A couple days ago I got a new deep freezer to replace an older model. In the bottom of my old freezer I found a forgotten 14 lb cryovac prime brisket from Costco, 3.5 years old. I certainly have no plans to throw it out, but wondering whats the longest some of you have kept a cryovac frozen roast or meat?
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No help here, I never freeze a packer. I buy it, wet cure it, smoke it. -
Years. Dad will bring over a sirloin tip roast and talk like it's off the last calf. Turns out it's been at the bottom of HIS freezer for a few years. Cooks up like a champ. Course that may just be the wonderment of sous vide.
And the packaging isn't top notch cryovac.Comment
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Smoke Em If Ya Got Em...
I've done so, as well... it was jus fine...Comment
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I smoked a couple of 3.5 year old butts recently for a lady ar church, who had asked if I could smoke them for her the next time I was firing up the offset. She had them in her deep freeze all that time, and they were in the original packaging. They cooked up just fine and her 3 boys gobbled them up, no one got sick. Personally I usually cook stuff within a year of dropping it in the deep freeze, but sometimes find something a little older.
Kept in a deep freeze that brisket should be good. Some degradation of texture supposedly can occurs from long times in the freezer, but I doubt it will be noticeable, I’ve never noticed it.Last edited by jfmorris; October 21, 2018, 08:01 PM.Comment
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I've cooked one over 3 years and won money with it!Comment
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Does that duration apply to pork butt as well? I've got one that has been in my freezer for almost a year.Comment
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JeffJ yes you are fine with a year old butt. I smoked some 3-4 year old ones for a lady once, and they came out fine. Nothing stays in my freezer that long!
From the FDA:
https://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/char...ragetimes.html
Note the following:
"The guidelines for freezer storage are for quality only. Frozen foods constantly stored at 0°F or below can be kept indefinitely."
I would personally say that a DEEP FREEZER keeps food at or below 0F constantly. And most specifically, a deep freeze that is NOT a frost free model. Most chest style deep freezers do not have an automatic defrost. Many upright deep freezers do have an automatic defrost, that raises the temperature to up around 32F or so, on a timer at least once a day, to prevent frost build up - just like the freezer built into modern refrigerators. That means the freezer, at least briefly, warms up above 0F. Plus every time you open the door the air around the meat spills out in a upright. In a chest freezer I imagine just that top few inches of air gets replaced when you open it. Either way, the thermal mass of the other stuff in the freezer keeps it fairly constant. This is why its important to keep your deep freeze fairly full.
Anyway, back to quality. I think the quality WILL suffer in a freezer with a defrost cycle, compared to one that stays below 0F all the time.
Anyone want to BBQ some wooly mammoth? I understand some of them have stayed frozen for 10,000 years!
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Perfect!, Thanks all.Comment
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