Frozen meat

[Bad Water Bill]

How long can you keep it frozen then SAFELY thaw it out for consumption.

[duckey]

Ive done it up to 2 years vacuum sealed, no worries, tasted great.

[Wild Bill 7]

As long as it doesn't get freezer burn(greenish-white sponge looking) should be good for a long time. When thawed cook it and don't referee. JMHO.

[44man]

All we avoid is freezer burn, had good meat after 3 years.
I had a lot of trouble with vac sealers with bags leaking. No adjustment helped so I bought a new one with the same problems. I now double seal each end.
Seems I have better luck with freezer paper sometimes. Use good masking tape and never buy freezer tape.
They dug mammoths out of ice that was edible.

[GhostHawk]

Op did not really explain his situation IMO.

Do you have one skinned/unskinned frozen deer in one chunk? Or something else?

I have only had a deer freeze up on me once, left it hang for 3 days till we got just enough warming to let me skin, debone, reduce it to garbage bag sized chunks. Which went home, got cleaned up, sliced, packaged, and refrozen in a freezer.

I do not believe you want to leave it frozen, personally I don't like to freeze meat that has big chunk of fat, glands, or bone in it as I think it changes the taste of the meat. Your mileage may vary.

Get it skinned, deboned, into chunks, then get it in where you can let it thaw to 33 degrees, cut it, package and freeze.

[rush1886]

I have meat thawing out in the refrigerator, right now, taken in 2011. It was cut into steaks, roasts, etc, with all fat and as much silverskin as possible, removed. Wrapped in a double layer of plastic wrap,, then freezer paper. As much air as humanly possible, squeezed out during the wrapping.

On an average, for my house, 2-3# pkg of meat, I will occasionaly, have quarter or fifty cent sized piece, with freezer burn, which I will cut off. Then, proceed as normal.

As mentioned above, get rid of ALL fat during the initial cutting. Wrap carefully, and enjoy. We just had a 2011 moose roast over the Christmas break, and it was delicious.

[waksupi]

I've heard of people eating mastodons they have dug out of the permafrost! I've had packages lost in the bottom of the freezer for over five years, and it was still good.

[Smoke4320]

My processer puts all cuts on a foam tray then vacuum seals .. I then double wrap in freezer paper .. Meat still good after 3 years ..
Mine does not get any older than that so can't say if it would last 1 or 2 more years

[Springfield]

I use a vacuum sealer a lot, and I find that after the light goes out, hold the button for 5 more seconds to get a good melted seal. Never had one loosen up in the freezer, but never had one go longer than 6 months. If they are going to lose seal I find it happens within 3 hours, after that they seem to hold forever.

[quilbilly]

Ive done it up to 2 years vacuum sealed, no worries, tasted great.

Ditto for deer and elk and we don't have a vacuum sealer, just wrapped in cellophane and butcher paper. Fish is different.

[Cornbread]

If you put the meat in a container of water and allow it to freeze into a small block and then put the frozen block into a larger container of water and freeze that, and then do it one last time(3 times total) into an even larger block as long as it stays frozen it will stay good for hundreds to thousands of years. Not joking, this was why scientists could eat mastodon meat frozen into glacier ice that wasn't freezer burned after thousands of years. The oldest thing I have ever personally experienced frozen that way was a chicken from the 1930s that had been preserved that way when the great-grand parents bought their house and had kept frozen ever since. We ate it in the 2000s so it was at least seventy years old and it was just fine with no freezer burn.

For my regular deer meat processing I wrap in slick side freezer paper, tape it, label it and then freeze and have had it be just fine with no freezer burn after five years.

[white eagle]

like most have said wrapping is key
I butcher and wrap my own venison
just watch out for ill fated freezer burn and you
are good to go
mine only last a year what ever is left goes for sausage

[TXGunNut]

I have a vac sealer and since I started using the double sealer I haven't had a seal fail. That said, I've eaten game sealed in Ziploc bags for two years + with good results. If think the old freezers may actually do a better job of long-term storage than the frost-free versions, will take a few years to form an opinion, lol.

[CITYREPO61]

The vacuum seal bags I've used usually lose the seal right away or they stay intact for years.

[Viper225]

We normally put our meat in Good Quality "Freezer" Zip Loc bags. Not the ones with a Zipper, the ones you pres together to seal. Then put the Freezer Bag into a Brown Lunch Sack, fold down and tape with masking tape. Label with CUT and YEAR. I have a Butcher Paper roller, with most of a roll of butcher paper on it. The wife prefers the Brown Paper Bags. I cannot tell any difference in how Butcher Paper wrapped meat lasts as compared to Brown paper Bags.
As for how long it will last, that was covered pretty well above.

Bob R

[44man]

Put meat in a ziplock and leave one corner open. Submerge in water to the corner and all the air will come out, seal it and wipe the bag off.

[MT Gianni]

We have had great luck with putting meat in zip lock sandwich bags and then wrapping with a good butcher paper. One sandwich bag holds about 1 1/4 lbs of ground and it is easy to get out. Roast or large cuts get a double saran wrap before getting papered. Just get a good double seal. I have eaten meat up to 5 years old in a freezer without it going bad or burned, there may have been some loss of flavor.

[Bad Water Bill]

Wow

Looks like a dirty old man now living by myself can cook the 5# tube of frozen ground beef safely.

I just have to remember that I am only buying for one after all of these years.

Thanks for your help folks.

[brassrat]

My (cow) steaks stay 100% like new after years of being frozen in plastic wrap, then aluminum and into a freezer bag. I was recently informed that my luck my be due to not having used a frost free refrigerator. Someone actually thought of putting a heater in a freezer?

[Wayne Smith]

"Freezer burn" is a result of oxidation - exposure to air. As long as you remove all air contact from the meat and mantain this you are good to go. I have read (Putting Food By) that pork should not be kept in the freezer more than six months to be safe. We seldom have pork that lasts anywhere near that anyway!