Can Fresh Beef Fat Be Frozen

Ever seen that pink liquid at the bottom of the plastic bag when you defrost your meat? It's called "purge", and it's a combo of water and meat proteins that drain from the meat. It's not what you want to see.

Here's what causes it… ice crystals form and expand within meat as it freezes and damage the cells. When the meat defrosts, it loses liquid, and it will be dry not juicy.

However, if you freeze correctly, you'll drastically reduce the purge and retain the texture of your meat.

FREEZING

Three key factors in storage time

1. Fat content the higher the fat content, the shorter the storage time
2. Seasoning the more highly seasoned the meat such sausages, the shorter freezing
3. Onions the flavour of some vegetables and spices intensifies in the freezer. Onions in particular. So casseroles or stews with onions in have a shorter "freezer life"

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF FREEZING

Air… it's your number one enemy.

Freezers do just one thing. They make cold air.

Cold air does two things. It freezes food. And it drys food.

That's the how freeze-dried coffee is made in a freezer.

The cold dry air in your freezer literally sucks the moisture out of your food and carries it off to the coldest bit of the freezer. That's usually the walls, hence the frost.

But, if you stop the air from getting to your food, that drying out process takes a whole lot longer.

So it's essential that anything you put in your freezer is as airtight as possible.

It's rule number 1.

Here's some other tips and ideas to help achieve this:

1. Prepare and freeze meat as soon as possible to lock in the flavour
2. Freeze as quickly as possible the quicker it freezes the better it'll be when you eat it
3. Don't freeze too much food at once or it'll slow down the freezing process
4. It's the air that does the freezing so don't stack up stuff you want to freeze. Put it on racks to let the air circulate
5. Freeze in portions – for one meal or a cooking session (*large portions of meat cannot be frozen in one go) and make dividers between the meat such as steak, chicken before wrapping that meal portion. This makes thawing quicker
6. Wrapping the longer it takes to freeze, the more it will need wrapping – you can't over-wrap your meat!
7. Rapid/Fast freeze – if your fridge has one, it's always best to use when freezing over 1kg of meat as it stops molecules from forming ice crystal. If don't have a Rapid freeze, just turn your freezer down to -23 degrees Celsius and set a timer to remind you to turn it back up to normal after it's frozen
8. Separate chops steaks etc. with grease-proof paper so that they can be separated easily when thawing
9. Freezing in original packages – over-wrap them to prevent the air getting in
10. Trim off excess fat – fat has a much shorter freezer life compared to lean meat
11. Joints of meat like beef, lamb, pork or veal should be stored in heavy-duty polythene bags and tightly over-wrapped with cling film, ensuring that no air can enter nor any moisture escape.
12. Labelling – always label your meat with the type, portion and "freeze-until" date (it works better than "date-frozen")
13. Refreezing – cooked food is OK but never refreeze thawed raw meat

GUIDELINE TO FREEZING DIFFERENT TYPES OF MEAT

Type of Meat	Maximum Storage –18°C (0 °F)
Beef joints and steaks	8 to 12 months
Minced beef	3 months
Joints of pork (shoulder, leg etc)	4 to 8 months
Pork chops	3 to 4 months
Bacon	1 month
Lamb chops	3 to 4 months
Joints of lamb (shoulder, leg etc)	6 to 9 months
Minced or cubed lamb	3 to 4 months
Meat pies	1 to 2 months
Sausages	1 to 2 months

source: Cookuk

DEFROSTING

• Best practice – defrost at the bottom of the fridge on a plate or tray to catch the juices
• Under cold running water – use a sealed container for your raw meat and poultry (including large joints and whole birds)
• Room temperature – you could defrost food at room temperature but follow the manufacturer's defrosting instructions. Food should be left out at room temperature for the shortest time possible

REFRIGERATION STORAGE

• A part from bacon, meat needs circulating air in the fridge so as not to spoil, so it's best to remove meat from its packaging once you get it home
• Store different meats separately
• You can store meat stored on a plate at the bottom of the fridge but not touching any other food

Refrigerator

Max storage 1-4 °C (33.8F – 39.2F)

Sausages, mince, diced meat, chicken pieces, beef and pork ribs

approximately 2 days

Whole chicken, steaks, roasts (boned and rolled)

More Guides

jeansusenter.blogspot.com

Source: https://michelpoudrier.com/beef/1400-can-you-freeze-beef-fat-trims.html

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