Proper Freezing Technique????

FarmerTom

I am hoping to get some advice on the proper way to prep meat for long term freezer storage and thereby avoid the "Is it OK to eat?" discussion.  
   I have recently purchased a Food-Saver and am using it religiously on my purchases now.  But I have a few questions and am hoping Darby_Crenshaw  will chime in as he seems to be the go-to expert on meat storage.
    1.  Should the store packaging be removed before vac-sealing?  
    2.  Would wrapping in butcher paper prior to vac-sealing be of any benefit in maintaining the condition of the meat?
    3.  Is there any need to re-seal meat such as butts that are already vac-sealed? (I have been just to be sure it's sealed well)
    4.  Any other advice on prepping before freezing would be most welcome.  

DoubleEgger

I put the meat on a cookie sheet and put in the freezer to give it a quick freeze and then food saver it. It helps maintain the shape of the meat. 

Wolfpack

The cause of freezer burn is air. So if you are talking about store packaging in the plastic trays then yes remove and vacuum seal. If you are talking about cryovac packaging then it's fine to freeze in store packaging.  I wouldn't wrap in paper as it is just more of a chance to get air spacing around meat and therefore freezer burn. 

ScottNC

I also do a quick freeze on any meat or poultry on sheet pans , I also set (not wrap) a piece of stretch-tite above & below each piece or pieces I'm going to vacuum. It makes them easier to handle and keeps air off them before vacuum sealing. Easy to do off a large counter roll, a pain if the wrap is in a small roll.

logchief

@Wolfpack hit the nail on the head.  Also @DoubleEgger on prefreezing, it works great for stuff like chili or M&C and pre made burgers.

Darby_Crenshaw

First: it is always safe to eat food from the freezer. Ten years old, unwrapped, frosted over, dessicated, freezer burnt, and smelling like garlic, and it is STILL safe. 

Now that THAT is out of the way...

there are grandma's methods involving butcher paper, plastic wrap, and foil, but that's supplanted by vacuum sealing now. And anyone buying meat in volume (and breaking it down for storage), or interested in preserving freshness or buying more expensive stuff in bulk, should spend the very minimal cash required for a vacuum sealer

if it's already in cryovac, don't screw with it. Into the freezer as is


otherwise, remove the store packaging. Meat in foam trays and sealed in-store are sealed with vinyl wrap. Stretch-tite is ALSO a vinyl. It sticks great, but is oxygen permeable and useless for long term storage. Do not simply put the foam tray wrapped meat into the freezer. It's unprotected. Remove it all, and seal in a thick vacuum sealer bag. I often seal both ends twice. A little distance apart

that's it. 

Like some have suggested, to make things easier, try wax paper or plastic wrap between burgers and other bits of meat. Will help out when you thaw. But not necessary for max performance. Just a bonus

when it is time to use it, the package should feel tight and immovable. If it is loose, then you lost the seal. Still ok and still safe, but it may be freezer burned. If so, use it for soup, stew, chowder, etc.

something i learned the hard way. When you are doing a LOT of stuff, bacon for example, you will want to go quickly. When the vacuum sealer cuts out, and stops, there's a tendency to open it and remove it and start the next seal. Don't

you really do need to keep pressure on the seal and wait until the light goes out. Otherwise, though it looks sealed, the plastic may not fully wed (melt together).  I was losing the seal often, and realized i was trying to bang them out. 

Slow down, let the element cool and the light go off (i have the cheapo hand-operated FoodSaver sealer), and the seal will be good. And then, what the heck, slide it a tiny bit and make another seal

AGAIN: for all the non-believers. The USDA (notoriously conservative) advises that frozen food (kept frozen) is safe literally ('practically' is the word they use) forever. F-O-R-E-V-E-R.

it's only a question of quality. So use a vacuum sealer with proper freezer sleeves/bags, and save your money

FarmerTom

Thanks everyone.  Exactly what I was wanting to hear.  I've been following the posts regarding food storage/safety as I have only recently purchased the vac-sealer.  We were digging through our chest freezer yesterday to find any butts in there.  Wanting to make a bunch of PP for next week.   Wife dug out 3 or 4 older store wrapped steaks that had begun to darken.  She wanted to toss them, thought they were ruined.  Nope, put them back.  I now understand the freezing process and have the confidence to make an intelligent decision with regards to usage.  

Darby_Crenshaw

Darkening is nothing. The best steak in the butcher's case is the brown one that is past the sell by date. No joke

the brown is oxidation mostly. even in you vac-sealed frozen food. No seal is perfect, because you will always have oxygen in your vacuum sealed food. It isn't a perfect vacuum. You'll get some browning because there's air in there. It is NOT a lower quality though. Cooking is oxidation for example. And you certainly get oxidation with dry aging

Best guard against any changes at all is the cryovac stuff, which is sealed with inert gas, oxygen is displaced by it and then the thing is sealed. So it won't darken. Only issue is the funky sulphurous smell you get when opening. They are (or have been?) experimenting with coatings in the cryo plastic to stop the formation of sulphur compounds. Because people are throwing away perfectly fine food due to the smell.

this tactic of using something other than normal air in the package is similar to the CO packaged meat we are seeing now, where oxygen is displaced by carbon monoxide and the package is then sealed. These are thin, white, hard plastic containers with a clear plastic window covering them, which plastic film is puffed out (under pressure from being filled). The plastic is not permeable (like vinyl films are), and so the meat stays red longer

many people think the CO is deadly poisonous and an outrage (it isn't). It is merely keeping the meat redder longer, which means it can be sold in the meat case longer before it hits the sell-by-date. Extended shelf time. 

Some feel it's false salesmanship. Nope. That meat, without the CO would still be wholesome and fresh a week past the sell by. It wpuld be brown though. And if we have learned anything, Mr. and Mrs. America prefer bright red meat (least flavorful, though).  

So the CO keeps it redder longer. That's all

XLentEGG

Just my two cents....
 I used to lightly freeze prior to vac packing. I found that once frozen ,some items that would fit in a smaller bag when thawed , would no longer be " pliable " and i would have to go up to a larger bag. Now I just wrap the meat in plastic film and poke a few fork holes in it near what would be the bottom of the vac bag. This lets the air out of the plastic wrap with minimal juices flowing towards the sealing end of the bag while the machine does its thing. Watch out for sharp edged bones, they will poke through if not plastic wrapped first. I freeze ground meat first in a plastic storage bowl , and then pop it out and into the vac bag it goes. You just have to find the right sized bowl for the bag you want to use. Have you ever noticed how a sub primal looked so much larger on the cutting board then it did in the cryo bag? Thats because it returned to its natural shape once it was taken out of the vacuum. But if keeping a certain shape to the meat is what you want , then by all means freeze it first  , but also break the vacuum if  you intend to let it thaw in the bag.

gdenby

The quicker the meat freezes, the better. The size of the ice crystals that form grows with slow freezes, and the crystals will be big enough to tear up the muscle cells. The meat when cooked will be quite dry from slow freezing. For most people, an ice bath is the fastest and easiest way to bring the meat temp down rapidly. Then its time for the freezer.

You can improve freezer efficiency by having pre-frozen blocks of the "better than ice" packages to place the food packages on. Or, if you live in a cold place, a couple of pizza steels that are chilled outside will make a fine quick chill press.

Likewise, thinner packages work better than thick.

bjeans

My apologies if resurrecting a dead thread isn’t good etiquette. I’ve searched for an answer for days, and it dawned on me y’all would know. (I had a BGE, didn’t feel safe given our yard/house, sold it, but someday...) 

I purchased a vacuum sealer. Everything’s good/perfect/fun with it, but when pre-freezing or partial freezing before sealing, ice crystals/frost/flakes quickly form on the outside of everything: chicken, avocados (though I learned I don’t have to pre-freeze), meat, anything.

I’ve used the frig drawer freezer and a new upright one. Food is dried beforehand. I’ve tried cling-wrapping, press-n-seal, ziplocking, naked (the food). I’ve lowered the freezer temp to -1 F.  

I’ve stopped loading up the small frig freezer, because the temp will raise with six packs of chicken thighs. Now just one or two are put in. For the upright I’ve tried with just one item and it still happens.

After it’s partially/fully frozen, I whack the food on the counter/sink to get the ice off, and/or scrub with a paper towel, and/or scrub off the frost with a minimally damp paper towel if it’s really stuck on, re-dry and *finally* seal. 

What am I doing wrong? And thanks for this thread; I’ve learned new things. 

ETA: I may try what XLentEGG suggested, but still would like to solve the problem. 

ETA2: Weirdly, a package of thighs I left in their package this a.m. were in the frig freezer for a couple hours and no frost despite lots of air in the package.

Skiddymarker

I prefreeze on baking sheet sprayed with a little oil, keeps stuff from sticking, and have not had any ice crystal issues if I FoodSaver the product within a couple of hours. In other words the meat (chicken parts, pork chops usually) are just starting to freeze and will hold their shape. I have found if left it in the freezer for a day or two, ‘cause I forgot about it, there will be some ice. Maybe you are leaving it in too long?

td66snrf

One thing I would suggest if you're freezing something with sharp edge such as a bone, I wrap it in parchment paper so it won't puncture the freezer bag. I discovered this the hard way.

nolaegghead

td66snrf said:

One thing I would suggest if you're freezing something with sharp edge such as a bone, I wrap it in parchment paper so it won't puncture the freezer bag. I discovered this the hard way.

My chamber sealer seems fairly immune to sharp bones, unlike the Food Saver.

Canugghead

nolaegghead said:

td66snrf said:

One thing I would suggest if you're freezing something with sharp edge such as a bone, I wrap it in parchment paper so it won't puncture the freezer bag. I discovered this the hard way.

My chamber sealer seems fairly immune to sharp bones, unlike the Food Saver.

Sorry Nola I have to disagree with you, 4 mil bag is not as bad, but with 3 mil bag I find sharp bones pierce more readily because my vp215 chamber sealer (same as your model) has much stronger compression than FS suction.

nolaegghead

Canugghead said:

nolaegghead said:

td66snrf said:

One thing I would suggest if you're freezing something with sharp edge such as a bone, I wrap it in parchment paper so it won't puncture the freezer bag. I discovered this the hard way.

My chamber sealer seems fairly immune to sharp bones, unlike the Food Saver.

Sorry Nola I have to disagree with you, 4 mil bag is not as bad, but with 3 mil bag I find sharp bones pierce more readily because my vp215 chamber sealer (same as your model) has much stronger compression than FS suction.

Well, that's my experience.  That said, I have not done anything like a rack of ribs.

td66snrf

@nolaegghead I find that the knuckle end of beef back ribs where they have been cut by a bandsaw are particularly sharp.