Safety Question

[ahakohda]

Question is simple, and I kinda suspect it is safe to do, but I have to ask here, because I was wrong before.........

Is it safe to wet cure meat (bacon, chicken) and, after curing process is over, vacuum pack it and store in freezer for a month or two.
When needed, it will be defrosted in refrigerator with normal smoking/cooking process to follow.
Or is it better to cook it, vacuum pack it and defrost when needed for consumption.


Thank you in advance.

 

[02ebz06]

As long as you are vacuum sealing and freezing ASAP, I don't see a problem.
Never done it though, so let someone else chime in to conform or deny my thoughts.

 

[gmc2003]

Should be safe. I would let it air dry in the refridge overnight before vacuum sealing.

Chris

 

[LanceR]

There is no safety issue with what you describe. There may be a slight quality issue as when we freeze meat the water turns into ice crystals and the ice crystals act like tiny knives to damage cell walls. Then, upon thawing the meat, you'll loose more moisture than might otherwise have been the case. This is true of fruits, veggies and other foods, too.

As always, freeze your food products as fast as possible as faster freezing results in smaller ice crystals and less cell wall damage.

If, for instance, you have 20# of chicken to freeze you should refrigerate most of it and freeze maybe 5-6 pounds at a time with that spread out in your chest or upright freezer. Then every 3-4 hours you can freeze more of it. The goal is to keep the freezer as cold as possible. Any significant warming from adding a big batch all at once will adversely affect everything in the freezer.

I hope some of this helps....

 

[ahakohda]

Yes I will make small batches and freeze it that way in chest freezer. Thank you!