Frozen pork butt!

[offsethickory]

I just bought 99lbs of pork butt for a really good deal. They are all Cryovac. The production date is from 1/22/24. I just put them in the deep freezer. I have an event towards the end of march, I was wondering if these would still be safe if thawed properly, and sell to the general public?

 

[02ebz06]

You are probably a couple weeks past the sell-by-date now.
You might want to cook now to see if it is good.

Would you buy one that was thawed with a 2 month old sell-by-date on the package?
I wouldn't .

 

[crankybuzzard]

Were they frozen when you bought them and you just transferred them to another freezer, or were they thawed? I'm with @02ebz06 about the use date issue.

If they were never defrosted, I'd still do one the week prior and make sure before I fed them to a gathering.

 

[offsethickory]

Were they frozen when you bought them and you just transferred them to another freezer, or were they thawed? I'm with @02ebz06 about the use date issue.

If they were never defrosted, I'd still do one the week prior and make sure before I fed them to a gathering.

They are cryovac pork butts. They are not frozen. The kill date/package date is 1/22/24 so 19 days.

 

[Culinary Otter]

You are probably a couple weeks past the sell-by-date now.

Cryovac from the distributor has a much longer fridge life than a styrofoam tray or butcher case cut. The sell-by would likely be Feb 1 or so.

Cryovac beef has a fridge life of around 4 weeks.

Unfortunately cryovac commodity pork is 10-14 days AFAIK. If I was cooking these for myself? I'd consider the risk minimal enough and absolutely use it.

The second you said "sell", and "general public"? Absolutely not. You're setting yourself up for litigation at best....

The other thing to consider is that time to freeze (unless you have a blast freezer, throwing 99# of pork in the same chest freezer will take days to freeze unless you're vigilant with spacing, air flow, and rotating) thaw in the fridge, take out to prep, etc - that clock is still ticking.

All said and done you're likely serving meat 7-10 days beyond. Probably a reason that pork was such a good deal, but just my 2c.

 

[chopsaw]

I deal with quite a bit of this . I buy all my meat in vac packs or as primals . All a learn as I went , so I'm not an expert , but have been doing it for 3 or 4 years now . Beef is the most forgiving when handled properly , but you should be careful with the pork .
Bought this stuff the other day . You can see the length of the date range .
40 days is common on BEEF .

You should be careful with pork .You won't get the same length of time , and the thawing can be a no go in the end , when you are close to date . I ALWAYS figure that thaw time against the date range and add a few days . Problem is you're already close . If you bought it and used it , I'd be OK with it . However the thawing plays against you when at date because the middle will thaw slower than the outside . That pushes some of the meat farther past the sell by date .

Close up of the label . I'll see anywhere from 15 to 30 days on pork . Depends on what cut it is and where it came from .

They are all Cryovac. The production date is from 1/22/24. I just put them in the deep freezer.

Time to frozen counts against the date range as well . Pack date of 1/22 , today is 2/10 . I'm saying you're at 20 days from packing plus thaw time and getting past 140 in the smoker .

I have an event towards the end of march, I was wondering if these would still be safe if thawed properly, and sell to the general public?

When they're close like this , and you break the seal and the air hits them , they go fast .
You're gonna get a smell when opened , but if it doesn't go away in a few minutes they are to far past .
I personally wouldn't risk selling it to the public .

 

[gmc2003]

Just tossing this out there, but I'm seeing more and more folks smoking frozen ribs. Could you do the same with the butts? Toss them on your smoker frozen

Not advocating this method, but since he already made the purchase.

Chris

 

[sandyut]

Just tossing this out there, but I'm seeing more and more folks smoking frozen ribs. Could you do the same with the butts? Toss them on your smoker frozen

Not advocating this method, but since he already made the purchase.

Chris

I’ve done this with smaller roasts of about 4 lbs - not a butt. BUT worked just fine. Only did it once or twice due to poor planning.

I wouldn’t sell these tho. I agree this is setting you up for being accountable legally…maybe/probably.

 

[DougE]

Just tossing this out there, but I'm seeing more and more folks smoking frozen ribs. Could you do the same with the butts? Toss them on your smoker frozen

Not advocating this method, but since he already made the purchase.

Chris

I think @SmokinAl was playing around with smoking frozen stuff awhile back. Not sure if he tried anything that big though.