Homemade Sausage Making

I was wondering about buying chicken thighs in bulk when they come on sale, storing them in my freezer, and thawing them at a later date to make chicken sausage. After the sausage was processed and shrink-wrapped would it be safe to re-freeze the packs of sausage? I believe Rytec Kutas stated meat could safely be frozen and thawed three times without any danger. I've never tried that with any meat, always thought it was taboo. RAY

sawhorseray wrote:I was wondering about buying chicken thighs in bulk when they come on sale, storing them in my freezer, and thawing them at a later date to make chicken sausage. After the sausage was processed and shrink-wrapped would it be safe to re-freeze the packs of sausage? I believe Rytec Kutas stated meat could safely be frozen and thawed three times without any danger. I've never tried that with any meat, always thought it was taboo. RAY

Forgive me for showing off a bit- - I just bought a copy of Rytek's book myself. In it, he talks about the way chicken is handled by the commercial grocers, and says there's quite a bit less time (like, 5 days!) available for handling/processing the meat. The problem is, the stuff that's on sale may have sat in display cases for a week at some temperature above freezing, at which time it needs to be either cooked quickly, or frozen and then cooked quickly, or else thrown out. ...and each time meat is refrozen, the cells are damaged further, which degrades quality.

So, looks like an iffy proposition. ...but drag out the book and see what you think. Good luck!

sawhorseray wrote:After the sausage was processed and shrink-wrapped would it be safe to re-freeze the packs of sausage?
RAY

Ray,

I poach all my chicken sausages a day after stuffing them, and then vacuum pack them for the freezer. Being precooked makes them a safe and quick snack for me or the grand kids. It's a snack I feel okay letting them fix themselves.

Jim

two_MN_kids wrote:

sawhorseray wrote:After the sausage was processed and shrink-wrapped would it be safe to re-freeze the packs of sausage?
RAY

Ray,

I poach all my chicken sausages a day after stuffing them, and then vacuum pack them for the freezer. Being precooked makes them a safe and quick snack for me or the grand kids. It's a snack I feel okay letting them fix themselves.

Jim

I cook my sausage 90% of the time over hot coals on a weber kettle, keeps me from having to clean a big mess on the stove from all the splatter, and I like the taste that way. I just take a shrink-wrapped pack of sausage from the freezer, throw them in a sink full of warm water for a half hour, on the weber for four minutes a side and four minutes of sweating, perfect every time. I was just thinking that at 88¢lb for thighs I might get 90 pounds and freeze them for a time when good deals aren't so plentiful. Thinking about it I never really pay more than 99¢lb anyway, or I'll just pass on them. I've got maybe 45 pounds of chicken sausage shrink-wrapped in my freezer right now, I'll do another 23 pound batch next week and call it good for awhile, tho we seem to go thru the stuff like water. What I'd really like to do is process a nice batch of Kolbasz and then take my new smoker for a ride, but it's just too hot here. RAY