Do You Freeze a Supply of Meat?

[Rick]

I was reading some of these posts, and there seemed to be a concern about freezing meat and a build-up of ice crystals, and cells bursting, etc. ??????

Now I'm just a run of the mill everyday sausage maker and savvy shopper. If I run across a good buy at the meat market, I've been known to buy extra for the freezer. Now I don't have a chef's expert palette of taste, I can detect freezer burnt meat and a good dose of garlic, does that mean I have an expert palette?

I was wondering then, when making sausage, do you folks mainly buy fresh, and plan out your recipe ahead of time for a trip to the store?

I know at times my local Sam's Club has good prices on a case of butts, 8 per case. Is this something you'd consider purchasing and putting in a freezer for future use?

And for the sake of this topic, lets say its not like a butt you purchased 4 years ago and just happen to come across it while cleaning out the freezer. This would be meat you're going to use within the next 6 months.

[el Ducko]

...I know at times my local Sam's Club has good prices on a case of butts, 8 per case. Is this something you'd consider purchasing and putting in a freezer for future use?

I'm a small-time sausage maker, so a case of 8 would be WAY too much for me. ...but then, it's just my wife and me, and she's cutting down on meat. I handle one pork butt at a time.

...meat you're going to use within the next 6 months.

That's about my limit. Last year, I had some mince go bad after six months in the freezer, and had to throw it out. The only good thing- - it forced me to review my equipment and methods, and I uncovered a problem area in my meat grinder due to insufficient washing in a couple of spots.

Like I say, I'm a small-time guy, so I go for fresh or recently-frozen meat. Also, I no longer store mince, and limit my production so as to keep my sausages for only a limited amount of time (say, 2 or 3 months max). Some of our other members do quite a bit more volume, so they will probably fit your usage pattern better.

Good luck, and please share your experiences. With your slaughtering plant relationship, you will have some great information to share.

[Rick]

Thank you Ducko for your comments. I understand your situation, as it is only my wife and myself here also. Although I do have two sons, and other family members that know our hobbies, my sausage and bread making, and my wife's chickens, so they always stop looking for any extra's we might have! As you're probably fully aware of, there are always holidays and special occasions (b'days, graduations, etc.) that one gets invited to with a request to bring a dish to pass. So we're never short of opportunity to make sausage, are we?

[ssorllih]

One of the things that has always puzzled me is the difference between freeze dried and freezer burn.

[Rick]

Freeze dried, is that a yuppie term for dehydrated?

[el Ducko]

One of the things that has always puzzled me is the difference between freeze dried and freezer burn.

Lawyer Son-in-Law says it's a question of intent.

[el Ducko]

Last year, I had some mince go bad after six months in the freezer, and had to throw it out.

I should add, here, that grinding up the meat presents several thousand times as much surface area for bacteria to act on, plus it mixes the bacteria thoroughly into the meat. If you freeze raw meat, it's better to freeze whole meat instead of ground meat.

[sawhorseray]

For myself I like to strike heavy when I see a good deal, last year at this time I bought 120 pounds of porkbutt when it was on sale for 99≠lb. There's three of us in our house tho my wife and father-in-law don't really eat much sausage that's pork, mostly my chicken efforts. The 120 pounds was gone in ten months, one smoked butt, one small pulled-pork effort, and the rest turned into sausage. When I get the meat home from the store I'll either debone and cut into cuts for the grinder so it can be shrink-wrapped into five pound bags for the freezer, or cover the roasts with a double layer of cling-wrap then a plastic garbage bag, into the deep-freeze. I've never seen any freezer burn or had to throw and meat out from my freezers, I defrost both every year. RAY