Refreezing
My Mom always told me that once you thaw meat that you had in the freezer, you can't freeze it again.
Is this true? Does anybody out there refreeze meat?
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6 Comments:
I have refrozen meat. It has to be real fresh or I will not.
Example I get meat from the store I bring it home and Husband being mr helpy helperton puts it in the freezer before I can seperate it and repackage it. I drag it out of the freezer thaw it then repackage it and back it goes to the freezer.
If it has been in your fridge more than 3 days sadly no throw it out or cook it and freeze that.
JerzeeTomato at 6:27PM on 08/06/08
as far as a health aspect, i dont think there's anything wrong with refreezing meat.....once......when you freeze meat,any water present in the meat crystallizes,and runs out when it's defrosted. i dont think anything thats more perishable,like fish,would refreeze well,but i have no problem with beef,pork or chicken.One thing to note,any store bought smoked meat has a lot of water pumped into it,and if you freeze it an thaw it out it tends to look like a sponge.safe to eat but rather yucky to look at.....hope this helps
http://www.mattthebutcher.com/
onepercent99 at 6:29PM on 08/06/08
Thanks, JerzeeTomato. You said you can cook the thawed meat and freeze that. I'd never thought of doing that. Does the cooking before freezing make a difference? Is there a health issue involved?
minstrel at 6:31PM on 08/06/08
I think that if its cooked your bases are covered because you are going to reheat when you get it back out. I think you will be fine if you cook it to the proper temp and then let it get room temp and repackage and freeze.
JerzeeTomato at 8:46PM on 08/06/08
Freezing and thawing and freezing again will cause a loss of texture, but it's not going to poison you. If the meat got to room temperature and sat there a while, that might be a problem as far as spoilage (depends on how long the "while" was) but if it just thawed and you refroze it, it's not like you're getting to temps where spoilage is an issue.
As far as texture, it kind of depends on what the meat is, and what you plan on doing with it. A nice steak or roast isn't going to be as nice after you torture it like that, but if you're talking about ground meat that you're going to make spaghetti sauce out of, the burst cell walls aren't going to be so noticeable.
dbcurrie at 12:06AM on 08/07/08
Ditto on braised meats and stews. Sometimes they taste better.
bessfour at 5:04PM on 08/07/08