Meat in freezer?

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Meat in freezer?

Post by Blackriver » Wed Apr 16, 2014 23:17

I have some cut up inside round ready for the grinder which has been vacuum sealed and frozen for almost a year. I was going to either make snack sticks or summer sausage with it. Would it still be good?
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Post by Gulyás » Wed Apr 16, 2014 23:50

My opinion is, that if it was vacuum sealed, than it's still good. I bet on it.
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Post by sawhorseray » Thu Apr 17, 2014 01:11

I agree with Gulyas. I've had stuff vac-sealed for a couple of years and never had a problem. I know they say fish only lasts three months and meat six, I say bull. Grind it stuff it and smoke it, I don't think you can go wrong. If you ever have a doubt about something being fit grind, let your nose be your friend and just smell the stuff. If something smells bad, it usually is. With that being said, when you unwrap a fresh leg of lamb it doesn't give a scent that's all that attractive, so it pays to familiarize your snout and keep a mental notebook. RAY
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Post by Chuckwagon » Thu Apr 17, 2014 02:39

Hi Scott,
I was diggin' around the bottom of my freezer last week-end and found a double rack of ribs that I'd put in there about 14 months ago. They were vac-packed and did not have "freezer burn". But, they've done a good job of hiding out. :roll:

I cook ribs quite often, but these got away from me somehow. I thawed them and stripped the membranes. I decided to make some Rocky Mountain Wrangler`s Rubber Ribs, with Rotten Rub, Ghastly Glaze, N` Rusty Sauce, so I looked up this link: http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.php?t=4820

I put the ribs into a curing-brining solution with Cure #1. After a couple of days I had ham on the bones. They went into the oven just long enough for the meat to pull back slightly off the ends of the bones, then onto the low-temp grill to smoke and finish cooking. OOOooooo :mrgreen: Perfection...

Hark! Then I made some Rocky Mountain Red to slosh over them. The recipe is on the bottom of the page for the ribs. In the west, this is the stuff that runs through our veins!

Freezing didn't hurt the meat a bit. Go for it!

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon
Last edited by Chuckwagon on Fri Apr 18, 2014 05:16, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Cabonaia » Thu Apr 17, 2014 22:34

Ha! I just found a couple racks of ribs marked 3/13, so we are in the same boat. Except for some reason I had one wrapped in cling wrap (multiple times) and then put in a ziplock freezer bag, and the other one, sadly, only wrapped (multiple times) in cling wrap. They are thawing, and I am sniffing them way too often. I don't know what I was thinking when I put those ribs in the freezer with just cling wrap. :cry:

Now I have a product called FreezeTite. It works very well. To be cautious, I wrap meat first in the FreezeTite and then in plastic lined butcher freezer paper. I've never seen it in stores, but Amazon has it.

When meat stays in the freezer too long it gets freezer burn. Freezer burn won't hurt you, but it tastes terrible. Let the meat partially thaw, then cut the freezer burn off and feed it to your dog or chickens. The meat underneath it will taste fine, and won't hurt your. I've done this several times.

Cheers,
Jeff
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Post by Blackriver » Fri Apr 18, 2014 02:25

Thanks a lot guys!! I will use my meat in the freezer
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Post by ssorllih » Fri Apr 18, 2014 02:40

What is the distinction between freezer burn and freeze dry?
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Post by Chuckwagon » Fri Apr 18, 2014 03:56

Speed of freezing and exposure to the atmosphere. A quickly frozen product has smaller ice crystals and no time to decompose before being vacuum packed away from oxygen that begins the "rusting" process of oxidation and complete loss of moisture including the exudates. (freezer burn). :mrgreen:

We must remember that meat is about 75% water and when water freezes, it expands about 10 per cent. When water in meat expands, it ruptures cells. This results in the loss of elasticity and the ability to hold water. The amount of damage is directly proportionate to the temperature and speed of freezing.

Whenever meat is being frozen slowly, it`s important to realize that water inside meat cells contain more salt. At lower temperature it is under higher pressure and the molecules of water are pushed by this pressure from muscle tissue into connective tissue. Outside the cells, ice crystals grow larger, damaging the meat`s composition.

Whenever meat is frozen at very low temperatures, water molecules in the cells simply have insufficient time to vacate the cells and move to areas having lower pressure. Ice crystals in this case, are very small and they do much less damage.

Did you know that the curing process actually begins sooner in meat that has been previously frozen? It`s because the cells` structures have been ruptured. Fish contain more water than red meat. As a result, ice crystallization does more damage.

When meat has been frozen and ice crystals have ruptured cells, an "exudate" of minerals, proteins, blood, water, collagen, and other substances leak out. This liquid should always be saved and added back to the sausage mixture as it was part of the meat cells to begin with. If thawing meat exhibits very little liquid exudates, then you`ll know that it was frozen quickly.

Have you wondered why we must freeze meat below zero to destroy trichinella spiralis? Meat freezes at 28°F not 32°. To completely freeze the water in meat, temperatures must reach well below zero. Most home freezers are not capable of doing this.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably needs more time on the grill! :D
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Post by el Ducko » Sat Apr 19, 2014 04:32

ssorllih wrote:What is the distinction between freezer burn and freeze dry?
Ross, here's a good explanation of freeze drying: http://science.howstuffworks.com/innova ... rying2.htm

In freeze drying, you WANT to dry the material. Keeping the temperature of the process low avoids cooking the material. CW's writeup covers freezer burn well. In freezer burn, you DON'T WANT to remove the water, but the air and the water can move in and out, allowing the material to deteriorate. ...kinda like one of those Utah winters, I bet.
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Post by Chuckwagon » Sat Apr 19, 2014 07:34

but the air and the water can move in and out, allowing the material to deteriorate. ...kinda like one of those Utah winters, I bet.
Why you rabid Duk! OOOoooooo! The only hot air we get (continually), is that from the Hill Country in Texas... emitted from a purple dwelling shaped like a Duck egg - and the hot air has the aroma of wet feathers! We just quickly freeze it and spread it on our lawns as fertilizer! :???:
Now, go back to playing on the railroad tracks... you..., you..., you pertinacious prankster! :roll:
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably needs more time on the grill! :D
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Post by sawhorseray » Sun Apr 20, 2014 17:21

I smoked this wild hog ham ten months back and just did a multiple cling wrap job on it as Cabonia did, been in my garage freezer ever since till five days ago
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Thawed out slowly in the fridge seemed to keep the ham from losing a lot of it's juice. The moment I took off the cling wrap the kitchen filled with a wonderful smoky scent
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I'll spend a part of this day making some wild hog sausage and swiss chard ravioli to kind of change dinner up a bit. Happy Easter y'all! RAY
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Post by ssorllih » Mon Apr 21, 2014 15:26

Nothin' wrong with that.
Ross- tightwad home cook
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Post by Cabonaia » Mon Apr 21, 2014 17:29

Ray, that's a nice looking ham, and it looks like it came from a good pig.

To finish up on my freezer burned ribs story - I salted them and let them sit in the fridge for 6 or so hours, then rinsed them, resalted, and let them go another 6. I knew I'd have hammy ribs, but I like them that say sometimes. They smelled about the same after this salt treatment. I put a rub on them and bbq's them as usually. They came out too salty to eat (not surprising...I should have made a salt-free rub), but otherwise tasty, with no taint of freezer burn. So I'm going to strip the meat off the bones, make some BBQ sauce without salt, and simmer them in that. We'll see how that goes.

Cheers,
Jeff
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Post by sawhorseray » Mon Apr 21, 2014 18:30

That ham came from this fat young sow I whacked ten months back. I brined it in the same recipe as CW's Canadian bacon solution and added in one ounce of Mapliene. We had it in a 350° oven for 90 minutes and basted the ham frequently with orange juice. Turned out to be the most flavorful and tasty ham ever, just over the top. After slicing a bit for some sandwich material and a shrink-wrapped dinner or two the remainder will go into the pot for some split pea soup tomorrow. My hunting partner and I are planning a hog trip before the end of May, after that time things will be drying out and the wild pigs will start to lose some weight. RAY


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Post by Cabonaia » Tue Apr 22, 2014 03:26

Nice picture. Looks like early morning somewhere on the valley side of the Hamilton range.
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