Questions about the cling wrap and freezer paper method

[butcherboy]

The stuff I vacuum seal gets wrapped in commercial grade plastic for meat first, then vacuum sealed. Except for snack sticks and jerky. I just ordered 10 rolls of plastic the other day. 18”, 5,000 ft, 30 weight. We go through the stuff fairly quickly!

 

[Chino]

Saran wrap and paper at the advice of a local butcher. No issues in many years.

 

[Bauerj372]

I saran wrap and freezer paper everything but for the burger and sausage I use these. They work great.

 

[Chino]

Very reasonably priced. Just ordered a pack; will give them a try. Thanks

 

[BRTreedogs]

I saran wrap and freezer paper everything but for the burger and sausage I use these. They work great.

You have to remember to take it our to thaw with those bags.
I didn't like them because we always forget and it kind of cooks the meat while microwave dethaw

 

[packer58]

Very reasonably priced. Just ordered a pack; will give them a try. Thanks

Those burger bags do work well, keeps your freezer more organized as they stack very well. Get the auto taping unit as well, makes it so much easier, just twist the end of the bag and press through the taper slot and done. Also, they work much better filling with a stuffing press and large horn. If you don't have one just throw a horn on your grinder and fill them as you go.

 

[butcherboy]

We use the poly tubes for hb and sausage as well off of our hydraulic stuffer. Thawing in warm or hot water works as well. If thawing in a microwave use the thaw setting and rotate. It will probably cook the outside a little bit. Shouldn’t be an issue since the hb will be cooked anyway. It’s easy to take some out in the morning and let it thaw during the day while at work. Or place in a bowl in the fridge the night before.

 

[Thinkin6X6]

I use freezer paper and cling wrap when hunting out of state. We freeze at base camp with freezer and generator. When hunting at home I use vacuum sealer. The vacuum sealer bags can add up in costs overtime but both work well.

 

[Lurch12]

Freezer paper and Suran wrap for me. It keeps the freezer much more organized. I do vacuum seal my jerky, bologna, and sticks due to it being very difficult to getting all the air off them. Everything else gets wrapped, like most of the others have stated!

 

[Rich M]

I use freezer ziplocks for grind and stew meat. Just pulled some stew out at 3 yrs old and it looks okay.

Would use freezer paper straight - shiny side in. Squeeze out air, tape shut. Have had steaks, roasts that were 3-4 yrs old without any freezer burn but we have chest freezer, not a frost-proof variety.

Would ask how long your gonna store the meat. a year or less, ziplocks are fine.

I use the vac setup for long term fish freezing. ziplocks for short term (6 months or less)

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

plastic wrap and freezer paper is more reliable than vacuum sealed bags. If there is the slightest moisture in the heat seal zone the seal "greenlights" as if sealed fully but air somehow makes into some bags with a faulty seal.

I've tested this extensively with many machines, and about 20% of the bags lose the seal after a couple months in the freezer.

plastic wrap and freezer paper has never disappointed.

lb

FYI on this, I'll often double seal the bag when putting cuts with any moisture present, which seems to work fairly well. Its a slight bit more time and its not flawless either but I don't have anywhere near 20% failure on bags. I don't typically double seal ground meat as that is freshly ground and hasn't really released moisture yet when sealing.

That said nothing wrong with syran/butcher method either, just providing feedback as I have pretty much exclusively vacuum packed meat most fo the meat we eat for a decade.

 

[hilts]

I went from vac sealing(found same issues as mentioned above) to the saran wrap and freezer paper, which I felt was an improvement. I got sick of messing with the saran wrap, tearing it, keeping it flat, etc. I now buy the cheaper gallon baggies that do not have the "zip" feature, the ones that come with twist ties. Throw a chunk in the bag, squeeze and roll to get air out. Then wrap in freezer paper. Speeds up the process and an added bonus is when thawing, blood doesn't leak out on your counter.

 

[idcuda]

I went from vac sealing(found same issues as mentioned above) to the saran wrap and freezer paper, which I felt was an improvement. I got sick of messing with the saran wrap, tearing it, keeping it flat, etc. I now buy the cheaper gallon baggies that do not have the "zip" feature, the ones that come with twist ties. Throw a chunk in the bag, squeeze and roll to get air out. Then wrap in freezer paper. Speeds up the process and an added bonus is when thawing, blood doesn't leak out on your counter.

Same. Works great.

 

[Beendare]

I’ve seen freezer burn after a year with plastic and paper.....

i’ve had much better results with vaccuum sealing with a couple of vac pak grind buried in the freezer for 2 1/2 yrs and it was still perfect.

I vac pak everything now.....

—

 

[butcherboy]

If it freezer burns that quick then that’s a strange outcome. How thick was the plastic? Was it wrapped in the plastic tight enough? Did you use freezer paper or butcher paper?

Freezer burn is usually caused by the moisture being pulled out from certain spots. This is usually a result of the meat not being wrapped tight enough in the plastic or freezer paper. Sometimes the moisture collects on the packaging, freezing, and there is now a frost spot that “burns” the meat.

This is why vacuum sealing works so well because it pulls the vacuum and shrinks down tight on the meat preventing any evaporation.

 

[Marble]

The only failures in any of my meat processing for the past 10 years has been vacuum sealed bags leaking. Double sealed can help but not always.

Two wraps with plastic wrap and a few layers of paper and they last a long time.


Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

 

[Panhandler80]

if you want to grind while fresh ziplocks laid flat with all air packed out works well. I usually put 4 cups per gallon bag. You can stack them two deep and 4-5 high on a cookie sheet then drop in deep freeze. Because they do thing, you can thaw out quickly in a pinch.

as already mentioned, my cuts all stay whole for cooking whole later, chunking or cubing.

 

[Gatorgrizz27]

This works fine. Agree with leaving roast whole. You can then choose to cube it for stew, grind it, make jerky, etc. It also makes the process up front significantly less painful.

https://www.amazon.com/FoodSaver-FM2100-Manual-Sealing-Preservation/dp/B00LUGK5QW/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=Food+saver&qid=1620351399&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzSFZUSkxCTEY0UVY1JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwOTk0NjE1MUwyWlFCVEVaNFhZWiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNDc1OTAxMzJDTTE4UEFSTEJYOSZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

 

[Zappaman]

Its is so simple... freeze your meat in WATER. And ANYTHING that will hold water will work. Remember how the Alaskan miners 130 years back were eating mastodon steaks? There were fresh frozen in water- meat lasted 20k years and I'm sure tasted fine.

My buddies all had the vacuum packers and after years of painful bag costs (and running out when processing three elk), we finally came up with a SIMPLE method. Just put the cut (any size) in any bag that will fit it (we use zip locks), and ADD WATER then zip it up! It IS that simple but it's a bit of a trick to get most of the water out.

I put a roast or a few steaks in a bag where there is room to zip it up- then take it and fill with water (plenty). After that, you take the open end and fold it over your double-sided sink and squeeze the water out from the meat side with the zip held over the sink's partition. Once you get the water flowing back OUT of the bag, you just keep squeezing the meat side until you get most of the water out of the bag WHILE AT THE SAME TIME you are holding the bag FLAT over th sink parition-- and zipping the other end up (against the side of the sink partition folded over to trap the air from coming back into the bag).

Once you get it figured out you'll use the sink's partition to regulate the water flow and you'll get into a groove and get the flow right (and all the air out) while you squeeze most of the water out as well.

End result is a bag with 90% meat and 10% water. Dry it off on a towel and toss it in the freezer. If your freezer can hit -10 degrees your meat is good for YEARS!

 

[Kquinn511]

Two wraps of cling wrap and two wraps of freezer paper has been working for me for years. Just takes a lil more time!