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Author Topic: freezing bacon  (Read 12368 times)

tangman

  • Joined Sep 2009
freezing bacon
« on: September 21, 2009, 03:52:12 pm »
Hello,

Just new to this forum and indeed site.

I got 2 weaners in April and this morning they went to the abattoir. All went very smoothly!

My children will be somewhat sad as they will leave a bit of a hole in our lives as they of course have been part of daily life around the house for the last 6 months.

 In my case the abattoir and butcher are the same person. I am getting them both back as half pork and half bacon. May try the curing myself next year after the next few weaners that I will get next Spring.

My question is: Are there any issues with freezing hams and bacon?  I recall as a child my parents buying sides of bacon and freezing them but stopping this practice as they said that the fat didn't taste as well after freezing.

Is there anything that I need to do or be aware of when freezing hams and bacon?

I would appreciate any useful advice that you might have.

Regards,
Tangman


Rosemary

  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Barry, Angus, Scotland
    • The Accidental Smallholder
Re: freezing bacon
« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2009, 05:00:56 pm »
We freeze ours and it seems to have no averse effects. It's not frozen for long though because it's so fab.

chickenfeed

  • Guest
Re: freezing bacon
« Reply #2 on: September 21, 2009, 09:16:55 pm »
we freeze ours and as above its not there long enough for any adverse reactions from freezing :pig:

carl

  • Joined Oct 2007
Re: freezing bacon
« Reply #3 on: September 22, 2009, 09:38:04 am »
Ditto.
 :pig: :yum:
I now realise I need to keep more pigs.(shame) to keep my friends and family in pork and bacon, as they all love it. They all rave on about the bacon, which most has been in their freezer before they eat it.
i always freeze my bacon in meal size packs, which is handy, but allows my wife to keep giving it away far too easily.

Norfolk Newby

  • Joined Aug 2009
  • West Norfolk, UK
Re: freezing bacon
« Reply #4 on: September 22, 2009, 10:55:26 am »
My experience of freezing any fresh pork is that it tends to develop a sour taste due to the fat oxidising after about a month.

You can reduce this by packing it to exclude the air but it still tends to develop an 'off' taste after a couple of months so long term storage isn't a good idea.

However, the original idea of ham and bacon was to provide long term storage using an airy cool place. So cured pork is more resistant than fresh pork.

I cure a sort of air dried ham keeping the processed meat in wood ash to dry it - usually in a sealed plastic box in the fridge. The ash must be changed before it becomes damp or the meat goes off - roughly every month. This way I keep belly or sometimes boned leg of pork for a year. The pork is salted first (like making ham or bacon) and then dried in the ash. The pork fat goes a sort of creamy flavour and the overall result is like Italian air dried ham (Parma ham or similar).

I use ash because I can't get the saltpetre (potassium nitrate) which the trade uses as a preservative. Wood ash contains potash (ash/potash/potassium - can you see how the names developed?) and this acts in a similar way to the saltpetre. The ham goes a dark red colour rather than the original pink and the meat shrinks by about half.

The ash comes from my wood burning stove or my barbecue/smoker. I avoid burning any treated or painted timber to prevent chemical contamination of the meat.

I hope this gives you some ideas. I can't guarantee the results of using these methods and you have to be careful eating anything doubtful but the ham is very nice if it works right. I also make a sort of salami the same way.


NN
Novice - growing fruit, trees and weeds

tangman

  • Joined Sep 2009
Re: freezing bacon
« Reply #5 on: September 23, 2009, 04:35:33 pm »
Thanks to all for your prompt answers.

The posted replies indicate no problems with freezing for people tha do not have the bacon in the freezer for that long.

However, Norfolk Newby suggest that fresh pork goes "sour" after about a month due to oxidising fat and suggests curing.

Anyone else aything to add?

MiriMaran

  • Joined Feb 2009
  • Derbyshire
Re: freezing bacon
« Reply #6 on: September 23, 2009, 07:46:43 pm »
I have no advice, but am reading this with curiosity as I currently have a fridge full of curing bacon and gammon that we hope would last us for a year.  I can't bear the idea of it going sour!

gavo

  • Joined Aug 2008
  • Belcoo, Enniskillen, N.Ireland
  • Crazy Pig Lover
Re: freezing bacon
« Reply #7 on: September 23, 2009, 08:11:43 pm »
personally  have never had any problems with pork or cured meats going sour even after a prolonged period in the freezer

MiriMaran

  • Joined Feb 2009
  • Derbyshire
Re: freezing bacon
« Reply #8 on: September 23, 2009, 08:32:18 pm »
Gavo, for my own piece of mind I'm going to believe you and forget I read this thread!!!!! ;)

Norfolk Newby

  • Joined Aug 2009
  • West Norfolk, UK
Re: freezing bacon
« Reply #9 on: September 24, 2009, 08:20:06 am »
Good luck with your meat. I just want to offer a warning about keeping the air out of the meat packed in the freezer. If you feel like trying to cure some - and there are different techniques to try - you might/should avoid the problem of the fat going off.

If you have a couple of animals to deal with, making sausages out of some of the less appreciated cuts is a good way to use them. Making ham and salami sausages means that the meat (IMHO) has a better chance of keeping for a long (6+ months) time. Also, this adds to the range of foods you can make from the carcass.

A lot of what we do is learning to cope with gluts of food. This can be meat or fruit or vegetables. You learn to make apple juice in the Autumn, jam in the Summer, pickles in the late Autumn (the last green tomatoes, beans and onions) and so on. It's best to start with a note book and try several recipes until you see what works for you (both preparing and consuming). Then - next year - you have a couple of recipes that you have tried and you go from there.

Sorry if this is sounding like a saga.

NN
Novice - growing fruit, trees and weeds

tangman

  • Joined Sep 2009
Re: freezing bacon
« Reply #10 on: September 24, 2009, 04:31:26 pm »
Once again thanks to all.

I am now also going to believe Gavo as I am due a large consignment from the butcher on Monday, one side of the pig will be pork and then a week later the other side will arrive as bacon, and 95% of it will have to go to the freezer.

The only issue that I have ever heard is that freezing can adversely change the taste of the fat of bacon and I do like my bacon with a little fat.

I for one will be able to confirm Gavo's statement within 6 months.

I hope that I have not alarmed anyone.



MiriMaran

  • Joined Feb 2009
  • Derbyshire
Re: freezing bacon
« Reply #11 on: September 25, 2009, 07:43:49 pm »
yes! Me! ;D

Hilarysmum

  • Joined Oct 2007
Re: freezing bacon
« Reply #12 on: December 06, 2009, 10:54:37 am »
We freeze large quantities of fresh and cured meats.  To this day have never had a problem.  Would think the longest we ever left a piece of uncured pork in freezer was 3 months, which was a boned out leg.  It was fine.  N.N you may have just been very unlucky?

chickenfeed

  • Guest
Re: freezing bacon
« Reply #13 on: December 06, 2009, 11:27:20 am »
 :pig:as hilarysmum we also freeze large ammounts of pork and bacon and being rare breeds they always have a good layer of fat on and to this day have never had a problem with the frozen meat. i always turn the freezers to fast freeze the morning of collection and put the meat to be frozen between frozen items to ensure a quick freeze. a friend of ours had his pigs killed in may and is still eating his pork with no problems ours never lasts that long ;)

oaklandspigs

  • Joined Nov 2009
  • East Sussex
    • OaklandsPigs
Re: freezing bacon
« Reply #14 on: December 06, 2009, 09:57:46 pm »
Have to say we also have not had problems in freezing pork (all cuts), sausages, bacon and hams, indeed I have two freezers packed with this at the moment.

I have eaten pork has been in the freezer for a year without even thinking. :)

NN, think you must have had a problem somewhere??

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