Couple of questions...
Recipes: I have a quartered elk in the freezer to be processed. Wanting to try some new recipes this year and am thinking of trying some snack sticks. Anybody have a good snack stick recipe or any other deliciousness worth trying? I have solid recipes for breakfast and Italian sausage, pemmican, and whole meat jerky.
I don't like the kits you buy from the store - every time I use them, I will get a migraine after eating the meat. I believe its related to MSG, curing nitrates, other chemical garbage. I've been mixing my own stuff for awhile now and have some awesome recipes and have also made one thing that was borderline inedible (curry ground meat jerky) - takes some time to figure out! I appreciate any suggestions.
Bulk Short Term Storage: I typically end up freezing deboned quarters whole soon after harvest for processing over the winter when I have more time. I've used contractor trash bags for this in the past, but the latest (huge) box of them that I purchased seems to have a scent (without being marked as such) and is making me nervous - I didn't use them. What is a good way to freeze these chunks and ensure some nonsense isn't getting into the meat?
Refreezing: With my initial bulk freeze approach, I typically like to pull them out of the freezer, trim the meat, and process it into whatever I'm making prior to refreezing for the final time. With this elk, I'd like to play around with multiple recipes - it's going to be a long week-plus if I trim it all and then make three or four new recipes. How many times can you refreeze the meat without detriment? The meat was partially frozen when I got it out of the woods, thawed during deboning and initial cleaning, frozen in bulk, will be thawed for trimming and grinding, potentially frozen in 25 pound packages, thawed and made into whatever, and finally frozen until eaten. Is this going to hurt it at all? I make steaks from the tenderloins and backstraps and almost always only freeze them once. I don't think it's as much of a concern with ground meat, but is there any rule of thumb here?
Thanks!
Recipes: I have a quartered elk in the freezer to be processed. Wanting to try some new recipes this year and am thinking of trying some snack sticks. Anybody have a good snack stick recipe or any other deliciousness worth trying? I have solid recipes for breakfast and Italian sausage, pemmican, and whole meat jerky.
I don't like the kits you buy from the store - every time I use them, I will get a migraine after eating the meat. I believe its related to MSG, curing nitrates, other chemical garbage. I've been mixing my own stuff for awhile now and have some awesome recipes and have also made one thing that was borderline inedible (curry ground meat jerky) - takes some time to figure out! I appreciate any suggestions.
Bulk Short Term Storage: I typically end up freezing deboned quarters whole soon after harvest for processing over the winter when I have more time. I've used contractor trash bags for this in the past, but the latest (huge) box of them that I purchased seems to have a scent (without being marked as such) and is making me nervous - I didn't use them. What is a good way to freeze these chunks and ensure some nonsense isn't getting into the meat?
Refreezing: With my initial bulk freeze approach, I typically like to pull them out of the freezer, trim the meat, and process it into whatever I'm making prior to refreezing for the final time. With this elk, I'd like to play around with multiple recipes - it's going to be a long week-plus if I trim it all and then make three or four new recipes. How many times can you refreeze the meat without detriment? The meat was partially frozen when I got it out of the woods, thawed during deboning and initial cleaning, frozen in bulk, will be thawed for trimming and grinding, potentially frozen in 25 pound packages, thawed and made into whatever, and finally frozen until eaten. Is this going to hurt it at all? I make steaks from the tenderloins and backstraps and almost always only freeze them once. I don't think it's as much of a concern with ground meat, but is there any rule of thumb here?
Thanks!
