...know when to walk away, know when to run...

[rickgregory]

So, my bottom freezer in the fridge hadnt been defrosted in... um... awhile. So I decided to do it a couple of days ago. Well, the bottom basket was basically a solid block of ice so I removed it and let it melt... over the course of 3 days. As things became exposed out of the ice, I looked at them and decided if it was worth maybe keeping.

Fast forward to a little while ago. There was a vacuum sealed 1lb pack of ground beef from a local farmer and I was making chili. Maybe I should toss this in... sliced it open and it didnt smell immediately off so... maybe... wait, there's a date on the package... it's... OH NO....

It was August 10th....


2015.

[58limited]

I found a cooked brisket flat from 2014 in my freezer a couple of weeks ago...

[Jfrosty27]

Yikes! To be honest, this is why I don’t buy a stand alone freezer. The one on my fridge is all we have. Sure, there are times when it would come in handy. Like today for instance when Creekstone and Click are having sales. My one unit is pretty full right now. But I figure they will have another one soon enough. I just don’t want to be tossing expensive meat that was forgotten in the back/bottom of the extra freezer. As it is I leave a few things in there a little too long now and then.

[DaveD]

Because of course I do, I have a sheet in my "Food and Drink" Excel file called Meatventory, and I keep it up to date of what's in there and when it went in. When I want to start thinking about what to pull out for a cook, I damn sure don't want to have to bend over and rummage around in the freezer, even though I keep it reasonably organized, with some good shaped cardboard boxes etc. We have two smaller fridges in the kitchen & adjacent laundry room, because of how things are laid out, and we use those freezers for leftovers and smaller stuff we want near to hand.

[Mark V]

I bought a chest freezer a little over a year ago. It filled up fast.

[rickgregory]

Yeah, I have a bad habit of tossing things in willy-nilly. I'm figuring out how to organize things better going forward.

[Mark The Q-er]

I keep telling my wife: "Next time I buy something for the freezer, punch me in the face."

[Panhead John]

Mark….hilarious😂

[gboss]

rickgregory keep her name out your mouth!

[bbqLuv]

It only took me two black eyes to get the message. So now you know the reason for the sun glasses.

[Mosca]

I’ve done a 2 1/2 year old rib roast that was perfect. I dunno about almost 7 years, though.

[texastweeter]

Cook it, and feed it to the neighbors dog

[jfmorris]

Technically, if we are talking a chest freezer with no defrost cycle, and its been at -20F or whatever, that meat is good almost indefinitely. Think of the wooly mammoths defrosting in Siberia with undigested plant material in their stomachs. Not saying I would cook a 10,000 year old brisket, but I'll not discard a 2 year old USDA prime brisket from the deep freeze.

I do not keep food in the regular freezer that long however, as the constant daily self defrost cycle degrades the meat. That's why your ice cream goes all gunky and forms crystals after a period of weeks. Drop it in the deep freeze - that doesn't happen. Its also why I don't use an upright frost-free standalone freezer. My folks had one but it had the same issues as the regular freezer in the top/side/bottom of your refrigerator.

[smokin fool]

Agreed, though I don't know if I'd have the onions to cook and eat it either.

[jfmorris]

smokin fool I figured being in the Great White North and all, you of all people would have smoked wooly mammoth by now. Probably one buried under the permafrost in your back yard....

[smokin fool]

jfmorris ....naw....I'm not that far north....
Hell, Buffalo gets a lot worse winters than we do around here.

[Draznnl]

Like DaveD I maintain an Excel spreadsheet with an inventory of everything in the freezer. Unlike DaveD I have to do an inventory every couple of months because I failed to keep the spreadsheet up to date.

[jfmorris]

This sounds like me. I installed an app a couple of years ago - called "Freezer" as in "What's in my Freezer". I have been very bad at keeping it up to date, and I have a side by side with freezer, two top freezer fridges, and a deep freeze... I only inventory the meat though. Tater tots, frozen peas, etc, I leave to SWMBO. And the deep freeze is JUST meat, except for some hops for brewing, and the topper for my daughter's wedding cake...

[Joey877]

I buy half a cow a few times a year. Couldn't do that without the stand alone freezer. I am pretty good about keeping an inventory of the meat in there, but I will admit I have found items that my wife or kids have thrown in there and forgot about. With three kids there is no chance I could get by without a freezer.

[fracmeister]

You guys are doing this ALL WRONG

Buy TWO deep freezers and feel free to start filling one. Once it is full, anything you buy goes in #2 but you only cook out of #1 UNTIL IT IS EMPTY. If you fill #2 before you empty #1 you aren't cooking enough*. Once #2 fills you start putting new purchases in #1 and cook only from #2. REPEAT

You are welcome.






* technically it could mean you are buying too much but what are the odds of that?

[Draznnl]

I'd have better luck convincing the Keeper of the Cash (aka SWMBO) that I need a second pellet pooper than that I need a second freezer.

[Mark The Q-er]

My wife has a garden - you just described our compost system

[rickgregory]

Y'all think DaveD is organized? I actualy looked into getting RFID tags for the food I use from now on. Then I came to my senses....

[gboss]

oh yea, well I'm looking into using blockchain techmology for MY freezer! somehow.

[texastweeter]

Just don't put the dates on the packages...fixes the problem, lol

[smokin fool]

Whatcha don't know....