Freezing meat

[ikinya6]

I got a found a really good meat sale, but it may not be until next week before I get a chance to smoke it. Is it okay to freeze the raw meat? I'm sure there is something to be said about fresh meat, but is there a noticeable difference if it is frozen? Should I thaw it out completely before smoking it?

 

[cheech]

I have a habit of buying lots of meat that is on sale and freezing it. There probably is a taste difference however some meat is bettern than none.

 

[deejaydebi]

ikinya6

If you know what your gonna do with it you can freeze it that way. For example:

I often buy meats on sale and put the marnate (or is that marinade?) in the bag before freezing. Squeeze all the air out of the bag. This is especially good for marinates that use oils such as Teriyaki or an oil and vinagar marinate.

Rubs freeze well to freeze also.

Do Not freeze meat in a brine however!

And don't forget to mark the bag with what's been done to it!

 

[Dutch]

ikinya6, Dutch the Butcher here- the worst thing to do to meat is to refreeze it after it has thawed out. Once the meat is thawed out, you need to do something with it to change the cell structure of the meat. This is accomplished by cooking the meat in some fashion. Once the meat has been cooked and properly cooled down, it can be frozen.

The continued thawing and freezing of raw meat causes ice crystals to form in the cell structure. The ice crystals act like mini knives and will cut the meat fibers. With the repeated freezing and thawing, the meat when cooked, will be mushy in texture.

 

[bwsmith_2000]

ikinya6,
I agree with Cheech. I have a large freezer and when I run across a really good deal, I load up. For example, I ran across a big sale on boston butts. They were $1.19/lb and if you buy one, you get one free (making them about 60cents per lb.). That was in 2004. I have used a lot of them over time and just used the last one last weekend. I had the neighbors (about 14) over Saturday evening. I smoked the butt on Friday. I smoked the ribs and chicken thighs on Saturday for a BBQ party Saturday evening. All of it was wonderful. The pulled boston butt (with Fl. Jeff's finishing sauce) was outstanding. So, I say buy it at the best price and by all means, use the freezer. One other thing..... when I freeze meats that I expect to hold for a longer period of time, I always use the vacum sealer. For short periods (one to two weeks) I just use a heavy duty freezer zip lock bag. I'm sure that there's some loss of quality but I haven't been able to tell it. (My $.02 worth)