I’m confused. I just moved into my own place and am cooking for myself for the first time.
I’ve heard that you’re not supposed to thaw and refreeze meat to often. Well I’ve been buying big bags of chicken and big packages of pork because its cheaper that way.
My problem is, all the peices freeze together and I can’t get them apart without thawing out the hole bag.
Am I missing something?
Is it ok to just thaw the hole bag out and then stick what you don’t use back in the freezer?
I don’t think it’s too safe to keep thawing and refreezing meat. It’s better to individually portion them. When I get a tray of meat, as soon as I get home I trim the fat off if it needs to, and then I stick each piece of chicken or whatever in a sandwich sized ziploc. Then I throw all of those in the freezer.
It’s easy to just take a couple of those out, and leave them in your fridge overnight to thaw, or whatever without having to crazy apart a big block of chicken.
Not sure about safety/health issues, but thawing and re-freezing meat will lead to freezer burn and destroy the meat’s taste.
Before bed just thaw what you’ll use the next day.
Buy it, portion it, freeze it.
If you buy it frozen just get a mallet smash the bits you need and thaw them so what if its broken up in bits its still the same meat
Buy, weigh, bag, freeze
[quote]evansmi wrote:
I’m confused. I just moved into my own place and am cooking for myself for the first time.
I’ve heard that you’re not supposed to thaw and refreeze meat to often. Well I’ve been buying big bags of chicken and big packages of pork because its cheaper that way.
My problem is, all the peices freeze together and I can’t get them apart without thawing out the hole bag.
Am I missing something?
Is it ok to just thaw the hole bag out and then stick what you don’t use back in the freezer?
[/quote]
No.
Just split it up as soon as you buy it and then freeze it. Or cook it all and eat it over the next day or two.
You want IQF chicken: Individually Quick Frozen. You can get the boneless, skinless breasts packaged this way at Costco, and I’ve never had a problem with them sticking together in a lump.
They also have them packaged so that each breast is individually shrink-wrapped, but they cost more per pound; I wouldn’t bother with those unless you have them so long that you’re worried about freezer burn.