<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Dave from Denver:
How bad would it be from a food safety perspective to vacuum-seal a whole pastrami and ship it overnight?
Should I try freezing it first? Would this compromise the texture of the pastrami? Has anyone tried this?
Sliced pastrami that has been frozen and thawed can take on a slightly unpleasant texture, in my experience </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
I've done this just about a month and a half ago. I have a friend in Richmond, VA who had never tried summer sausage. We can't have that. I took a soft sided cooler (with a hard plastic insert) and packed the vacuum sealed, unfrozen sausages with as many of those Rubbermaid blue ice substitute packages as I could fit. Closed up the cooler and packed it in a slightly larger box. I waited until the end of the day to take to Fed Ex (around 7 PM as 8 PM is the cutoff for next day at the local Fed Ex depot). I shipped next day for 10 AM delivery to my friend's office in Richmond. He got it the next morning, advised it was still cold, and kept the whole cooler in his breakroom refrigerator until he went home that evening.
I did not freeze the sausage simply because I was sending him 6-7 sticks and wanted him to be able to have the option of freezing it. If I hadn't known he had a fridge at work and was not able to minimize shipping time, I would have never done this without dry ice.
