Frozen food safety- misconceptions

aliama

Assuming they was safe to eat when it went into the freezer, and hasn't had a chance to defrost, it will still be safe to eat. Limits on how long food can be frozen for relate to texture and taste, not to safety.

And you may not even notice any difference. We recently cooked a ham we picked up just after Christmas last year, and didn't notice any problems.

And by the way, lamb shanks are perfect for stews, like kylyr mentions.

-taff

They'll be fine. Freezer burn is usually the problem with leaving something frozen for so long, as mentioned, it changes the texture slightyl depending on what it is, and it may have less flavour.

Lamb shanks benefit from long slow cooking [search for recipes on google, loads of them will appear by magic ], you can make a shepherds pie out of the diced lamb.

egoode

My grandmother used to freeze everything as she lived on a farm and could only get to the shops every couple of months. Sometimes she would pull out stuff that had been in there for a couple of years and it was still fine. Usually though they were used in stews so if there was a change in the flavour it wasn't as noticeable with all the other flavours in the dish. I think the slow cooking also helped with the texture of the meat.

lil_mama

thank you all so much for your replies, looks like its lamb for dinner for the next couple of days :-)

[Deleted User]

I too would cook them in a slow cooker with lots of veg and some herbs and maybe a dollop of lazy garlic.I have stuff in my freezer often for as long if not longer and I've not toticed anything odd about it.I like to buy meat when its on special offer usually in the early summer when salads are more popular then stewing meat is often reduced considerablyand if yellow stickered even more so.Great way to have lots of tasty casserole during the foloowing long cold January when my finances are recovering from Christmas :):)

zippychick

ive merged you in with an older thread which will help you see there is nothing to worry about. Use the meat

Zip

want2bmortgage3

I thought you could store frozen food for years but when I went to look at what was in the freezer I noticed nearly everything says up to one month in the freezer. Some things say up to 2 weeks for example if the freezer isn't as cold a temperature. Should I ignore this sort of message? It will mean throwing quite a few things out as some things have been in there more like 6 months not one!

krlyr

Guidelines tend to be in regards to quality rather than safety. I've used food that's been frozen for a year+ and no problem - I tend to use it in slow cooked recipes, normally in gravies or sauces, so any deterioration of texture or taste isn't really noticable.

mcculloch29

The only thing I have ever found genuinely inedible after a long time in the freezer was a bag of prawns, originally in an ice glaze to protect them. Gradually the prawns had dried out and the moisture from them turned to ice in the bag. They were like tiny pink hard rubber shrimps.
I think it was something ridiculous like 3 years over the Best By date. Everything else has been fine...