Frozen meat 6 months

KurtBarlow

I have steak and Salmon that's been in my freezer for the past 6 months. Would this still be fine to eat or should I chuck it

Allinall

Bit iffy giving food safety advice here.

OP. If in doubt ( which you obviously are), throw it out.

phormium

In a decent freezer should be fine but fish deteriorates more in taste quality over a period than meat. Aim to stick it in something with a sauce maybe.

Freezers differ too, the standard half and half I don't find nearly as good as a standalone freezer however really it's only going to be quality affected by the time lapse assuming it is well packaged and airtight. Freezer burn on foods again makes them taste nasty, won't kill you but not as nice tastewise as properly stored.

Calahonda52

If its properly defrosted, ie not microwave assisted, and properly cooked, then it will be okay.

While its steak I would cube it, sauté on a hot pan and then put in a stew for a good cook as opposed to going medium rare!

Fish: fish pie, again cooked in oven as opposed to sushi

no need to waste it

Cill94

https://www.bordbia.ie/meat/storing-meat/#:~:text=Depending%20on%20the%20cut%2C%20uncooked,for%20more%20than%203%20months.

turbostan

Hey all,

I've a full salmon in the freezer for about a year, I think!

Just popped him in, in a clear bag, the day I got him.

Kinda forgot about him since, but I'm a bit apprehensive now at this late stage tbh.

Any advice appreciated!!

phormium

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120947756#Comment_120947756

I can't imagine it will taste too nice! Fish isn't great for long term storage and oily fish even worse I find, texture changes to very dry and over the top fishy taste, nothing like fresh fish. Also quality of packaging and freezer comes into it but the average domestic freezer will not preserve fish quality for longer than few months in my experience. I have a very good chest freezer and package stuff well but would not hold oily fish longer than 3 months and ideally I would use it up before that time as I don't like the change in texture, probably better in stronger flavoured sauce dishes too.

The fact that it's not cut up would help with preserving as less surface area to be tainted by freezer burn if it happens, best thing is thaw it and cook and see are you happy with taste, lots of heavily flavoured salmon dishes that would hide a less than perfect taste these days, be a shame to waste it! Was watching a good recipe the other morning on Ireland am with lots of flavour.

con747

People these days are just wasting perfectly edible food because of the fear of. I am not giving food advice just food experience, I have eaten fish and all other meats years after freezing them. It may not taste as good as fresh but once stored correctly in a good freezer it is perfectly edible.

Not an Irish link but gives an idea. https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/food-recipes/cooking/a31899638/how-long-does-frozen-meat-last/

phormium

Exactly, it's not a food safety issue once it's been kept frozen, it's a taste issue!

Plus of course the hidden cost of keeping a freezer on! I have recently got rid of an old freezer (I had two anyway) that I was storing a lot of 'just in case' sort of food in, well after doing the electricity monitor on it I discovered it was costing quite a bit to run, definitely not worth paying for storing the food I had in it. So now I have used up as much as I can and am sticking with the one freezer with more cost effective stuff in it.

con747

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120948947#Comment_120948947

Freezers are more efficient when full. I keep mine full all the time and it uses very little power. A spike when the motor kicks in for a couple of minutes is all. When the motor kicks in it uses 224 watts for 2 minutes then it uses next to nothing.

phormium

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120950331#Comment_120950331

I had two full ones but still the older of the two was using 3 times the power of the newer one despite the newer one being much bigger. I monitored it's power usage for several days and yes there were very low periods but other times high. The age of the freezer was obviously the issue and newer ones are more efficient, similar ones new showed a much lower kw usage per annum.

Anyway it's gone now, sold it off on FB for 50 quid to a lady wanting to store horse feed in it, a great recycling use for it!

Shauna677

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120947756#Comment_120947756

what a shame, a whole fresh salmon. I would have cooked it all immediately

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120950331#Comment_120950331

To clarify, it's not specifically that they're more efficient when full, it's that when you open it, less air will flow out, and the warm air that replaces it has to be brought down to -18C again. But air has much less thermal mass than meat/water etc. so it doesn't really take a huge amount of energy to chill it again; i.e. avoid putting things in the freezer simply to bulk it out.

con747

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122499884#Comment_122499884

I think I will use mine as I wish but thanks for your comment a year later.

magicbastarder

Huh. I hadn't spotted it was an old thread resurrection.