Cleaning out the Freezers

[BrianGSDTexoma]

Spending the week cleaning Fridges and Freezers and updating my Frizor app. Man what a chore. Throwing out the oldest stuff but still have enough to last years! I think it time to start giving some things away! How did I get myself to this point! At least not spending much on meat lately with the high prices.

 

[SmokinAl]

We are in the same boat Brian. Were trying to downsize & have a ton of meat in our freezers. I am happy that I bought it on sale, but I could go 1 or 2 years without buying any meat. I would really like to get to the point where I have an in house fridge/freezer, and one small extra freezer for when there is a sale.

 

[BrianGSDTexoma]

Yeah I hear you. I was trying to cook some of the older stuff and just not worth it. Most of it taste bad. I am pretty ashamed of myself for this but time to say lesson learned and move on. I have not been cooking a lot lately between the boat and hanging down on the river. You would think being retired now I would have a lot of free time but that does not seem to be the case. I still not golfed like I had planned yet.

 

[indaswamp]

Been doing the same. Going through a lot of the game meats in the freezers. Been pre-cooking big pots of stuff for camp meals and refreezing. Got a big 60# batch of wild hog smoke sausage in the smokehouse today. Slowly making room...

 

[chopsaw]

I'm in the same boat . Your right it's a freakin chore to go through the chest freezer . Mine are so packed I don't know what's in there . I found some sausage in the bottom , I just tossed it .
Thawed a rib roast and ground a brisket and a sirloin roast . Been eating off the grind and gonna smoke the rib roast tomorrow .

 

[Hijack73]

I had to learn that lesson a long time ago. I cooked my oldest chuck weekend before last and it tasted old..... It was a nice one too, about 3.5 lbs center cut and I ended up tossing over half of it.

I recommend upright freezers. You can rotate the supply much easier in one. They cost a little more up front but go through and toss a hundred bucks worth of stuff a couple of times out of a chest and the difference is worth it.

 

[clifish]

That app must still be Android? Can't find it in the IOS app store. I hate the one I am currently using need to find another one. Glad to see you are using he boat more!

 

[Hockeydudde]

I second the upright. So much easier to use and organize. Milk crates fill just over half a shelf. so each shelf in my freezer is a single crates filled with one category of small stuff only, and then the rest of the shelf is stacked with stuff.

The other downside is at least on mine, it didn't have temperature setting. Just "cold, colder and coldest". But coldest is about -20 F.

 

[tallbm]

Spending the week cleaning Fridges and Freezers and updating my Frizor app. Man what a chore. Throwing out the oldest stuff but still have enough to last years! I think it time to start giving some things away! How did I get myself to this point! At least not spending much on meat lately with the high prices.

View attachment 644253

Dogs turning down the meat? Makes for good big dog chow I bet :)

I too am going through my freezer but I have a little upright and the top freezer on a fridge to make room for the meat from my hunting trip.

I have probably 70 pounds of ground brisket and pork butt that I will use to make sausage when I do my big processing day but have gotten through almost all the rest of the stuff.

I did have to throw out 20 pounds of trimmed pork backfat that had been in the freezer prep pandemic. It was old and freezer burned. Smelled like plastic which is the indicator that the fat is old and burned so just had to toss it.

Will get more fat closer to the processing day and this time will vac seal any extra. This was still in the original 10 pound boxes. I bet vac sealed fat would have been fine that long but no idea :)

 

[indaswamp]

I bet vac sealed fat would have been fine that long but no idea :)

So fun fact I learned with the deep dive into making salami.....even at freezer temps. the enzymes in the fat will still be active breaking down the fat. There is just no good way to keep fat good for over a year (Other than dry curing it into Lardo-but it is still being broken down in a controlled way).

 

[chopsaw]

There is just no good way to keep fat good for over a year (Other than dry curing it into Lardo-but it is still being broken down in a controlled way).

And after it thaws it gets nasty . Really odd / off smell . Not rancid , just yuk . Made that mistake once . Shame I already had it mixed with 5 pounds of clean fresh venison . That one hurt . I take my harvest very serious .

 

[Gonna Smoke]

I would not say cleaning out, but reorganizing mine this week to make room for these...

It's that time of the year when white shrimp are usually plentiful and can be bought at the dock straight off the boats for a decent price and I was almost out. These shrimp were caught the day I went and bought them, but it's one of those things where I have to go at a moment's notice because they sell out fast each day and they only go out when the weather is decent which it wasn't most of last week. I was calling almost every day and Monday they had them.

Gay's Fish Company
St. Helena Island
Beaufort, SC

No affiliation at all...

 

[indaswamp]

Nothing beat fresh shrimp off the boat! Nice to live next to the coast to be able to do that....

 

[indaswamp]

I'll be looking forward to future shrimp cooks from you....

 

[cmayna]

Yes, we have two standup freezers in the garage full of fish. Salmon and Pacific Crab patties in #1 and Rock/Ling Cod with Albacore Tuna and Halibut in #2. Need to purge BIG time.

 

[BrianGSDTexoma]

Final finished. Now I need to come up with some kind of plan to use this stuff. Guess need to starting cooking more and giving it away to friends.

 

[tallbm]

Final finished. Now I need to come up with some kind of plan to use this stuff. Guess need to starting cooking more and giving it away to friends.

View attachment 644313View attachment 644314View attachment 644315View attachment 644316

Wow nice!

It would be a curious exercise to identify how many meals you have there and then to see how that cold be applied weekly.

Then on top of that see how much money that results in not being spend since there are so many meals available.

That's all the efficiency and planning nerd in me that sparks those kinds of thoughts hahaha :D