My buddy brought over a frozen ham marked 2017

[Idz]

If its a deep freeze it will last forever. Deep freeze temperatures will kill most bacteria in few days, cooking kills the rest. Flavors may change if its not sealed well and gets freezer burn (de-hydration). Russians have eaten Mammoths frozen in the permafrost for thousands of years. Newer refrigerator freezers don't store as long because they are not as cold and will run a de-frost cycle every few days which blows warm air through the freezer compartment.

[BamaNapper]

According to stilltasty, a decent online shelflife guide, "The freezer time shown is for best quality only - ham that has been kept constantly frozen at 0°F will keep safe indefinitely." The tells me if it's been frozen, it's safe.

If it was me, I'd trim, thaw, and fry up a small slice. If the flavor is less than optimal I'd go one of two ways with it. Run it through the smoker to use in killer dishes like scalloped potatoes or pea soup. Or I'd de-bone, grind it up, add some additional fat, and make sausage out of it. I wouldn't toss it unless it was trying to crawl out of the pan.

[GregLaROCHE]

I’m with trying a small piece to see how it tastes and if you want to put the time in to prepare it. As long as it was kept frozen, I’d give eating it a try. If you don’t eat it, you could put it to good use ballistic testing your loads.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

I would be concerned more about changed flavor than food safety. I've eaten turkey, elk and moose that was in the freezer for 3-4 years without concern

[Tripplebeards]

it finally thawed out and I just unwrapped the plastic. There were spots of the meat that were dry and gray colored from freezer burn which I would have cut off but the whole ham smelled like a cross between spearmint and Windex and the hip bone fell out when I unwrapped it and it was slimy underneath and did not have a good smell. At first it had no smell at all and within seconds of unwrapping it the smell creeped out of it. I tossed in the trash. It smelled like something like I could’ve brushed my teeth with and then cleaned my windows with it when I was done.lol. It definitely did not make it through two years of freezer time. I think I would’ve had a trip to the morgue if I eat it or at least felt like I should’ve went there. I’ve eaten tons of deer meat that I’ve been 3 to 4 years old in my freezer if not longer that smelled fresh when thawed. I Even pickeled some four-year-old northern pike I had frozen in a block of ice last year that was yellow and fried some up and it still tasted good... Put this pork was down for the count. I’ve had food poisoning many times from food that smelled and looked fresh so I made sure to pass on this. The ham was originally wrapped in some white packing paper and then only had one or two layers of plastic shrink wrap over it. If it were to get wrapped away I do deer meat I’m sure it would still be good. I normally use industrial pallet wrap and wrap it a good 20/30 times if not more. Basically to the point where it almost looks cloudy white. I’ve eaten venison in my freezer over four years old doing it this way.

[Lance Boyle]

Dang. Never heard of that regarding cured meats in the freezer.

[Tripplebeards]

It was Marked 2017 and I don’t know what month it was so it could’ve been close to three years old.

[MaryB]

If it was slimy around the bone it wasn't properly cured to begin with and even 1 month in would have smelled bad!

[jonp]

it finally thawed out and I just unwrapped the plastic. There were spots of the meat that were dry and gray colored from freezer burn which I would have cut off but the whole ham smelled like a cross between spearmint and Windex and the hip bone fell out when I unwrapped it and it was slimy underneath and did not have a good smell. At first it had no smell at all and within seconds of unwrapping it the smell creeped out of it. I tossed in the trash. It smelled like something like I could’ve brushed my teeth with and then cleaned my windows with it when I was done.lol. It definitely did not make it through two years of freezer time. I think I would’ve had a trip to the morgue if I eat it or at least felt like I should’ve went there. I’ve eaten tons of deer meat that I’ve been 3 to 4 years old in my freezer if not longer that smelled fresh when thawed. I Even pickeled some four-year-old northern pike I had frozen in a block of ice last year that was yellow and fried some up and it still tasted good... Put this pork was down for the count. I’ve had food poisoning many times from food that smelled and looked fresh so I made sure to pass on this. The ham was originally wrapped in some white packing paper and then only had one or two layers of plastic shrink wrap over it. If it were to get wrapped away I do deer meat I’m sure it would still be good. I normally use industrial pallet wrap and wrap it a good 20/30 times if not more. Basically to the point where it almost looks cloudy white. I’ve eaten venison in my freezer over four years old doing it this way.

That's sorta what I was saying. You don't know what that ham did before you got it. If it was all yours then no problems but when people give me meat that's frozen I generally thank them and throw it out.

[Tripplebeards]

That makes sense because my buddy said his wife ate one when they first had the pig processed did not like it.

[Ramson222]

deleted post

[GregLaROCHE]

Nothing like vacuum seal to store things for a long time in the freezer.

[jonp]

Dang. Never heard of that regarding cured meats in the freezer.

Me neither and sounds kinda odd. That's what the internet is for, I'm going to look that up.

[redneck1]

I've never had smoked and cured meat go bad in the freezer , or taste bad . But after 7-8 months I can tell a differance in taste .
And the more sugar in the cure worse it gets . Generally though the smoked meat doesn't last near long enough to go bad , it's just to tasty

My theory on why is that it never freezer as solid as fresh meat because of the salt , then any sugar In the cure starts going rancid .

I did a small batch of salt pork one year and forgot I had froze some of it , three years later it still tasted perfectly fine

[Tripplebeards]

I’m sure this ham was never cured properly to begin with as his wife never liked the taste and that’s why they didn’t ever eat them and gave several of these away. I was just one of the people who received one. I made sure to tell him as he gave his mother some and one of my other buddies a few so he would make sure they didn’t eat them. Or at least make them on guard when they thawed them out for inspection. Sounds like the rest were bad to. I’m sure if it was a vacuum sealed ham from the grocery frozen at zero degrees for that long would still be edible. He does this quite regularly. My buddy and his wife goes through their freezer and everything that he thinks is too old and feels guilty about throwing out he gives away. I basically just throw everything away he gives me but this time I figured hey let’s try a ham until I thawed it out and inspected it. I should’ve known better. My buddy is pretty cheap. He doesn’t give any anything away for free... Unless it’s spoiled food.lol I don’t know why he just doesn’t throw it all in the garbage every time he goes through his freezer. He brought me a pecan pie that his mother-in-law made last summer and said that his wife didn’t like the taste... And there were two pieces missing out of it. I politely thanked him and inspected it later in the day. The whole bottom was completely burnt black! I think he just gives me this stuff to mess with me.lol

[MaryB]

When I can find bulk bacon cheap I buy 20+ pounds. Repackage it into 1 pound packages and vacuum pack it and freeze. I have had it a year later after finding a pack that got buried and it was fine. Key is getting as much oxygen away from it as possible.

[30calflash]

Since it ended up in the condition the op stated, could it have thawed while in the freezer at some pint? A power outage for a few days would do it.

[762 shooter]

Life is too short to eat bad tasting food.

TEOTWAWKI I'd eat it no problem.

762

[fcvan]

"A friend of mine brought over some frozen Bronto Burgers, he said he found in a specialty meat shop near Siberia . . . The store said they had the World's Record Cold Cut Collection!"

[Shiloh]

Salted pork fat, bacon, 3 months, maybe a bit more.
Bacon, the thick sliced jalapeño store brand I prefer, was on sale for $3.99. The go-to butcher I use to, said don't buy anymore than you will be using in 3-4 months. it'll break down.

Shiloh