Freezing/Storage Life

[msuiceman]

Assuming that you hot smoked and reached 152-155 internal on a beef/pork kielbasa/sausage, how long will it be safe and maintain flavor frozen? I'm thinking of making a rather large batch, but if its not stable for too long I'm going to make a much smaller batch as I don't want any to go to waste.

Of course I'd ice bath it after maintaining temp, then vac seal it and put in a deep freeze.

I wish there was a way to keep fresh kielbasa good for extended periods, I have my father's recipe but since you can't really keep it for long before eating, its always made in a somewhat small batch.

Any tips/tricks/suggestions?

Thanks,

Steve

 

[forluvofsmoke]

My cured/smoked sausages, CB, pastrami, etc, all hold up well if vac sealed. I took some sliced semi-dry chicken salami out a few months ago that sat over a year in the freezer...texture and flavor was no different than what I had fresh out of the smoker after chilling. Canadian bacon, pastrami and beef salami was great, too, after more than 18 months frozen. If your vac sealer works properly and your freezer stays cold, you won't have freezer burn, and that's what really destroys frozen foods.

One thing that can really put a damper on your frozen storage is if your freezer goes through a lot of temp swings (upright freezer with a lot of frequent door openings)...I'm talking from +20* to -10* or so...they need to stay as cold as possible even though they take more energy to operate that way. I run my old outdoor freezer with my bulk Qing meats and ready to eat cured/smoked goodies at -20*F and the warmest it typically gets is -5*F, but normally the temp swings are no higher than -10* from the -20* set temp. I wouldn't sweat longer-term freezer storage if your freezer can do it's job right. A chest freezer in the garage or a shed where it does not get disturbed much is the best place to store long-term. Chests are more energy efficient to begin with, because of the top opening not allowing cold to pour out when you do open it, unlike uprights, and, chests hold their cold longer during power outages because the entire belly and sides is solid insulation, while the upright relies on a door gasket to hold in the cold. With either type, they like to be loaded up pretty fill...this helps reduce temp swings and the compressor doesn't cycle on/off as often. If you have an upright with cooling fans inside, make sure the path of air is clear for cold air circulation from the fan out to the front and down the door to the bottom and back to the inlet for the fan, otherwise, fill it as full as air circulation will allow.

Eric

 

[chef jimmyj]

The only issue is Kielbasa loses it's flavor, garlic in particular, after 2 months. The herbs can get an off or dull flavor as well. The flavor loss is slow but I would not keep it more than 4 months total...JJ

 

[msuiceman]

Thanks for the comeback... looks like I'll make 20lbs or so, and call it good. Wouldn't want any to go to waste. Shouldn't be too hard to down 20lbs of it in 4 months or so.

 

[venture]

Having only two in our house?  Even small batches have to be frozen.

I have found that, even with sealing and moderate freeze time, the sausage will drop off in flavor long before there is other degradation.

I "kick it up" a bit when making my sausage to compensate for that.

Good luck and good smoking.