Long-Term Freezer Preservation of Cooked Ribs


 
Clint

Clint

TVWBB Olympian
How do people freeze their ribs? I've had this issue before, but how do you prep the cooked ribs for the foodsaver?

I've had to re-bag 2 of 5 racks and now they're holding airtight - one I had to re-bag twice. Wrap with saran wrap & then into the freezer bag? Double foodsaver bags seem too thick, and I'm not sure I'd like to wrap with foil.

Do I just need to buy thicker foodsaver bags? Do I need to stick with a name brand?
 
Ribs is hard. They have sharp edges and often puncture the bags. I don’t have a Foodsaver that will do this, but if you could dial down the suction pressure, that may work. I think I can do a manual seal which would allow me to stop the suction and start sealing manually, but that would seem to be a crap shoot as to whether or not you could release it soon enough. A pressure (suction) gauge would seem like it would work better.
 
I like that idea Jerry, but then I also love the look of the ribs in full suction in the plastic and think that's better, especially with longer-term storage in mind.

I'm sure a thicker bag like cryovac would work, or have a lot of extra sauce in the bag so it wasn't so tight, but that's not what I'm going for.

Many years ago I worked with composites....all kinds of cool stuff. We'd wind it on mandrels or lay it out in panels, then wrap it with thin plastic called pin-prick (aerated thin plastic sheet), then some sort of poly cloth called "monkey fur", then seal with rubberized sticky strip (don't remember the name), & then vac bag it..... a failed vacuum seal meant an expensive piece of garbage (heli blades, robotic arms, aerospace panels....they also built F1 cars :) ) to lean against the wall. Nobody would scold but we were careful.

If no one has a better idea I'll give it a couple wraps in saran wrap & see how that works.
 
Clint said:
I like that idea Jerry, but then I also love the look of the ribs in full suction in the plastic and think that's better, especially with longer-term storage in mind.


If no one has a better idea I'll give it a couple wraps in saran wrap & see how that works.
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I wasn’t thinking of not giving it full contact, I just think a little less than full suction at the end will keep the ribs from breaking through.

The saran wrap may work as well. Let us know how it goes.
 
I'll try both ways! Thanks for the clarification, I know how to do what you're suggesting (just press seal when it looks good). I've been hitting it until the juices run to the heat-sealed strip, giving it maximum pressure against the bones.
 
Best way is to simply eat them not freeze them LOL. We have a food saver. Paid lots of $$$$ for it. Really disappointing. Seals never lasted, no matter what you tried to freeze. Once the seal broke (and unless you looked in the freezer daily you didn't know) you'd go to make or warm the food you THOUGHT you "saved" and it was freezer burned and disgusting.
Here is a better trick IMO. Use whatever size Hefty Freezer bags you need, fill your sink with cold water. Now put your food into the bag but don't seal the top fully. Put the bag into the sink and the water will force out all the air and make the bag conform to whatever is in it. While holding the lip just above the water line, seal the bag. Works better than Food Saver IMO
 
I use that method for short term freezing. Of course method one works best - eat them :)
 
I have never frozen ribs but if the bone is the issue then--along with trying a thicker bag as you suggest--would it possibly help to fold moistened paper towels on either edge of the ribs before sealing?
 
BFletcher said:
I have never frozen ribs but if the bone is the issue then--along with trying a thicker bag as you suggest--would it possibly help to fold moistened paper towels on either edge of the ribs before sealing?
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maybe 2-3 layers of foil to just cover the bones.......or wax paper? I only have that pink butcher paper people use in the smoker. I don't think anything absorbent would be a good idea, I'd hate to have it stick.

I'm sure I've posted it here before but I was leaving my grandma's house back in 2001-2003, my uncle called & asked her to give me a box of elk meat from the freezer. Loved it. I found some ~3 years (maybe 5-6 years) later in my freezer and it had no freezer burn whatsoever. It was wrapped cleanly/tight in (iirc) a non-stretch clear plastic, & then in the typical butcher paper (the butcher paper was not air tight).

I found the last little package in the freezer and didn't know what to expect, but it looked & tasted as good as I remembered the rest.

I have a lifetime supply (2 big rolls) of ATK's top 2 saran wraps...that seems like the best option so far.
 
I'm sure you're right; I just took that tip of a paper towel from one of their operating manuals.
 
I think too like in the case of the Elk meat a lot of quality of preservation has to do with A, just how cold the freezer is and how stable and B, Frost free or not frost free. Frost free freezers while convenient are not all that stable due to the defrost cycle that takes place. The internal temp can vary by over 20 degrees. Especially true in fridge freezer combos because the freezer is opened/closed a lot allowing extra moisture inside and causing even further fluctuations in temps. The best is a deep chest style old fashioned freezer. They keep things colder and more stable.
 
I have a frost free stand up freezer and it works perfectly. I recently took a two bone roast out to cook that had been in the freezer 15 months and was fine, just like the day I put it in. We've had lots of things in there that were close to a year old and were fine also.
I do vacuum seal everything that goes in the freezer. One thing I always do is things like chicken and beef steak, roasts is to place them on a cookie sheet and put them in the inside freezer for an hour to pre freeze them some so I don't get ligiid in the seam when I vacuum pack them. Doing that has completely eliminated failed seams.
 
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I've found the limit in my freezer seems to be 2 years with vacuum sealed stuff. Up to that point everything seems fine. It's chest type freezer that's out in the garage though.
 
Yea, I used to buy moos and oinks regularly from a family farm. Meat locker just wrapped the cuts in a thick plastic wrap and white freezer paper.
My old freezer in the garage had to be defrosted every spring, but I never had any freezer burn on any cut and some were over a year some two or more.
That freezer finally died and I bought a new one that is supposedly garage ready. ( My garage is unattached) I bought a half oink and about 70# of sausages wrapped the same way, and hopefully I won't get any freezer burn.

Tim
 
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