Cooked meat in freezer - questions....

empressemma

Hi,
I have got a few bags of cooked meat in the freezer, beef and pork.
Want to defrost some to put in a curry, but I normally make enough to eat over 2 days. Can the meat be cooked, frozen, cooked again, cooled down and then heated up again????
Really don't want to end up with a bout of something nasty
I'd love to be able to use it an freeze it again in a curry or something similar, but guess that's out the question?

Many thanks in advance, Emma :beer:

Jackop

Generally a no no to freeze food again in the same state as you thawed it from.

Also with the cooking and cooling, incase of that being a bit iffy. Why not thaw it out then split it. Leave one lot in the fridge until you need to cook it?

lindsaygalaxy

I have defrosted mince, made it into say lasagne, eaten some, put the rest in the fridge then reheated for lunch the next day, but I don't know if you are meant to!

eleanor73

empressemma wrote: »

Hi,
I have got a few bags of cooked meat in the freezer, beef and pork.
Want to defrost some to put in a curry, but I normally make enough to eat over 2 days. Can the meat be cooked, frozen, cooked again, cooled down and then heated up again????
Really don't want to end up with a bout of something nasty
I'd love to be able to use it an freeze it again in a curry or something similar, but guess that's out the question?

Many thanks in advance, Emma :beer:

I personally would but not to feed anyone else. I have done this before and had no problems but there is a certain level of risk attached to it as it means that the meat has been in the danger zone temp (where bugs grow) a few times. I have never made myself ill but wouldn't want to give it to kids or friends as it's my personal choice whether to risk it. If you go ahead best thing is to make sure that you maximise the time the meat is stored frozen/fridge and then cooked and piping hot. That room temp/warm temp is when it's dodgy.

If not you can batch cook a curry sauce and then just defrost the amount of meat for that day and the right amount of sauce? If that makes sense?

easy

I always thought that if you are defrosting then RE-Cooking the meat, then it's fine to refreeze it, as the second cooking destroys any bacteria which may have started to grow during defrosting.

I have put homemade bolognese sauce in the freezer, then defrosted it, made it into a lasagne which has been baked in the oven. That lasagne was then frozen, and later taken out, reheated and eaten with no problem.

So if you have some cooked chicken (for example) in the freezer, I would assume it's fine to defrost it, cook it into a curry *, and then refreeze it .

*I do mean cook it through well tho, not just re-heat it in a jar of sauce.

patchwork_cat

You have frozen cooked meat that you want to make into a curry then refreeze half of it.

NO.

If you had frozen raw meat cooked it into a curry and refroze it tha tis fine, but not with already ccoked meat.

You have to change it's state to refreeze, IFYKWIM.

CupOfChai

You shouldn't add cooked meat to a dish thereby heating it up, cool it, then reheat the food again. Don't do that.

So here's what you will do. Defrost one serving's worth of the cooked meat. Make however much curry sauce you want or usually do, without adding the cooked meat. Split the sauce into servings. Add the meat only to the serving you're going to use straight away, cool and store the other, meatless, serving of sauce. When you want to use this other sauce, defrost the rest of the meat and add it, then heat up.

-taff

Yes you can, as long as you heat it thoroughly, otherwise no-one would make stew with frozen meat......

madaminx

easy wrote: »

I always thought that if you are defrosting then RE-Cooking the meat, then it's fine to refreeze it, as the second cooking destroys any bacteria which may have started to grow during defrosting.

I have put homemade bolognese sauce in the freezer, then defrosted it, made it into a lasagne which has been baked in the oven. That lasagne was then frozen, and later taken out, reheated and eaten with no problem.

So if you have some cooked chicken (for example) in the freezer, I would assume it's fine to defrost it, cook it into a curry *, and then refreeze it .

*I do mean cook it through well tho, not just re-heat it in a jar of sauce.

Same here, I have cooked chicken, pork, beef, fish after defrosting put into spagbol, curries, con carne etc and refroze, even fed it to others . . . . , no problems at all. :T

kitschkitty

Sorry but there seems to be some confusion.

Defrosting RAW meat, cooking it in a dish (it's first heating transforming it to cooked) that is then to be frozen to be reheated (1st heating) in future is fine.

Defrosting COOKED meat, cooking it in a dish (it's 2nd heating) that is then to be frozen to be reheated in future (3rd heating) is NOT fine.

If people want to take the risk personally of course it is their right to make that choice, but from a food hygiene point of view the more times you raise and then lower the temperature the more periods you are giving bacteria to grow - so it's a big no no.