fix my mistake

[stx.dead.I]

I shot a mule deer two weeks ago, cleaned it in the field hung it in cold weather for a day, put in yet drove home and into deep freezer. I didnt seperate my meat cuts prior to freezing and I froze all my prime cuts in one bag....I know I know rookie mistake.

Now I have a big ball of backstrap and tenderloin and they are in a cloth bag in the freezer. Im worried about freezer burn but dont want to thaw them poorly and ruin the meat. What would yall recommend?

 

[Bubblehide]

You can do about 2 weeks of refrigerator temperature with meat before it starts to spoil; all at once, or freeze, thaw, freeze thaw. So in short you have no worries. Personally, I soak meat in a brine ice slush for about a week, changing the water until it is basically free of blood. I then start butchering, wrapping and freezing it, marking what cut it is. By the way, the slush brine helps tenderizie the meat.

 

[Chris in TN]

I've made the same mistake before and fixed it by thawing, cutting, packaging, and refreezing, with no ill effects.

 

[JRay]

Same here. Thaw it slowly in the fridge, then cut and package.

 

[Antares]

You're fine. I'm doing the same thing right now. I shot a buck two days before I needed to leave town for 3 weeks. I put all the quarters and loose meat in two trash compactor bags in a walk-in freezer. I got home and transferred the bags to a walk-in cooler. They've been thawing in the cooler for a week now and I'm going to butcher this weekend. I've done this a bunch. It's not my preference, but it works fine.

 

[stx.dead.I]

You can do about 2 weeks of refrigerator temperature with meat before it starts to spoil; all at once, or freeze, thaw, freeze thaw. So in short you have no worries. Personally, I soak meat in a brine ice slush for about a week, changing the water until it is basically free of blood. I then start butchering, wrapping and freezing it, marking what cut it is. By the way, the slush brine helps tenderizie the meat.

whats your brine recipe? do you just leave it in your fridge in a container?

 

[Bubblehide]

I leave it in an ice chest. I do just brine until there is pretty much no blood in the slush after draining, refilling and adding salt usually 2 to 3 times, day after day. From there I spice the brine as desired. I have a few different types I typically use. But to give you an exact I'd need to look at my spices. One is a sweet mesquite, I typically and some Yosshiedas (spelling is not correct) sause. The other is a rosemary mix of spices. I do a few others, but don't recall at the moment (it's been a long very busy week).

 

[EdP]

I took an elk in Wy and drove home with it on dry ice. One at a time we put the quarters on the kitchen counter covered in a couple of wool blankets for a day or three then butchered them. It took a couple of weeks to get everything processed but it all came out fine.