How long does meat last in freezer?


 
H

Howard V

TVWBB Member
I had a cookout for friends in the past weekend.....over brought some meat that never made to the smoker.....tossed them in freezer....two extra rack of spare ribs and 1 pork butt

The rib racks were taken out of original packaging...I trimmed membrane off and placed in plastic bag in freezer

Pork butt is in the original plastic cypvo wrap from Costco. Just tossed that in freezer unopened.

How long does meat last in freezer? Can I smoked them a few weeks from now or better to smoke them next weekend?
 
A few weeks should be no problem; cryovac will last much longer. IMO the fat on the meat will pick up flavors/odors over time and pretty quickly if not completely sealed. But a few weeks should be fine.
 
I use a food saver and I'll guarantee I've use year old meat without a problem. In a zip loc, I wouldn't expect more than 4 weeks before it starts to freezer burn.
 
Phil; which Foodsaver do you have? The 3880 at Costco has my eye, but I'm waiting for them to go on sale. They are $150 today.
 
A vacuum sealed bag and a deep freeze and you are golden. Found a single slab buried from last summer and couldn't tell a difference. A ziplock bag and the fridge freezer I wouldn't touch. Freezer burn comes from a frost free freezer
 
My freezer goes to -10 and meat lasts almost forever. I've had cooked bbq over a year old which was great.
 
The key is to protect the meat from air, ie vac seal. If you don't have wrap in plastic wrap, foil and butcher paper being sure to extrude as much air as possible with each step.
 
One more vote for Food saver here. The cost of the machine is way offset by the results. Also, I would have rubbed the ribs before freezing. My usual routine is to prep ribs the night before, apply my rub, place two racks stacked in a Food saver bag and refridgerate over night.
Brett
 
My rules of thumb goes like this:
If it's in the original cryovac and the vacuum is intact, freeze as-is and it will last for months.
If the cryovac was/is broken then unpack and re-vac it in the Food-Saver, freeze and good for months.
Freezing meat 'in the open' is a big no-no. Zip-Lock is the same as 'open' (in my opinion). The only time I ever put 'open' meat in the freezer is to firm it up before slicing (jerky).

I love my FoodSaver. I've gone as long as a year with frozen meat and so far I haven't lost anything. I ended up buying the V3240 as it had the features that I wanted and it is NOT automatic. All the reviews I read were very mixed for the automatic models, but the manual model reviews were heavily positive. Buy the rolls off E-Bay, much cheaper than the stores. I never buy the pre-formed bags.

Russ
 
We have a Food Saver, also. Costco had a good price on it. However, Menard's has the best price I have found on the bags and rolls.

A number of years ago, a hunting friend of mine gave me several packages of vacuum packed (commercially) Antelope he had taken. The Antelope was tasty but we "lost" a package in the freezer. We found it a couple of years later (the packages were date marked), and I thought "What the hey!" worth trying. The meat was just fine. The processor (in the area where he had taken the Antelope in Wyoming) had told him that vacuum packed meat was good for several years in the freezer. Well, I personally would NOT recommend that meat be kept frozen for over six months or so, but the fact remains it was good after a couple of years... It sure is a vote for the practicality of Vacuum packing.

FWIW
Dale53
 
My rules are that pork with lots of fat should not be more than a couple of months since it is the fat that is the problem. I have had lean moose for at least three years with frost burn of course but I cut it off and smell the meat before cooking. I have not used vacuum for the meat yet but I recently bought a small one.
 
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