Freezer burn.

[hikerman]

I needs some help on how to prevent freezer burn.
My deer sausage from last November has freezer burn. Actually even the stuff I pulled out months ago showed signs of freezer burn.
They are all raped in the butcher paper(wax on the inside). 1# packs in the bottom of a upright freezer that is only six years old.
The butcher that warped them said that I should be getting freezer so soon,so why? What could I do to prevent this?

Paul.

[TPM]

We put all our sausage in Ziplok bags and remove all the air. Never have freezer burn problems. I'm not a fan of fan of using just butcher paper if the meat is going to in the freezer more than a couple of months. We're going to invest in a vacuum sealer one of these years.

[bob1961]

i use cling wrap first and make sure it is tight on the meat, then i use butcher paper....never had any freezer burn even after a year...........bob

...,

[vixenmaster]

I double wrap my meat tape it, then i put it into a good sealed freezer bag. Someone may knowed a better method

[one shot scott]

I vaccuum pack everything I get from the butcher. I do not take off the wrapper before sealing it and I have yet to get freezer burn. What setting is your freezer at? It may be too high.

[snapperdan]

I pack up to 400 lb of fish a year for the freezer Have been using a seal packer not a hi dollar one and it does away with the freezer burn. Fish packed up 1 year ago taste like they were cleaned yesterday

[VixChix]

I have to amend TPM's post. Last year we just used freezer bags for the sausage, but I used a straw and drew all the air out before sealing them. The other meat is tightly double wrapped in cellophane before it's put in a freezer bag. I think the key is to eliminate as much air as possible.

If you freeze fish, consider freezing them in water/ice. Years ago when I lived out west and we stocked the freezer with fish we would save our milk cartons (milk didn't come in bags in Alberta back then!), we'd rinse them out, then stack the cleaned fish or fillets in them, add water to fill them, staple them shut with a tag with the date and type of fish. Unpacking was easy - just peel off the carton. The water/ice always kept the fish fresh.

[mfh]

Definitely second the vac-sealer recommendation. We got one from Costco five years ago for $100. We fill the freezer in the fall and I have pulled meat at the two year mark with no problem at all.

Also recommend buying the name brand bags - I cheaped out buying some from Walmart and they will work one time, but reusing them is futile since they easily get pin holes. The name brand ones are twice the price, but I reuse them at least 4-5 times. Some even more.

You may also want to check CL. I know I am on borrowed time with my unit since it gets a lot of use and I assume it will eventually burn out on me so I am always looking for a back-up and there are some good deals out there on units people hardly used.

[maple]

Freezer burn on sausages is more common than it is on meat. I find that sometimes where the sausage casing is thin or damaged burn is a possibility.

Also it would depend on the temperature and humidity of your freezer. Self-defrosting freezers are drier than manual defrost ones for instance. Too cold a setting reduces humidity. -20*C is about right.

For venison prep I use a bag sealer and withdraw the air with a piece of aquarium tubing. WORKS GREAT ON ANY BAG.

http://www.uline.ca/BL_2253/Tabletop-Po ... er-Impulse

Maple

[Isis]

I use a Food Saver vac sealer, have done for a few years. They say the stuff is good in them for 3 yrs.
We use ours for all sorts of things.
With my deer I put the meat in still in the butcher wrap.
I see Canadian Tire sells them now.

[awshucks]

Tip from my butcher at groc store: Put like packages no matter how you did them in those big brown paper groc sacks that are getting hard to find.

Has seemed to work well for me. Another trick is to crock pot anything w/ 'burn' if possible.

[catcher]

If you are goimg yo use paper then try to put what ever you are freezing in plastic bags first. Like the kinda you get for produce at the grocery store. Get all the air out then proceed to wrap with paper. It will last a lot longer this way. I have gotten a couple of years out of some cuts before. I still have some Caribou in the freezer from 2 years ago and when I take it out it is like I just wrapped it. Now I have a vacum sealer. The one from Cabelas that is industrial and it works great and is fast and has a quick turn around time. And I buy the vacum bags from a local grocery store reatailer by the box.

[OMC-MOOSE]

I've been considering a sealer for years now, and now that I've read this post, the wheels are turning again. Any thoughts on make or model preferences? I don't mind spending money for quality; I just don't want to go overboard though...lol

[ch312]

you mean people actually let meat sit in their freezer long enough to get freezer burnt? weirdo's

[hikerman]

Thanks for the info! I think the sealer is the way to go.
I checked the freezer setting and it was more than half way, unfortunately there
is not temperature setting. Just off, 1-7, so I put it to 1 for now.

I use zip lock bags for other cuts. Suck all the air out also but I find that a month latter the bag is not so tight any more.