Frozen beef and pork

[Bart Bevins]

A neighbor of ours recently passed away. Her relatives brought us most of the unopened goods from her pantry. Then they brought us 3 boxes of frozen beef and this is where I need some help. There is a large selction of steaks, roasts, hamburger, pork chops, and five whole chickens. Most of the meat is undated. There are several packages of excellent steaks still in the original packages with very old "sell by dates" (i.e. 5-6 years old). Everything looks good.

I need to know how I can tell if this frozen meat is still good? Will cooking this meat destroy any harmful bacteria and any other bad guys?

Please send me email: bartbevins@charter.net

Thanks for the help.

 

[auntdot]

The safe answer is toss the stuff.

My knee jerk reaction, as a child whose parents lived through the Great Depression and who was raised not to waste food, would be to try it.

But you do not know if this was ever defrosted and refrozen, i.e. you have no history about this meat.

It is probably fine but I would not feel comfortable eating it.

Our rule is if you have any doubt, toss it out.

Could you enjoy eating stuff that you think might harm you?

Just my take.

 

[Gretchen]

I would thaw and take a whiff. The quality might not be great but there would certainly be stews to be made. AND if the packages don't have freezer burn, which would sort of surprise me if packages are the original supermarket packing, try to use it--if it suits you to do so.
Cook the stuff well. The chickens could certainly make some wonderful stock and then pot pies.

 

[sparrowgrass]

As long as they weren't totally thawed and then refrozen after warming up, they won't hurt you, but I doubt very much that they would taste good.

My mother cooked some steaks out of the bottom of her freezer that were 3 or 4 years old--they tasted like old fish.

Do you have a dog? A dog would love them.

 

[jkath]

Bart, I'd have to go with auntdot on this one. I'd rather dispose of the meat, and know I wasn't going to be potentially making myself sick.

 

[shpj4]

Welcome to DC. I would probably throw away the meat because you have no idea how long it has been in the freezer.

Better be safe than wrong.