Our pork for the last but one batches of sausages was frozen at minus 21 oC , was in the freezer for nearly six months , it was thawed in the 3 oC fridge for three days still in the wrappers , then minced and mixed for sausages within 30 min of being taken out the wrappers thawed ( made it with lavender as well BLECH! ,never again totally gopping as far as we are concerned
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The linked sausages were laid on a tray and cut in to singles , covered with a newly laundered tea towel , refrozen ,bagged vac packed and then deep frozen again in packs of four or six .
We finally finished them off on Thursday evening last week . I think were still all OK
. They were made on 12 Sept 2014 and finally eaten / finished 15 Jan 2015 .
I made a new batch of sausages this Saturday morning , with 7 lb. 4oz. of unfrozen fresh pork loin out the super market chiller on Thusday morning . Laid the freshly made sausages in links on a buttered tray & left it over night in the fridge to go harder. Bagged them this afternoon having first cut them to individual sausages ( 76 sausages )
Put in the freezer as open pack to solidify them to be finally vac packed & heat sealed tomorrow Monday in fours and fives .
Done this time round like this so they will only get one refreeze
This is my take on such things .. it may or may not be 100 % correct so don't do it if you're easily worried etc.
I think the biggest problem occurs if you let the flesh defrost quickly outside a fridge at room temp & expose it to the air . For at 50 oF ( 10 oC ) it is the start temp for massive breeding of harmful bacterial.
The old batch meat was as I said , thawed for three days in the fridge so never rally had any great exposure to heat and harmful bacteria.
I strongly suspect if the temp is only just above freezing for an hour or so & stays close it is not so desperate. S long as you thoroughly cook the sausages from frozen for 12 min over all time turning them regularly in a hot pan with a bit of oil to transfer the heat & kill any developed bacteria.
A good guide that the internal sterilizing temp has been reached is that the sausage should be the brown caramelised colour all over .
I wouldn't do this with chicken as I'm very susceptible to chook flesh versions of salmonella & Campylbactor ( SP )