Can I freeze cooked meat?

stressedoutmumof1

My Dad does just this on a Sunday - cooks his chicken for a roast, then slices the rest and freezes it in portions.

comping_cat

I often freeze chicken/other meats like this (im using chicken frozen exactly this way in tonights curry!!!) My mum always freezes hers in gravey, as she thinks it freezes better this way, but i normally just freeze it on its own and have never had any problems.

trigger2

I've noticed Asda has steak mince 1.1kg 2 for £5 just now. If i freeze it, then defrost & cook it, I can then refreeze it can't I ? When i want to recook it tho should I defrost it first or cook from frozen ? I'm thinking of batch cooking the mince for things like shepherds pie, spag bol etc. Sorry if i'm asking a stupid question but I'm used to buying smaller packs which all get used. Thanks

trigger2

Thanks for that. What about recooking it - should i defrost or cook from frozen ? I'm thinking i should just defrost it overnight as normal ?

trigger2

Thanks again - will be doing lots of batch cooking this weekend then !!!!!

Olliebeak

Over the Christmas period, I have had a viral stomach bug _pale_. Because of that we haven't entertained as much as we meant to and I've been most upset by the amount of stuff that went to waste :mad: .

The cat has had a whale of a time on 'good' honey roast ham, wafer thin ham and chargrilled chicken. A 500ml pot of double cream has also been thrown out. Luckily the mincepies, stollen, christmas cake etc will last a bit longer:j.

Does anybody know if it's advisable to freeze packs of cooked meat? I know that my sister makes up sandwiches for herself, her OH and daughter each week and freezes them in tupperware boxes. What has held me back from doing this is that the packs are marked refrigerate and are NOT labelled as freezable.

Hope somebody can clear this up for me - I'm determined that this will never happen to me again :rolleyes: .

millionaire_in_training

I freeze them all the time and no ill effects x

Pink.

Hi Olliebeak,

I'm not sure if there's a right answer to this one as it will depend on whether or not the meat has been previously frozen, which if it doesn't state on the pack, it's hard to know. Saying that, I have frozen cooked ham many times and never had any ill effects.

This older thread that might help:

Can you freeze prepacked Ham ?

Pink

Olliebeak

Many thanks, MillionaireInTraining and PinkWinged.

Wish I'd thought of it before feeding the cat with it! Oh well - it put a smile on his face for a few days but now I've got to get him interested in his boring old moggy-food again. Tough Luck Tiggy-tiger!

csarina

The simple answer is yes, I am just finishing using up turkey I cooked for the lunch here at the complex, I still have beef and ham in portion sized packets in the freezer.

I also buy packets from Mr T marked down and freeze them, no probs.