Breakfast sausage won't freeze
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Made six pounds of venison breakfast sausage using Excalibur spices bought here and adding bacon trimmings for the fat. Some I’ve made in the past was way too lean, so I think I bumped the fat up to 30% in this batch, but I’m sure it wasn’t higher. For what it’s worth, the bacon trimmings came from the freezer and were hard as a rock. I kept a pound or two of the sausage in the fridge after making it. The rest I patted out, put between waxed paper, then inside a Ziploc bag and into the freezer. This was 4-6 weeks ago. I just went to the freezer to retrieve some of the sausage and was shocked to find it wasn’t frozen, at least not like the other meat in the freezer. I went ahead and fried up a pound of it and it was fine in taste and appearance … and I didn’t die.
I moved the remaining sausage to a different part of the freezer and made 100% sure the door sealed tight. That was 3-4 days ago. Today I checked and that sausage still isn’t frozen hard. Can someone tell me what I’ve run into here? Thanks in advance.
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Well, ahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy36fKlIwD0s it turns out, newer refrigerator/freezer combos get all confused if they are in an unheated garage and the temp falls below about 20 degrees for several days. The thermostat is checking the fridge temp, not the freezer temp, so if the fridge is cold enough, the compressor never kicks on. So, instead of keeping your freezer around 0 or a bit above, the compressor never kicks on and your frozen food slowly thaws. Might not be a problem, but very well could be, and you’d never know your “frozen” food had thawed to 35-40 and then was refrozen when the garage temp got back up to the 30-35 range. Who knew? Here’s a good video that explains it:
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Can we not edit posts? Here’s how that last one should read:
Well, it turns out, newer refrigerator/freezer combos get all confused if they are in an unheated garage and the temp falls below about 20 degrees for several days. The thermostat is checking the fridge temp, not the freezer temp, so if the fridge is cold enough, the compressor never kicks on. So, instead of keeping your freezer around 0 or a bit above, the compressor never kicks on and your frozen food slowly thaws. Might not be a problem, but very well could be, and you’d never know your “frozen” food had thawed to 35-40 and then was refrozen when the garage temp got back up to the 30-35 range. Who knew? Here’s a good video that explains it:
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Kentucky Fisherman interesting, I didn’t know that about the freezers. I wonder how many people just partially defrosted their deep freezers without knowing it!
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Kentucky Fisherman interesting, I didn’t know that about the freezers. I wonder how many people just partially defrosted their deep freezers without knowing it!
Jonathon You’re exactly right. If I hadn’t chosen that particular time to go get that sausage, the outdoor temp would have gone back up, the refrigerator would have warmed and kicked on the compressor, and that sausage would again be hard as a brick, as expected. I’d never have suspected thawed meat because outdoor temps were running 10-20 degrees. I think there was just enough salt and fat in the sausage to cause it to soften while the solid-muscle venison all around it was still frozen hard. Point is, if you have a refrigerator/freezer in an unheated area, you need to be aware of this possibility. Regular freezers, both chest and upright, do not have the same problem.
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Jonathon You’re exactly right. If I hadn’t chosen that particular time to go get that sausage, the outdoor temp would have gone back up, the refrigerator would have warmed and kicked on the compressor, and that sausage would again be hard as a brick, as expected. I’d never have suspected thawed meat because outdoor temps were running 10-20 degrees. I think there was just enough salt and fat in the sausage to cause it to soften while the solid-muscle venison all around it was still frozen hard. Point is, if you have a refrigerator/freezer in an unheated area, you need to be aware of this possibility. Regular freezers, both chest and upright, do not have the same problem.
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