Lamb with freezerburn?

Curlytop40

I've been through my garage freezer today and as well as a LOT of bags of unnamed food (we could be having a 'surprise tea' every week for at least 2 months!) I've found a couple of packs of YS lamb which looks like its been in there for a LONG time. Obviously I will make sure its not gone off when I defrost it but if it smells ok will it be ok to eat? I will probably end up casseroling it. Any advice gratefully recieved.
With the amount of stuff I've found I shouldn't have to buy main meal meat until November if I plan properly.
CT.

Essex-girl_2

Personaly if it smelt ok when defrosted then I would eat it.

ALIBOBSY

I have eaten meat from the bottom of the freezer that was months old with no problems. May be best to cook slowly ie in a slow cooker or like you said casserolled, as freezer burn tends to dry meat out and toughen it up a little.
I must admit my freezer is busting at the mo so need to go through it and then get meal planning like mad, other wise won't get the rest of the autumn stuff from the garden/hedgerows in.

ali x
Have to admit to a few "suprise" bags in amongst the labeled ones lol.

SUESMITH_2

we'd eat it quite happily, in the past we have eaten venison that had been in there years and it was fine cassorolled with red wine, port and recurrant jelly

Curlytop40

Looks like a lamb casserole on the plan for next week then. Thankyou all for your advice.

Fourcandles_3

When I worked in catering we were told that freezer burns do not effect the safety or hygiene of the food, just the quality. So cooking slowly is ideal in a casserole or similar.

Butterfly_Brain

Freezer burn is unsightly and the flavour might be impaired a little but it is fine to eat, and as everyone else has said I would casserole it with a bottle of red wine, shallots, mushrooms and some rosemary

slowandsteady_2

Sorry to butt in but does meat in a freezer ever go off? I was having a look through mine earlier, ive lived here since april and have some stuff in there that i must have bought to stock up when we moved in and not bothered with. I leave stuff in there for months. I bought a 1.4 kg gammon ham from Aldi today to freeze for xmas as i love ham, it says to use within one month if frozen but im not bothered about what it says and will happily leave it till xmas, but equally dont want to poison us! I dont really freeze fish as have a thing about food poisoning from fish since i had either food poisoning or an allergic reaction to an oyster a few years ago, i thought i was gonna die i was so ill, never going there again!

maryb

I ignore the use by recommendations for frozen food and we're still here!. I read that it doesn't allow bacteria to grow (so no need to worry about food poisoning as long as you are sure no one ever left the freezer door open for long enough for food to defrost)but it can still deteriorate over time. I just go by sight. A bit of freezer burn on a big bit of meat wouldn't bother me but a small chop that's more freezer burn than meat would not taste very good

voiceofreason

slowandsteady wrote: »

Sorry to butt in but does meat in a freezer ever go off? I was having a look through mine earlier, ive lived here since april and have some stuff in there that i must have bought to stock up when we moved in and not bothered with. I leave stuff in there for months. I bought a 1.4 kg gammon ham from Aldi today to freeze for xmas as i love ham, it says to use within one month if frozen but im not bothered about what it says and will happily leave it till xmas, but equally dont want to poison us! I dont really freeze fish as have a thing about food poisoning from fish since i had either food poisoning or an allergic reaction to an oyster a few years ago, i thought i was gonna die i was so ill, never going there again!

Was it a frozen oyster?

Can you get frozen oysters?

Would one want frozen oysters? :eek:

What would Captain Birds Eye say? He's frozen fish all his life and the worst that ever happened to him was that he left a faint whiff of old haddock wherever he went.

But back to the original question - you should probably be alright. Pull it out the night before you want to cook it, next day boil, peel, glaze and roast as normal.

Hamtastic.

slowandsteady_2

yeah true about Captain Birds Eye, dunno why i think freezing my own fish is any different. I think its cos my friend used to work for Mr A on the fish counter and she told me how they treat the fish (or dont) and i wouldnt want to risk freezing it again just in case. They oyster was fresh i think, it was from a fishmongers in Cornwall. DH ate one too and he was absoloutley fine. I meanwhile spent a very long journey back to Manchester the next day when we were coming home feeling more ill than i ever have in my life. Put me off oysters for ever that did.