Meat storage/freezing?


 
Ed P said:
This is the freezer alarm I have, also an AcuRite, for comparison. I don't know which one is better.


Notice the fine print:
Lithium batteries are recommended for use in sensors for temperatures below 4 degrees Fahrenheit (-20 degrees Celsius).
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That's the model I just bought for the chest freezer I just bought.
IMG_20220710_103935099.jpg
After 45+/- years our 19 cubic foot upright was finally retired two years ago when we downsized and moved into a house with no space for it. The garage wouldn't accommodate the swinging door of an upright. I would have had to back one of the cars out every time I wanted to open the freezer. I really missed being able to buy in bulk when meats were on sale, cook 2-3 butts at a time and vacuum seal pulled pork, etc. The chest freezer is much smaller but there are only two of us now.
 
MartinB said:
The manual has a big buildup of ice on the inside of it..... Of course you can't get to your food until that stuff melts.
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Oh okay. But see, that's the thing - that means you haven't been doing the manual defrosting, which was my initial concern. :giggle:
 
BFletcher said:
If only you had shared this a couple years ago, lol. I get a tear in my eye when I think about the last few remaining pounds of 80/20 ground beef in our freezer at $1.99/lb.
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This has been a way of life for all my adulthood.

My Dad was a child in the Great Depression. He said they were already so poor that they didnt notice any difference. But he drilled into us that we should always plan ahead for emergencies, as much as we are able.
Could be something like Covid, Y2K, a tornado, a job loss - or even just a large unexpected expense.
When you have backup resources, it' s a little easier to weather storms like that. It also puts you in a better position to help others who may have hit a rough patch.

I want to be clear though - I'm talking about buying a few extra supplies on shopping day, or stocking up when there's a good sale. This does NOT mean running out to hoard things when there is already a shortage.
What I'm talking about is prudence. That is just greed and selfishness.

Anyway, i apologize for the sermon; guess I'm feeling a bit nostalgic.
And FTR, there was never any risk of me running out of TP. LOL :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 
Brenda T said:
This has been a way of life for all my adulthood.

My Dad was a child in the Great Depression. He said they were already so poor that they didnt notice any difference. But he drilled into us that we should always plan ahead for emergencies, as much as we are able.
Could be something like Covid, Y2K, a tornado, a job loss - or even just a large unexpected expense.
When you have backup resources, it' s a little easier to weather storms like that. It also puts you in a better position to help others who may have hit a rough patch.

I want to be clear though - I'm talking about buying a few extra supplies on shopping day, or stocking up when there's a good sale. This does NOT mean running out to hoard things when there is already a shortage.
What I'm talking about is prudence. That is just greed and selfishness.

Anyway, i apologize for the sermon; guess I'm feeling a bit nostalgic.
And FTR, there was never any risk of me running out of TP. LOL :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
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Beautifully written and very meaningful insight, Brenda. Thanks for sharing this.
 
I added those thermos to my Amazon List. I thought too I saw a while back a type that can alert your phone of a problem as well. Maybe I imagined it. Plus if you were away what would the alert do for you? I guess warn you what you were coming home too :D
 
We use these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B085HTZRRR/?tag=tvwb-20

The setup isn't inexpensive because you also need a hub and we also have their water leak sensors throughout the house (and even a couple wall outlet switches) but they do have good value.

You can receive alerts either through the hub and/or your phone.

And last night given the recommendation above I ordered lithium AAA batteries to try in the freezers since all of them are dead :)
 
LMichaels said:
Word of caution. Do not try this if you have a frost free or self defrost freezer. The constant defrost cycles cause really bad issues. It will actually cause vacuum sealed packages to unseal and be ruined as well.
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I’ve never had this happen. I have (use) a defrosting freezer and I’ve ate meat that I vacuumed sealed and been in the freezer more years than I could remember. I think I’ve had frozen steak that was at least three years old. I’ve also had pork butts that were bought in a vacuum sealed bag that were even older than that. I’m no connoisseur, but I didn’t notice any problem with those meats. I think if the seal holds, which mine have, you’re good.
 
It's like anything else. There will always be exceptions to something. We all know for instance the hazards of smoking. But, we've all heard of the person who smoked straight camels ate a lb of bacon daily and lived to 98 yo without so much as a cold. It doesn't mean we should all start smoking and eating a lb of bacon daily. I simply advised as my own personal research showed and my own personal experience. Since no using a the frost free freezer in our large fridge (I would never use the little top freezer in our basement fridge as top mount ones have really wide swings), I have not had a single package of anything we've frozen or someone else has go bad on us. Which follows what my own detailed research showed prior to us buying our freezer. YMMV
 
Brenda T said:
This has been a way of life for all my adulthood.

My Dad was a child in the Great Depression. He said they were already so poor that they didnt notice any difference. But he drilled into us that we should always plan ahead for emergencies, as much as we are able.
Could be something like Covid, Y2K, a tornado, a job loss - or even just a large unexpected expense.
When you have backup resources, it' s a little easier to weather storms like that. It also puts you in a better position to help others who may have hit a rough patch.

I want to be clear though - I'm talking about buying a few extra supplies on shopping day, or stocking up when there's a good sale. This does NOT mean running out to hoard things when there is already a shortage.
What I'm talking about is prudence. That is just greed and selfishness.

Anyway, i apologize for the sermon; guess I'm feeling a bit nostalgic.
And FTR, there was never any risk of me running out of TP. LOL :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
Click to expand...
I agree with the sentiment but I would say COVID and Y2K were both pretty much big nothing burgers as far as food supply went. Maybe not the best examples, at least here . Toilet paper and cleaning products were a different story 😅.
I am quite used to being without power etc for up to two weeks at a time after hurricanes, so we typically have a fully stocked freezer with enough food in it for about a month really for me and my wife. And counting the gas that's in our vehicles and in my boat I've got enough gas to keep the small generator at my house running for a couple of weeks. It powers a few lights, 2 window unit ACs,. And the refrigerator and freezer continuously. Then we can use a microwave or toaster oven as needed.
 
MartinB said:
I agree with the sentiment but I would say COVID and Y2K were both pretty much big nothing burgers as far as food supply went. Maybe not the best examples, at least here . Toilet paper and cleaning products were a different story 😅.
I am quite used to being without power etc for up to two weeks at a time after hurricanes, so we typically have a fully stocked freezer with enough food in it for about a month really for me and my wife. And counting the gas that's in our vehicles and in my boat I've got enough gas to keep the small generator at my house running for a couple of weeks. It powers a few lights, 2 window unit ACs,. And the refrigerator and freezer continuously. Then we can use a microwave or toaster oven as needed.
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Well, I wasn't talking specifically about food - just everything in general that might be needed. And certainly Y2K was a nothing burger -thank goodness! But in my book, being prepared for possibilities that don't actually happen is not a failure. I'd compare it to insurance -we hope we never need it, but most of us have it.

If nothing else, I think Covid taught us that we really don't know what to expect. Who would have ever guessed that toilet paper would
be the item people were fighting over? 🤪 It doesn't affect me, but I imagine the young parents who couldn't find the formula they need would
consider that a pretty big deal.

Living in Tornado Alley, I have a little bit of experience with outages, which is why I finally broke down and got a whole house generator.
Then during the last winter storm they started talking about rolling outages for natural gas, right along with the electricity.
Dang, we just can't win!
So instead of selling it, I just kept my 10K portable generator, and I'm keeping my gas cans full. This may seem like overkill, but I'd rather have
it and not need it, than the opposite. I also have a few people that I am concerned about, so I want to be able to help them too.

But maybe this is your point :sneaky: - and you are correct - I think Tim started this thread, just wanting references for where to buy good meat in bulk, and we - well, "I" - took it off on a wild tangent. Sorry about that, this probably isn't very interesting to most. I get carried away some times, but I'll try to stay on topic, like everyone else does. 😁
Signed, One of Aesop's Ants (10 points if you get the reference without looking it up.)
 
I think tough times brings out the best and the worst in people. The people that profiteer from shortages are among the worst. But we are way off-topic here...
 
I thought we were doing moderately okay on this thread so far, lol. It makes sense to me that the topic of buying bulk food can spawn a discussion on storage (freezers), food sealers, temp monitors, preparedness for hard times and potential emergencies and catastrophic events.

Not one time have we talked about automobile painters or prescription eyewear :p
 
Lots of good ideas posted.
We have 2 garage freezers.
One is a medium size upright the other is a large upright.

Here is what we do.

We buy bulk meat or value packs when it’s on sale.
I will look through the mail spam to see if there any sales.
Normally we stock up on major holiday sales.
Just about all stores have a good price on at least one item on the 4th of July or whatever so we will shop several stores.
We then portion the meat out with the food saver.
We would like to use a small butcher shop but we just can’t afford it.
They are nice but just out of my price range.

We vacuum pack a wide variety of meats and odd ball stuff like clams and crabs.
Any item that is wet we might toss in a napkin to keep the juices inside the bag.
Any item that has sharp pointy edges gets a trim, meaning we trim and cut off the finger tips of crabs and points around their claws.
We will also use paper plates to protect crabs or what ever has points from puncturing our bags.
We keep 40-50 crab in the freezer to last during the off season and because my mom is a mooch :).

I won’t buy a horizontal freezer because they hide food for me.
One of my freezer is frost free and the other isn’.
I like the frost free best.
Our medium sized freezer is not frost free.
For one reason or another it has a tendency for not shutting properly.
I use a couple of bungies now to properly secure the door and that problem has been eliminate.
 
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I'm happy with my chest freezer, and someone had a tip to use cloth shopping bags to organize, and its a great idea. I need to pickup a couple more.

I've had mine for six months and there is almost no frost buildup. It may because my garage is really dry. It may because everything going in is "factory sealed" or vacuum sealed by me, and usually I add food to the chest freezer that has already been frozen in my side-by-side.
 
Brenda T said:
Living in Tornado Alley, I have a little bit of experience with outages, which is why I finally broke down and got a whole house generator.
Then during the last winter storm they started talking about rolling outages for natural gas, right along with the electricity.
Dang, we just can't win!
So instead of selling it, I just kept my 10K portable generator, and I'm keeping my gas cans full. This may seem like overkill, but I'd rather have
it and not need it, than the opposite. I also have a few people that I am concerned about, so I want to be able to help them too.
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Some guy gave me my portable generator because he bought a bigger/better one. Foolish of him not to keep it and I kind of feel bad that I took it. Especially because you can refill the gas tank when its cool if you have two generators.

Stabilize your gasoline and dump it your car from time to time. Buy lots of extra oil. Extra spark plugs. A spare carberateur (spelling?) would not be overkill. Make sure to fire up the generators occasionally. No such thing as too much power in an emergency.
 
Scott Smith said:
Some guy gave me my portable generator because he bought a bigger/better one. Foolish of him not to keep it and I kind of feel bad that I took it. Especially because you can refill the gas tank when its cool if you have two generators.

Stabilize your gasoline and dump it your car from time to time. Buy lots of extra oil. Extra spark plugs. A spare carberateur (spelling?) would not be overkill. Make sure to fire up the generators occasionally. No such thing as too much power in an emergency.
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Yep, yep I've considered buying stock in StaBil LOL
That's exactly what I do, when I refesh the gas cans, the older stuff goes in my old truck. The backup genny runs itself once a week and I fire up the portable every couple months.
The portable has a push button start, so I keep a trickle charger on it. I was looking forward to freeing up that space in the shed. But that is money already spent, so...
And I can always loan it out if I dont need it.
 
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