Freezer burn is due to either moisture loss or oxidation of the meat and both of those are directly related to air getting to the product. Brown spots on the meat=air leaks. Ice crystals in the package=air leaks. The plain fact is that a sealed vacuum bag will provide better protection from air infiltration than freezer paper will provide.
Some of the folks who posted here seem to have not noticed that the original poster has a chamber vacuum sealer. That gives him more choices than a waffle bag vacuum machine or butcher paper can offer can offer. And it will do so at far lower cost. The current cost of an 8x10" quart 3 mil chamber sealer bag is around $0.03 while a 4 mil quart bag is about $0.05. Waffle bag vacuum sealers and plastic coated freezer paper can't match that cost.
For either type of vacuum sealer sharp bones present a puncture risk which is easily solved by using a bone guard pad such as the ARY Vacuum Packaging Bone Guard linked here:
https://www.meatprocessingproducts....z3AtKuKZWUpKM7vFX9VRUSZcKcGOmlURoCcicQAvD_BwE
And yes, they will work with either waffle bag or chamber sealers.
Vac seal for me.
Another question on freezing,( don't mean to hy-jack thread) is how many times can you re-freeze. Ex., frozen butt thawed to make sausage. Froze sausage to make fatties later. Make (ex.) 3 fatties, freeze 2 for later. Too many times if one was to do that ?
Winterrider, as the thread is about frozen food quality I suspect that you are pretty close to the original intent....
As a matter of food safety there is no practical limit to how many times you can thaw and re-freezer meat provided other best practices are followed (such as keeping it below 40* and protecting it from cross contamination). The biggest quality issue relates to moisture loss from the repeated freezing and thawing and that is easily mitigated.
Moisture loss at thawing time most often relates to cell wall damage from the ice crystals that form during the freezing process. Just as you will see very large ice crystals on the surface of a puddle when temperatures hover right at the freezing point, anything that slows the process of food freezing will encourage the development of larger ice crystals than quickly frozen food will see. The result of that is more damaged cell walls than if the product had be frozen quickly. Think of ice crystals as a bunch of little knives in your product and that your goal is keep them as small as possible.
One way improve the quality of frozen food, especially when freezing a lot of it at one time, is to chill it in the coldest part of your fridge first and put only a little at a time into your freezer. The goal is to not lower the freezer temperature any more than is necessary and to be sure that the food package is completely surrounded by cold air to speed the freezibg process. Putting a large quantity in the freezer over a short time period and having unfrozen packages touching each other is asking for a lower quality product when it is thawed. Remember, the faster any given package freezes the smaller the ice crystals will be and the less cellular damage will result. You'll be rewarded with crisper vegetables and juicier meats....
Lastly, whenever possible puncture the package when you take it out to thaw. If the vacuum is left in the package will tend to draw moisture out of the product until you break the vacuum seal......
And now to hijack the thread a bit to add something else: The clearest proof I can offer regarding the size of ice crystals and frozen food quality comes from an ice cream and sorbet making tip. Take 1/4 or 1/3 of your ice cream base or sorbet mixture and freeze it in a shallow pan. Place the rest of it in the coldest part of you fridge-usually the bottom shelf in the rear of the fridge.
Now take the frozen base and stir it into the chilled base and proceed with your recipe as before. Your reward for the extra step is a super cooled base that will freeze in far less time resulting in a much smoother ice cream or sorbet.
