On packaging meat for the freezer.
Not all sausage is cased and smoked. ;)
I kinda sorta struck out on the fermented sausage effort but tonight I made 5 pounds of Breakfast sausage by the Book recipe. Nancy declared that the patties I fried were great and said I should place a star beside that recipe. Over the years we have found that there is more versatility in the use of our sausage if we package it loose and not linked. So that is how I did this batch. At some point I will make another flavor and I may link that for a special occassion.
Ross- tightwad home cook
On packaging meat for the freezer.
Many of us have gone to vacuum packaging for meat that goes into the freezer. I can see the benefit when you have sausage linked and bent like a horseshoe.
For fresh meat and sausage I still use coated freezer paper. The cost is attractive at 8 dollars for a 150 roll and if a careful wrapping job is done it is as tight as vacuum packing. I unwrapped a boneless chicken breast just now that was put by a year ago and stored at minus 5 F. There is no freezer burn and no frost inside the package.
True you can't see what is inside but you can write on the paper.
For fresh meat and sausage I still use coated freezer paper. The cost is attractive at 8 dollars for a 150 roll and if a careful wrapping job is done it is as tight as vacuum packing. I unwrapped a boneless chicken breast just now that was put by a year ago and stored at minus 5 F. There is no freezer burn and no frost inside the package.
True you can't see what is inside but you can write on the paper.
Ross- tightwad home cook
Lowpull, is your long term packaging, belt and suspenders or does it really extend the storage life? My observations of freezer storage is/has been that voids in the wrapping promote the growth of frost and product drying. No voids, no drying. I get better results with tightly wrapped meats with freezer paper than with zipper freezer bags. I don't have a vacuum packaging system.
Ross- tightwad home cook
I use the 2 lb plastic meat bags that you twist up and then run through the taping machine to seal. the twisting up helps get any air voids out, and it works pretty good. But for longer terms, I then put those in vacume seal bags and really pull a vacume on them. Because after about 6 months of just the bags the end starts to get a little freezer burn. You can cut that tip off, but I just like the combination of the tubes and vucume seal bags.