Making

I was recently asked if I'd be willing to carry off a broken chest freezer and dispose of all its contents as they had thawed after the freezer broke. Since I have a problem saying no sometimes I agreed to do this even though it turned into quite a job because the freezer was full and I had no help.

Anyhow, after disposing of all the food I began inspecting the freezer and figured it couldn't be more than five years old. There was ice buildup in the front center of the freezer where I suspect the baskets the owner was using to help organize the contents had allowed for a poor seal thus allowing moist air into the freezer which froze and I suspect eventually cracking the door even more thus letting more warm air into the freezer which thawed the contents. On a hunch, I didn't dump the freezer but instead cleaned it well and plugged it in to test it. I heard the compressor kick on so that gave me some assurance. Now, three weeks later, its still holding subzero temperatures so it looks like this was a win/win deal and we both got new freezers.

One man's junk is another man's treasure. This is so true as most of my processing equipment is "junk".

Best watch those baskets in deep freezers.

Yup, and it's good practice to defrost and clean the chest freezers on a regular basis. Ice buildup prevents the freezer from running efficiently and all kinds of nasties can still grow at freezing temperatures. So now I better go and defrost mine.

I'm doing the same. Thankfully with this new edition I was able to empty one freezer that was completely filled. Amazing what I found in the bottom of that chest freezer. You don't think hamburger frozen for ten years will be any good do you? It was also amazing how many hearts and livers I had in there. I really need to put these to use. And caul fat. I had forgotten I'd put so much of that up.

I have used some "about" ten year old meat many times. Sometimes it's ok for the humans but I have never had my dog turn it down if it was a bit too freezer tasting. He is currently eating Mexican chorizo in small amounts (due to spices) mixed in with his food. I haven't see a happier dog. Wouldn't be surprised if I caught him with a margarita at some point.

Congrats...Great score on the freezer

Scogar wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 18, 2020 21:16

I have used some "about" ten year old meat many times. Sometimes it's ok for the humans but I have never had my dog turn it down if it was a bit too freezer tasting. He is currently eating Mexican chorizo in small amounts (due to spices) mixed in with his food. I haven't see a happier dog. Wouldn't be surprised if I caught him with a margarita at some point.

Congrats...Great score on the freezer

That reminds me of the time my father, a veterinarian, bought a truckload of pepperoni that had been in a wreck and the insurance company totaled the load where they had to "dispose" of it. Dad shows up at the house with a bobtail truck and asks me to help him unload the truck and carry the cases of pepperoni to the basement. I never knew how many cases could fit in one of these 10 wheeler's but suffice it to say there are a lot and it took several hours hauling this bounty to the basement. I thought we had hit the jackpot because I loved pepperoni and we had a mountain of it. However, I no longer have much of a craving for pepperoni and now look at it with suspect as does everyone else in the household. He ended up adding this to the feed for the dogs in his care at his office and I remember a lady asking what type food he fed her dog because it would no longer eat the feed she was feeding him.