I usually vac-pac pulled pork, pork lion, other Bbq and have had great success. Once in a while I will chill the bbq and then vac-pac and freeze for a later day. Sometimes I take it out of the freezer and into the fridge for thaw. Few days later I notice the “vac” has bloated and the meat bag looks like potato chip bags at high altitude. Is this a vac-fail and should the meat be discarded? I often double seal the vac and don’t know why this happens. Ideas?
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I'd toss it. That happens sometimes. If the freezer pack gets bumped or hits a spot in the freezer it can create a small puncture. -
Tossy toss!!!!
im sitting at work and I hear some racket behind me…. Turns out one of the servers did not rotate the fresh squeezed OJ. It turned and blew the caps right off the storage containers!Comment
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Wait, what? Out of all of the things we have to worry about in modern life, I now have to add exploding orange juice bottles?
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I wanna know how LONG those things were sitting??? Yuck! -
realdocBBQ it only takes 2-3 days with fresh squeezed. I am guessing they prepped heavy for the weekend (sat sun) and again, didn’t FIFO (first in, first out). My exploding containers happened on the following Friday.
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Yes, the swelling of the bag is almost certainly from gas production by bacteria. Definitely made the right decision to toss it.
This points to an issue prior to freezing - contamination from some source. Nothing we do in a home kitchen is perfectly sterile, but I would examine your process if I were you and see what you might be doing that would allow more bacterial contamination and/or growth before bagging and sealing.
You say sometimes you are chilling and then distributing and sealing - I would hazard a guess it is in this step that is the most likely. Transferring the cooked and pulled meat to another dish, which of course isn't truly 'sterile' and then placing in the fridge. I think someone here posted some results about placing their meat in the fridge immediately after smoking, and people were shocked at how long it stayed at a higher temperature, even in the fridge. Fridges aren't meant to really cool down HOT meat, so it can take HOURS to cycle enough to cool things off. Not to mention, if it is in a large hunk (aka prior to pulling/shredding) or even shredded but still in a large mass all glommed together in a big pan or something, that meat in the center of the mass is going to take a long time to cool down to a safe temp to inhibit bacterial growth.
I had a really REALLY long conversation with a guy the other day via text messaging explaining to him over several hours the processes and theories of bacterial growth and such. He was shocked at how fast and easily it can happen. I don't know that this is the point in your process that is the weak link, but from your description, this is just what stands out to me.
Personally, I usually pull the meat off the smoker, leave it covered and sit for a couple of hours to come down to temp, then I shred it by hand with gloves on and usually bag it up within an hour or so, then into a deep freeze. I think being a freezer, this obviously gets it down to temp faster (especially with all the solid frozen mass of other meat and such in there) AND with each of them being bagged separately into 1-2lb bags, it isn't a giant single mass of meat.
I dunno, just some of my thoughts. I know when you spend all day cooking pork, then you shred it and eat with the family or whatever, you often don't want to then spend another 20 minutes separating it all out and bagging it up to freeze. Hell, sometimes I don't even want to clean the kitchen up. But... like I said, this is my thought on where some of the issue could be coming from.Comment
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When I smoke Salmon/Trout I put them in a grocery bag lined with newspaper then into the fridge. They need to sit a couple days before freezing as there is a gas they let out that will bloat their bags from the process. Not sure that meat does that but maybe there is something there. Don't know if it is some interaction from the brine or what.Comment
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No idea about salmon as I don't eat fish, but nothing like that with pork, beef or chikkin. Not in my experience anyways. -
I am thinking they release a gas or something when brined and smoked. All I know is if I let them sit in the fridge for a couple days before freezing I get good seals. Not an issue with meats. And the newspaper is to absorb the fish oils that leach out after you remove them from the smoker.
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