Bottom of Freezer

[ScreamingPotato]

Having a freezer full of game from multiple years sure is a good problem to have. Somehow I’ve never had anything older than 3 years. Three times now a niece/nephew/son has managed to turn down/off my deep freezer and force me to clean out the freezer and cook or throw away everything. At least my dog eats well for a few weeks.

You know you can refreeze venison and lean meats like Elk without loss of quality right?

 

[loganwayne]

You know you can refreeze venison and lean meats like Elk without loss of quality right?

It really freaked my buddy out that I would debone meat during hunting season then freeze it and process ALL my deer meat at one time. If I have time I may go ahead and break it down to whole muscles before I freeze it.

 

[ScreamingPotato]

It really freaked my buddy out that I would debone meat during hunting season then freeze it and process ALL my deer meat at one time. If I have time I may go ahead and break it down to whole muscles before I freeze it.

Yup. I'll freeze them in whole muscle groups then I can decide what to do with them later. I also don't grind big batches, I freeze in chunks and grind small batches depending on if I need fat mixed in or larger grind for chili, etc. By the time we eat any venison/elk/nilgai it's probably been frozen and thawed a several times. I'll take a frozen sirloin tip for example and put it in the fridge overnight so it softens up and shave off real thin slices for philly cheesesteaks then refreeze the rest, an Elk will go through 4 or 5 of those cycles before it's gone. Sometimes I'll thaw and cut steaks then refreeze the steaks.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

Having a freezer full of game from multiple years sure is a good problem to have. Somehow I’ve never had anything older than 3 years. Three times now a niece/nephew/son has managed to turn down/off my deep freezer and force me to clean out the freezer and cook or throw away everything. At least my dog eats well for a few weeks.

If anyone did that with one of my freezers, they better hope they never see me again.

 

[Shortschaf]

No smell, no nothing. If I find freezer burnt ends, I cut them off and eat the remainder. I can't imagine why people think 1 year is the deadline. The trick is that it's wrapped properly. Double wrapped or vacuumed wrapped I find is best.

Had a 6 year old backstrap a couple weeks ago
Same story

Good topic, thanks for posting

 

[loganwayne]

So much food gets wasted when thrown away based on the "best if used by" dates.....bogus BS. Lots of food items can last a whole lot longer and be just fine. I personally won't eat frozen meat older than 2 years, but I worked in the food industry for 14 years so I'm biased. While is does not apply to us directly, FDA does have a time limit on how long a commercial food supplier can keep meat/fish frozen, and it's not very long.

Honest question about the FDA limits. Is that because they expect the meat to be used or re frozen by the "best by" date? Are you talking about finished products only or through the whole supply chain?

 

[taskswap]

Working through the last of my last bull and we're about to move to a new house so I've been trying to empty the freezer. I just found a "cow, top round, 1.3lb" package that must be at least two years old because that's when I last took a cow. They're all in white butcher paper so sometimes I can't tell them apart.

Tasted great.

 

[Mish-pop]

If I end up with some meat that is freezer burnt but not too bad I will just add to the trimmings that are being made into sausage and sticks. Once it's ground up, you can't tell any freezer burn was on the meat

 

[NRA4LIFE]

Yup. I'll freeze them in whole muscle groups then I can decide what to do with them later. I also don't grind big batches, I freeze in chunks and grind small batches depending on if I need fat mixed in or larger grind for chili, etc. By the time we eat any venison/elk/nilgai it's probably been frozen and thawed a several times. I'll take a frozen sirloin tip for example and put it in the fridge overnight so it softens up and shave off real thin slices for philly cheesesteaks then refreeze the rest, an Elk will go through 4 or 5 of those cycles before it's gone. Sometimes I'll thaw and cut steaks then refreeze the steaks.

I pretty much do the same. I freeze my grind meat in large hunks, about 3-4 lbs per bag and it is all vacuum sealed. When I need burger, it's thawed and ground. Some gets some beef fat, some nothing else and it all gets refroze. Been doing this my whole life.

 

[Gravel Road]

I butcher and the wife wraps. She uses tight Saran wrap and two layers of freezer paper. We do trim very well and there's no fat or silver skin allowed. She refuses to use a vac sealer and swears by her method. We've found some packages so old you wouldn't believe and it's perfect.

 

[Short Track]

I just ate meat that is 5 years old. I'm still alive. We'll see by tomorrow : ) This particular package wasn't wrapped correctly, so I did have to cut off alot of burnt meat.

 

[BurtonGus]

how many guys don’t cut off the freezer burnt parts? I hear it only affects the taste and is perfectly safe. When I pull out a steak and there are only little areas of freezer burnt meat, I don’t even bother cutting it off. If there is a large area that is freezer burnt, I’m sure that’s a different story. Has anyone tried cooking meat with a considerable amount of freezer burn in the crock pot or slow cooker? Would you do it again?

 

[doc holiday13]

Make surprise sausage. anything that hasn't been eaten in 3 years should get seasoned and ground up for marvel meat balls or meat loaf