Until it gets freezer burnt.
What all is in your freezer(s)?
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pepperhead212
Executive Chef
Depends on how well it's wrapped, and how cold it's kept. When vacuum sealed, it's incredible how long things store!
Andy M.
Certified Pretend Chef
Just so happens I made a pot roast earlier this week with a 4-pound boneless chuck roast. According to the date I had written on the package, It had been in the freezer for over 4 years (October 2019). Not a spot of freezer burn. It was/is delicious.
It can last a couple of years, if it is well vacuum packed.
Edited to add, as Pepperhead wrote, it also depends on the temperature.
Just remembered the scallops I had that were several years old. There was just the tiniest bit of burn on them - cut off tiny bit and they were absolutely delicious!
Which brings to mind another question I've had for many years. Many people have freezers in their unheated garages, attached to the house.
But what about outside in a free standing shed?
Now here, where I live, we might get lots of snow but rarely super cold weather as I often did on the farm. How would a freezer fair?
But what about outside in a free standing shed?
Now here, where I live, we might get lots of snow but rarely super cold weather as I often did on the farm. How would a freezer fair?
OP
OP
rodentraiser
Head Chef
Hardy har har. I knew that from experience. LOL
OP
OP
rodentraiser
Head Chef
Wait. How could it depend on how cold it gets? Freezing is freezing, isn't it?
All I have are freezer bags, no way to vacuum seal anything. So something tells me I better eat those pork chops first.
All I have are freezer bags, no way to vacuum seal anything. So something tells me I better eat those pork chops first.
Freezing at just below 32°F will not do as good a job as freezing at 0°F, which is the approximate temperature of most deep freezers.
As to the vacuum sealing, you can do a pretty good job of that without a vacuum sealer. Put the food in your zipper bag and close it all but the last inch or so. Then, immerse the bag slowly into water to very close to the top, so the water squishes out almost all of the air. Then, squeeze as much air as possible out of the last little bit that has air, using your fingers and close the last bit of the zipper. It won't be exactly vacuum sealed, but pretty close. Lots of people use that method for sous-vide cooking.
A friend of mine lived in Quebec, but she was from rural Maine. She told me that the local (in Maine) power co-op had done some informal studies of that. Lots of people in Maine keep their freezer on the front porch in winter. According to those informal studies, they saved electricity by doing that.
My refrigerator freezer begin making a loud running noise the same day my Prius broke down last June and so I quit adding stuff to the freezer, assuming it was about to croak. But then I got through the summer and it still hasn't croaked but it's still making a lot of noise like it should be croaking, so I said what the hell and stocked up a little.
My new thing with chicken is I like to go to Sam's and buy a package of breasts and then the containers of roast chicken breasts that they only have in the morning usually and then I shred the latter up into two cup portions and I've got chicken in the freezer for casseroles that way. Very handy to have.
I'm frustrated with the size of the chicken breasts. The way I did it this week worked out as well as any for my baked chicken and I just got two of those enormous breasts out of the freezer and I cut them vertically for baking rather than laterally or horizontally which is what I used to do. I think I like this best. Someone suggested using tenders instead and I might try that.
And then I buy ground beef on sale and divide that up into 1 lb and sometimes half pound for spaghetti and then also keep half pound baggies of Italian sweet sausage to use with the ground beef for spaghetti. I put everything in baggies and I flatten it out to aid with defrosting.
I keep the bulk of my butter in the freezer and I have a bin of vegetables such as those little peppers or some steamables. I have a whole bin of shredded cheese in the freezer. And I keep flour in there because I don't use it up quickly enough, and I hate that because I have all these beautiful glass canisters to put it in but it won't keep.
And I try to keep a couple of frozen pizzas in there.
My new thing with chicken is I like to go to Sam's and buy a package of breasts and then the containers of roast chicken breasts that they only have in the morning usually and then I shred the latter up into two cup portions and I've got chicken in the freezer for casseroles that way. Very handy to have.
I'm frustrated with the size of the chicken breasts. The way I did it this week worked out as well as any for my baked chicken and I just got two of those enormous breasts out of the freezer and I cut them vertically for baking rather than laterally or horizontally which is what I used to do. I think I like this best. Someone suggested using tenders instead and I might try that.
And then I buy ground beef on sale and divide that up into 1 lb and sometimes half pound for spaghetti and then also keep half pound baggies of Italian sweet sausage to use with the ground beef for spaghetti. I put everything in baggies and I flatten it out to aid with defrosting.
I keep the bulk of my butter in the freezer and I have a bin of vegetables such as those little peppers or some steamables. I have a whole bin of shredded cheese in the freezer. And I keep flour in there because I don't use it up quickly enough, and I hate that because I have all these beautiful glass canisters to put it in but it won't keep.
And I try to keep a couple of frozen pizzas in there.
blissful
Master Chef
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2008
- Messages
- 6,361
We don't eat meat anymore but I bet some of you stock up when you have the chance. In 2012 we ordered half a beef from a farmer, that brought it to the butcher for us. We ordered the type of cuts we wanted, and picked them up wrapped and frozen. This is how the freezer looked at that point, just 1/2 of beef and ice cream and sherbet. (I don't remember the prices but it was a good price or I wouldn't have bothered. It was more per lb than hamburger meat but less than almost any other cut of beef.)
The main freezer.
The door of the freezer.
The main freezer.
The door of the freezer.
My pet peeve if I let the freezer get overloaded or poorly stacked is that I will pull one thing out, and six other things will tumble out onto the floor.
CD
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It depends on how you package it. I vacuum seal meats for my freezer, and get at least six months, and I've gotten more than a year out of some meats. If you take air out of the equation, meats will keep a long time in the freezer.
CD
My children have all threatened me on more than one occasion to have me fitted with an ankle monitor alarm.
It will sound off if I go...
near the meat counter,
into a hardware store,
into a plant nursery,
into a book store,
into the $ $tore.
It will sound off if I go...
near the meat counter,
into a hardware store,
into a plant nursery,
into a book store,
into the $ $tore.
Aunt Bea
Master Chef
I have that problem in my little freezing compartment.My pet peeve if I let the freezer get overloaded of poorly stacked is that I will pull one thing out, and six other things will tumble out onto the floor.
CD
I started keeping the partial and full plastic bags of fruits and vegetables in a plastic shoebox, without a lid, to help contain the shapeshifters.
My freezer is set to 0F.
From my experience, the Ziploc bag trick is great for sous vide, in some ways even better than vacuum sealing (especially if there are liquids in the bag). But, it is not as good for freezing, where getting all the air out makes a difference.
CD
pepperhead212
Executive Chef
That's the kind of thing I do with my freezer, as well as all those other things I have in my basement pantry. All of the meats and butter (another thing that benefits from no exposure to air) and most of the dry ingredients I pack in a foodsaver bag, and with most of the things, other than meats, I can re-use the foodsaver bag several times, just cutting off a small amount sometimes, to re-fill a jar, then re-seal it. I've learned by trial and error early on, some grains and flours need to be kept in the freezer, even if I foodsaver it, while most can be kept at room temp, when foodsavered. Whole spices are ok at room temp, but most of the ground ones (though I don't have that many) I keep in the freezer, even though I foodsaver all those.
My Foodsaver and freezer have saved me a lot of money. I shop the "Manager's Special" section in the meat department, and find great deals on meats about to hi the "Sell By" date. I've found USDA Prime steaks for half price! I buy them, vacuum seal them, and pop them into the freezer for use on a later date.
CD
