Freezing good cuts of meat

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I buy Smith's hot dogs by bulk. They come still linked together and are numerous, but I never counted them or bothered looking at the lbs. I have to eat two or three to be able to get them all in the canister, so they take up the space quite nicely and are more than just a couple of hot dogs in a large void. Of course the space in the canister grows as I take out what I need, but they are usually suffering freezer burn by then.
I also tried using the canister to keep them in the refrigerator, in hopes they would not slime up on me. No go. The vacuum bags work better at both hands down.

I didn't know you were not supposed to freeze the canisters, but I did read they were not dishwasher safe and have heeded that. Everytime I have opened them the air has whoosed in, so I do not think the seal has been bad, just that they don't work as well for keeping hot dogs fresh or frozen.

Personally speaking, I would wrap a $14.00 steak in plastic wrap and freeze it before I would use a canister.
I can't speak for the hippie lettuce :LOL:
 
Lucky for me I live right down the street from a butcher. If it is a great cut I buy it there and then eat it that night. I have also frozen fairly good cuts before with no problem. In the colder months I like to have a stash in the freezer of anything I may want to eat without running out. Having said that, those are the meats that I would buy at the regular market.
 
Hmmm, there's space in the lid above the rim of the canister, plus air space in the food itself (other than liquid) so I've never experienced a lack of ability to pull a vacuum to seal the lid.

but the point being made was in the alleged storage of some hot dogs, allowing exposure to air more so than a bag sealed up against the dogs; a complaint by the original poster.
 
The canisters are voided of air though so unless there is a leak, the dogs should not spoil any more than they do in the bags. I have stored dogs in the canisters for a long long long long time without any problems.
 
Let's back this up to Andy's post;
He said he has good luck wrapping his food in plastic wrap and then putting in a ziploc.
I have tried the ziplocs alone, especially when they were pushing the freezer bags when they first came out, also squeezing the excess air out, but that didn't seem to work very well for long term storage. Certainly not as good as butcher paper.
I'm still thinking there is something to having the layer of protection tightly pressing on your food, like you get with the bags.
 
When I use my HandiVac bags, I first wrap my meats in Reynolds Press 'n' Seal, then I remove all the air from the vac bag. Freeze.

When I'm ready to use the food out of the bag, I take out the plastic-wrapped frozen mass and place in a standard zipper-lock bag to thaw. The HandiVac bag rarely gets any food juices on it, but I wash them with hot soapy water any. They seem to last quite a while this way.

Also, wrapping bony meats in the plastic wrap first helps too prevent the bones from abrading the bag, which would keep the vacuum seal from forming/staying.
 
I was under the impression that improper defrosting would degrade the quality of frozen foods even more than the method of storage. For example,a frozen fish left out on a counter to defrost leaves a water mess vs a slow defrost in the frig which leaves the fish nice and firm. Or is that the result of improper freezing? Would someone please elaborate?
 
Quality is the least of your issues if you leave fish on the counter to defrost. I would be much more concerned with food poisoning than quality. That is just simply not safe.
 
Quality is the least of your issues if you leave fish on the counter to defrost. I would be much more concerned with food poisoning than quality. That is just simply not safe.

I have to go along with this one. Leaving food on the counter to defrost is just begging for trouble. While the inside of the food is still frozen or partially frozen , the outside has already thawed and is beginning a life of it's own. Not good. By the time the whole mass is defrosted you've got some nasty stuff going on. I always defrost in the fridge. I always know what I'm having for dinner tomorrow so I take out whatever I need from the freezer the day before.

As for Food Saver cannisters, these are supposed to be use for dry ingredients like cookies, bread crumbs, cereal, nuts etc. not for freezing or keeping meats. That what the bags are for and the bags take up far less room in the freezer. I think the cannisters are a pain because when I need something in the cannister, I have to take the air out, then re-vacuum it. I go through those dry ingredients too fast to worry about spoilage.

The potato ricer? ?? That's on a pedestal along with the Food Saver for things I can't do without. The ricer has been one of the most useful gadgets I own. I'm always finding uses for it.
 
Woo, I don't dare leave food out on the counter to thaw. Especially fish.
I have five cats and it's simply a matter of survival here.
LOL!
I always thaw in the fridge, unless it's a last-minute thing with hamburger and then I use the microwave.
Purrs,
Joyce
 
So obviously you can freeze meat and let it thaw etc.

But what about good cuts of meat like ribeye etc, is it going to affect the quality too much freezing it and leaving it for say a month in the freezer before thawing it out and cooking it.

Will it likely be tougher?

Or would it just be better to go out on the day and buy these nice meats, and leave the freezing to chops etc.

Hi Knight,
To my way of thinking the answer is Yes, Yes and No.

Meat and meat fibres contain water which on freezing expand and may cause the fibres to rupture and leach liquid when thawed. Irrespective of how carefully you package the meat, cells will be ruptured and from these, as the meat thaws, liquid will be rendered and lost and this has the potential to cause the meat to be less tender when cooked after thawing as it becomes dry due to the loss of inherent liquid. However. cooking meats like ribeye on a VERY hot griddle which seals the meat, very quickly on both sides, and prevents any further loss of liquid, and allowing sufficient resting time between cooking and serving will mitigate against this.

Hope this helps,
Archiduc
 
I am sorry archiduc, but cooking meat on a hot surface does not seal meat and prevent loss of liquid. That is an old wives tale. Cooking meat will cause liquid to come out not matter what you do.
 
Yep, GB is right. The old saying that "searing meat seals in juices" is a myth. Harold McGee in his book The Curious Cook demonstrated this back in 1990 when he put the "theory" to the test, scientifically. In short - if you sear a steak and put it in the oven to finish cooking ... it looses more moisture than if you just stick the same cut of meat into the oven to cook. Frozen or fresh - the amount of moisture loss is more a matter of how "overcooked" the meat (the more you cook it - the more moisture you will lose). Alton Brown demonstrated this in his Food Network episode, Myth Smashers, in 2005.

McGee also gives a great explanation, in relatively simple terms, about what causes meat to get tough and dry out in cooking - the way the muscle proteins shrink (length and diameter) in his book, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen (Revised Edition).

What searing does do is create a surface texture and flavors through Maillard Browning Reactios that you would not have without it.

The amount of moisture loss caused by ice crystals puncturing muscle fibers can be offset by proper cooking.
 
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I have to say, I have always wondered about the searing of meat on both sides to seal in the moisture, why wouldnt the moisture just escape from the sides of the meat that you don't sear.

I have wrapped 3 scotch fillets in cling wrap and put them into a freezer bag and frozen them. Next week, I will thaw them out in the fridge for a day or so and cook them up, will post my experience in here afterwards.
 
I have taken the scotch fillet out of the freezer and had them in the fridge defrosting now for a day and a half or so.

I will cook them up tonight and let you know my thoughts on freshness.
 
So they defrosted nicely with no freezer burn. In fact I think you would be hard pressed to pick these from fresh meat that has not been frozen.

They cooked up nicely to a medium rare, very moist and tender. Seared on both sides, popped in very hot oven for 8 minutes.

Just to recap I wrapped them in cling wrap with no air, put these into a freezer bag and then into freezer as suggested by someone above.
 
Vaccuum sealing is wonderful. We try to buy on sale- seal and freeze the same day and we have never had a bad piece of meat, fish or fowl.
 
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