Don’t freeze???

Arthurarthur52

A few months ago I purchased a gammon joint nothing huge and I assumed it was a oven cook one

for one reason or another we never got to have it and I put it in the freezer. This week I was sorting out meals and thought gammon and chips tonight and the rest cold tomorrow. 

So into the fridge it went. I checked how it was going last night and 1st noticed it’s not oven cook it’s boil not a problem as gas cheaper than electric but ot says do not freeze. 

I could understand not cooking it then refreezing but never came across this before. 

Am I worrying too much, most meat must be frozen at one point or another. I don’t want to waste a joint nor do I want us to get ill. 

Advice would be grateful, I don’t want to get into the vegan debate as a pig has no natural use alive and my step cousin would not be here had it not been for a pig skin graft after a fire. 

Kind regards

unforeseen

Of course you can freeze after it has been cooked. No different to cooking when first bought and then freezing the leftovers. The only thing that might suffer is the texture.  I buy gammon joints and freeze them . It then gets thawed & cooked, cut into slices and refrozen into packs sufficient for a weeks worth of sandwiches. 
You shouldn't refreeze if it is not processed by cooking in between though. I.E. Don't thaw it out, decide you don't want it and refreeze. If you thaw then you must cook it. Oven or boil makes no difference. 

General_Grant

In essence the OP is asking, "the pack says I should not have frozen the joint which I did freeze: having thawed it, is it safe to cook?".

If I was in that situation I would suggest it is safe but texture may be affected.

unforeseen

Let's face it, unless you get your meat from a local butcher who gets it fresh from a local abattoir then raw meat will always have been frozen at least once. People still buy in bulk and split and freeze so that's a second freezing even before it is cooked.

I suppose one of the problems with pre-packaged meat, especially gammon/ham is the water content. Ice crystals will damage the meat and alter the texture when frozen at home as it is a slower process than at the meat processors, allowing more ice crystals to form. 

od244051

I have frozen things before and says do not freeze. Only noticed this whilst items have been defrosting. They tasted and looked OK. 

One example was some fresh potato croquettes from Lidl, which I bought for 20p a couple of weeks ago. Only thing was some of the coating dropped off on removing from packet.

GaleSF63

Often the do not freeze instruction is because the look or texture of an item is affected, for example it will fall apart (sounds like that for the Lidl croquettes) and they don't want people complaining about substandard items,  but it would help if producers made it clearer, eg as occasionally they do by putting "previously frozen do not refreeze".

redfox

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