# Freezer life of properly wrapped beef



## ClemKadiddlehopper (Aug 15, 2014)

I know there are government guidelines for this, but I am finding them to unnecessarily short. A well wrapped cut of beef and liberal use of butcher paper is good for up to 4.5 years in the freezer.

This assumes that one is freezing fresh butchered cow and that you never, ever allow it to thaw and refreeze. I have things in place to make sure this doesn't happen.

Hamburger comes out pretty much the same as when it goes in. Steaks are getting borderline, like steaks you would buy on special at the store. Roasts are also almost 100%. I just cleaned out a freezer from 2010 and the dogs ate kidneys that looked good enough for steak and kidney pie. I opened up the T-bone that I found lurking down there and had it for dinner last night. Stuff I thought I needed to feed the dogs is now going in canning jars to get another 10 years out of it.

I believe the freezer paper is way better than in the olden days.

Just so you know, I had a physical today for the first time in eight years and apparently I am still alive and kicking and not delusional at this time.


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## bugoutbob (Nov 11, 2012)

ClemKadiddlehopper said:


> Just so you know, I had a physical today for the first time in eight years and apparently I am still alive and kicking and not delusional at this time.


Congrats on not being delusional. I am not so certain my doctor would say the same about me


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

Yup, I agree completely, properly wrapped beef will hypothetically be fine in a deep freezer for many years (hypothetically because it would have to not be eaten) It keeps as good as anything when frozen, and a lot better than other meats. Now, if you have some nicks in the paper, it isn't always so pretty. Still, any recommendations are only based on "quality" and not on safety.


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## crabapple (Jan 1, 2012)

ClemKadiddlehopper said:


> I know there are government guidelines for this, but I am finding them to unnecessarily short. A well wrapped cut of beef and liberal use of butcher paper is good for up to 4.5 years in the freezer.
> 
> This assumes that one is freezing fresh butchered cow and that you never, ever allow it to thaw and refreeze. I have things in place to make sure this doesn't happen.
> 
> ...


I have 50 pounds of venison in stroyfoam trays & plastic wrap.
I was told if it last over 5 months I should rewrap it in freezer paper.


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## ClemKadiddlehopper (Aug 15, 2014)

The trays and plastic wrap won't keep with any kind of quality. I bet there is a lot of air space around the meat? It will freezer burn because of the air space and the fact that the plastic wrap will also allow air in. At the very least you might consider wrapping it up more layers of plastic.

I would get some decent butcher paper and re wrap the meat tight and snug without the plastic and trays.


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## crabapple (Jan 1, 2012)

ClemKadiddlehopper said:


> The trays and plastic wrap won't keep with any kind of quality. I bet there is a lot of air space around the meat? It will freezer burn because of the air space and the fact that the plastic wrap will also allow air in. At the very least you might consider wrapping it up more layers of plastic.
> 
> I would get some decent butcher paper and re wrap the meat tight and snug without the plastic and trays.


I agree, but the package was the hunters choice, he took it to a processer & I paid the man $1.00 a pound.
He loves to hunt, but will not waste a fresh kill, so I helped him out by taking the deer. I am that kind of guy, willing to help a friend in need.

I can grow most anything, but I do not have time to hunt deer.
Killed a few with a pickup truck, never with a gun.


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## goshengirl (Dec 18, 2010)

crabapple said:


> ... so I helped him out by taking the deer. I am that kind of guy, willing to help a friend in need.


 Made me chuckle.

Clem, I keep meat in the freezer after vacuum sealing it (Food Saver). Generally speaking this has worked well for me, but every now and then I find something that's been in one of the freezers for years, and I'm just not sure about it. Would there be a benefit to using butcher paper first, then vacuum sealing? And is butcher paper the same thing as freezer paper found in the grocery store near the ziplock bags and aluminum foil?


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## ClemKadiddlehopper (Aug 15, 2014)

I will be eating a 4 year old heart that was vacuum packed with a food saver tomorrow evening. If all goes well I will report back about it on Sunday.

The best thing to do is thaw out the package in question, open it up and let it breath. As you know, vacuum packed meat has an odor to it because of the lack of oxygen in the bag. If the meat doesn't look as moist and fresh as the day you packed it, than you can question its quality. Any odor should be gone within an hour of opening and rinsing the meat. If the bag is completely airless, under full suction still, I personally wouldn't have a concern. Any thing else equals dog food.

Remember: Gargage in, Garbage out. Only the best should be considered for the long haul.

The benefit of wrapping meat in butcher paper before vacuum packing would be if the vacuum seal fails. The paper will protect the meat from freezer burn until you can correct the situation. If you are not freezing mass quantities this would be an option to consider if the added expense outweighs any potential losses from failed food saver seals. The main thing is to make sure the paper is tight to the meat and there are no gaps where air can get in.

I have 2 failed food saver bags out of 3 in the long term freezer experiment. It could just be my equipment, but that is a personal call at your end.

As to the paper found in the grocery store, I have no idea as to its quality. I have never bought it there and I don't hit the grocery store often. If you are doing double duty with the food vac. I don't think it would be as important as paper only. My best guess is that it is the same paper in much smaller quantities and maybe more expensive.

I get paper in humongous rolls from the abattoir. You can get butcher paper from stores like TSC and Canadian Tire in Canada and from places that sell smoking, jerky seasonings, and hunting supplies like Outdoor World in Houston Tx. Someone else might be able to chime in on this one. Some restaurant supply stores may carry it as well.

As always, when in doubt, throw it out.


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## IlliniWarrior (Nov 30, 2010)

the better butchering outfits are all vacuum shrink wrapping the cut meat .... if that process wasn't part of the cost I'd go elsewhere ....


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## PreparedRifleman73 (Nov 2, 2012)

We've been looking at a vacuum sealer. Is that any benefit (or worth it) in vacuum sealing freezer meat?


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## readytogo (Apr 6, 2013)

*But loss of nutrients..........*

You can probably prevent freezer burn for 100 years but loss of nutrients will never be prevented, the meat will start to deteriorated after a period of 1 year as per the organs maybe 4-6 months, best possible way to stored meats is to pressure canned them, cooked or in non-chlorine water or dry salting like in the old days, I have been eating roasted and stew meats for years now without any problems, last roasted pork was from a year ago, tasted like if it was just roasted.


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## crabapple (Jan 1, 2012)

readytogo said:


> You can probably prevent freezer burn for 100 years but loss of nutrients will never be prevented, the meat will start to deteriorated after a period of 1 year as per the organs maybe 4-6 months, best possible way to stored meats is to pressure canned them, cooked or in non-chlorine water or dry salting like in the old days, I have been eating roasted and stew meats for years now without any problems, last roasted pork was from a year ago, tasted like if it was just roasted.


Do you know of a thread on the pressure canned meats with your process or could you start one?
I can do a search, but I would like to get feed back from a user & that does not work on some older threads.
Thanks.


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## ClemKadiddlehopper (Aug 15, 2014)

readytogo said:


> You can probably prevent freezer burn for 100 years but loss of nutrients will never be prevented, the meat will start to deteriorated after a period of 1 year as per the organs maybe 4-6 months, best possible way to stored meats is to pressure canned them, cooked or in non-chlorine water or dry salting like in the old days, I have been eating roasted and stew meats for years now without any problems, last roasted pork was from a year ago, tasted like if it was just roasted.


 Agreed, there is always a nutrient loss versus time when storing food, but not so much as you think when freezing beef. No process occurs that would change the profile of the meat other than the rupturing of some cells during the freeze/thaw process. That does not effect nutrients. What does, is multiple freeze thaw cycles which absolutely should not be allowed to happen and oxygen exposure/dehydration which is what freezer burn is.

The point of my original post was that the guidelines you will find posted by the authorities and general internet gurus are misleading and much too short. People are in all likelihood, wasting/throwing out good food at great expense based on fear alone. If one can afford to keep doing that with prices going sky high, great. But if not, than my years of being a guinea pig for the cause might be of some help for the more frugal amongst us.

When you pressure can meat (high heat) some nutrients are lost, reduced or transformed as well.

When it comes to storing your meat, its all down to what you wish to use it for, the state of being that best suits that purpose and how long you want it to remain in your life before consumption. There are many different ways to preserve meat. Each way will have its drawbacks or pluses. Pick your poison. Its all good. :yummy:

The advantage to pressure canned is shelf life, but do not kid yourself, the nutrients over time are not the same as when they went in the jar. I have hundreds of pounds of pressure canned beef, so I am aware of its benefits, but I like fresh meat and BBQ'd steaks as well and I cannot eat a whole cow in six months no matter how hard I try. What I have found is that I don't need to and I cannot tell the difference between six months and four years frozen and neither can any one else that gets a chunk of meat on their plate. I will add that my beef is strictly grassfed in case that is contributing to its longevity because of its leanness.

There are many who like vacuum packing. I find that the household machine has too many fails and I cannot justify the purchase of a commercial version. I butcher my personal beef myself; no abattoir, so a good paper does the trick for me.


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## cnsper (Sep 20, 2012)

I have found that the paper wrapped is better for me BUT paper alone is not how meat is or should be wrapped. The meat should be first wrapped in a plastic wrap like seranwrap or similar and then the butcher paper. THAT is how the good butchers wrap the meat, not vacuum packed.

Now granted, I do not keep meat as long as mentioned in the thread. I find that it keeps better on the hoof than in the freezer. Growing up we would butcher 1 cow, 2 pigs and about 50 chickens every year to fill the freezers. That would last us for the year. Next year, feed rinse and repeat.


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