# Pre-wrap with aluminum foil?



## horseman09 (Mar 2, 2010)

We tried something new this year when we cut, wrapped and froze our deer. 

As you know, freezer burn occurs when moisture is drawn away from meat (or whatever) during longterm storage in your freezer. Since aluminum foil is impermiable and it sticks tight to fresh meat, it seems as though wrapping the meat with AF first then wrapping it with commerical freezer paper should work very well to prevent freezer burn for those items that wind up in the bottom of the freezer for 3 years. :dunno:

Has anyone tried it? Any thoughts?


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## UncleJoe (Jan 11, 2009)

Never tried foil, except for hats.  

We vacuum pack ours before it goes in the freezer.


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## The_Blob (Dec 24, 2008)

I know that trying to remove it too quickly will add quite a few aluminum flakes to your diet...


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

I don't use foil for freezing,its too expensive for me. Maybe since you already wrapped it in the foil,take out some and test it later,if its burned then you know it does'nt work.Ccover it over with freezer wrap or put it in bags.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

UncleJoe said:


> Never tried foil, except for hats.
> 
> We vacuum pack ours before it goes in the freezer.


LOL ... Thanks for the smile! 

We vacuum pack ours also (and save the foil for hats ... )

Sorry, no help from me ...


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

When we get a cow butchered it's generally wrapped in industrial Saran Wrap type plastic and then the butcher paper. Seems to do ok for us.


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## kejmack (May 17, 2011)

Vaccuum pack or canning has worked the best for me over the years.


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## gypsysue (Mar 27, 2010)

We tried foil one year and it got stuck in any and all little crevaces of the meat. When the meat froze, the foil was froze into those places, and it was hard to pull it off. We had to partially thaw the meat to get the foil off. 

The next time we wrapped it in saran wrap first, then foil, then white freezer paper. That did a pretty good job. 

We moved off-grid before we got a vacuum sealer (and therefore no longer had/have a freezer), but most people I know who are freezing meat nowdays are using a vacuum sealer.


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## AlabamaGal (Dec 27, 2011)

In side-by-side tests in my chest freezer, meat well wrapped with freezer paper from my processor lasted as long as home vacuum sealing. Longer, if you count the fact that much of the vacuum-sealed stuff lost it's seal and got freezer burned anyway. But paper verse intact seal performed equally.

Last time I got a pig done the processor vacuum sealed it and theirs lasted better than home sealing. I don't know if it's the unit or the plastic or the technique, but I won't be going to the time and expense to vacuum seal meat any more.


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## horseman09 (Mar 2, 2010)

AlabamaGal said:


> In side-by-side tests in my chest freezer, meat well wrapped with freezer paper from my processor lasted as long as home vacuum sealing. Longer, if you count the fact that much of the vacuum-sealed stuff lost it's seal and got freezer burned anyway. But paper verse intact seal performed equally.
> 
> Last time I got a pig done the processor vacuum sealed it and theirs lasted better than home sealing. I don't know if it's the unit or the plastic or the technique, but I won't be going to the time and expense to vacuum seal meat any more.


'bamaGal, we've had the same problem with vac packing from the butcher. Roughly 25% of the of the pork/ham we had vac packed at the butcher lost it vacuum, probably from being moved around in the freezer resulting in a punctured bag.

I could be wrong on this, but as cheap and easy as aluminun foil is, and since air/moisture can't penetrate it, I'm betting AF and a good freezer paper wrap is gonna work as well as vac packing.

If I'm wrong, I promise I'll fess up!


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

The last time we had a problem with the butcher or processor was getting back our beef ... but we did in the end. :gaah:

After that we have worked up our own.


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## SlobberToofTigger (Dec 27, 2011)

Since I have a tendency to rotate meat out of my freezer pretty quickly (small freezer) I don't get much freezer burned meat. But I don't think that your idea is going to work any better than any of the other methods because you are trying to solve the wrong problem. Freezer burned meat is caused by the water in the meat sublimating (going from a solid (ice) directly to a gas (water vapor). This happens faster when the freezer changes temperatures during the defrost cycle but also happens over time in non self defrosting freezers.

The only solution I have found to stop the sublimation of frozen items (tested this with fish) is to place the meat in water and then freeze it. What now will happen is the water surrounding the meat will sublimate first and your meat will stay unfreezer burned longer. Of course eventually the outer water layer will get used up and your meat will start to freezer burn. Also most water has minerals in it that get deposited as a powder during sublimation on the reaming frozen item that will cause an off taste. So you will want to wash the meat before you use it to get rid of the mineral taste.


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