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A totally non Spain question this.
Does anyone know if it's possible to buy meat, freeze it, cook it and freeze it again?
Does anyone know if it's possible to buy meat, freeze it, cook it and freeze it again?
Freeze cook freeze?
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Yes it is...as long as your meat is fresh when you orignally freeze it. We do it all the time, buy meat freeze it, then defrost to cook it and then freeze the cooked left overs.
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yes you can!!
the only thing you can't do is allow something to re-freeze without cooking it, if it has defrosted
I often buy mince or stewing beef etc. in larger quantities than we need, portion it off & freeze it - then when I've made the bolognese or casserole or whatever, any left overs will find their way to the freezer for a quick meal for one at a later date
there's a scientific reason for it which I was taught in my restaurant manager training days - something to do with the state of the molecules :confused2:
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Oh, for goodness sake. Can you believe I've lived for more than 50 years without knowing this!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????
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:spit:
Just my 2 cents 
You can refreeze uncooked food under certain circumstances, but it comes with a cost.
Freezing destroys cells, especially in meat and vegetable. So when you defrost a piece of meat its cells collapse and fill with water. When you refreeze it again ice crystals grow and can tear even further into the meat. This way the texture can get unpleasant (really depends on speed of freezing, temperature etc).
The second thing is the main reason people get told NOT to refreeze meat. As soon as the temperature of your meat rises above a certain threshold dorment bacteria and mold will be reactivate and start growing again. If you defrost at room temperature this can happen quite quickly. Defrosting in the fridge is way better cause the bacteria will grow at a slower rate. So can you safely refreeze meat? Yes you can, if you follow certain rules: 1.) make sure the meat has been frozen in a very fresh state (not 1 day before the expiry on the packet) 2. don't fully defrost at room temperature 3.) if possible only refreeze on the same day or very shortly after the defrosting process has finished.
In my experience the texture of most refrozen meat is fine with the exception of thinly sliced beef. Dont refreeze more than once, otherwise you mush the textures so much that it can become inedible (beside the massively increased risk for contamination).
You can refreeze uncooked food under certain circumstances, but it comes with a cost.
Freezing destroys cells, especially in meat and vegetable. So when you defrost a piece of meat its cells collapse and fill with water. When you refreeze it again ice crystals grow and can tear even further into the meat. This way the texture can get unpleasant (really depends on speed of freezing, temperature etc).
The second thing is the main reason people get told NOT to refreeze meat. As soon as the temperature of your meat rises above a certain threshold dorment bacteria and mold will be reactivate and start growing again. If you defrost at room temperature this can happen quite quickly. Defrosting in the fridge is way better cause the bacteria will grow at a slower rate. So can you safely refreeze meat? Yes you can, if you follow certain rules: 1.) make sure the meat has been frozen in a very fresh state (not 1 day before the expiry on the packet) 2. don't fully defrost at room temperature 3.) if possible only refreeze on the same day or very shortly after the defrosting process has finished.
In my experience the texture of most refrozen meat is fine with the exception of thinly sliced beef. Dont refreeze more than once, otherwise you mush the textures so much that it can become inedible (beside the massively increased risk for contamination).
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Thanks for taking the time to reply everybody
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Depends on the meat. For example quyite often lamb is transported frozen then sold as fresh. Customers take it home and freeze it. It won't be as good as if they coioked it as though it were fresh and then freeze it. A lot of fish is transported frozen then thawed and sold in markets as fresh particularly if it is caught in deep sea environments where it is gutted and frozen in the ships holds.
You have to remember that in domestic freezers where the recommended temperature is -18C foods still degenerate alothough very very slowly. Bacteria cease to breed but they don't die so the longer you leave foods in the fridge or in the nice bacteria friendly environment of the kitchen the more bacteria you consign to the freezer. Industrial freezers and supermarket freezers are set to -36C so the foods last considerably longer.
Many fruits won't freeze successfully because of high water content although some will still freeze successfully if you have a flash freeze facility. Most vegetables will freeze very well if prepped and blanched in boiling water for 1 - 2 minutes. Tomatoes hate freezers so mash them, pulp them, skine them freeze them coz that's how they are going to come out anyway. Still far cheaper and tastier than bought cans of chopped toms. We have a vacuum sealing machine so we can evacuate all the air before freezing. This ensures foods will last up to 2 years in the freezer without any degredation.
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Very good point and the reason I will never re-freeze cooked chicken, having seen many examples of frozen chicken defrosted and sold as fresh.
But I do often buy meat here, cook it into various dishes and freeze it for later.
But our main problem is power cuts.
We frequently have power cuts lasting more than an hour and have often been forced to eat the frozen food immediately or bin it!
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Really?
I thought most freezers were ok for 24 hours if you didn't open them. Even being on the cautious side you should be ok with 12 hours.
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The problem is, as Thrax says, most domestic freezers do not have a low enough temperature to prevent some degeneration of food.
Add this to frequent power cuts, where the temperature is often rising, even for a short time, and you may have a problem.
But there again, I'm a little obsessive about bacteria in food, having suffered a couple of extremely nasty bouts of food poisoning (one requiring hospital treatment) from food I was assured was perfectly ok!
So now I'm what you might call a little over-cautious.
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