How long will deer meat stay good in the freezer?
01-22-2007, 09:52 AM
#2
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: wi
Posts: 798
RE: How long will deer meat stay good in the freezer?
It depends on the type of packaging u put your venison in.Did you put it infreezer paper, plasticwrap, ziplock bags, etc. If it has any room for air in it, it will form ice crystals & damage the meat. Meat can be frozen for quite a long time, but needs to remain at a constant temp. I use a vacuum sealer, & the company states that meat can be frozen up to 5 yrs. Now, I know this may be a little long, but the only things that may suffer is the quality of the meat. I also wrap in freezer paper to help prevent freezer burn. I just had some meat that I froze in 05, & it was just fine. There was no graying on the edges. It looked like the day I put it in the freezer.
01-22-2007, 10:12 AM
#3
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location:
Posts: 37
RE: How long will deer meat stay good in the freezer?
We wrap in poli vinyl film (seran, cling wrap, whatever you want to call it) followed by freezer paper. We regularly have some meat that stays in our freezer for 3+ years. The oldest meat I've personally used was in the freezer for 10 years.It looked like the day it was put in and tasted fine. I've also seen some that started showing signs of freezer-burn after 4 - 5 years. The key is to wrap it VERY tight to seal out all air. If you have any doubts, when you take it out to use it, look for any graying and smell it. Freezer-burn has a very distinct smell, and you won't want to eat it.
01-22-2007, 11:38 AM
#5
Typical Buck
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Greenfield, IN
Posts: 953
RE: How long will deer meat stay good in the freezer?
We package ours in seran wrap followed by freezer paper... and I've eated meat that was older than a year old.. but it normally doesn't last that long around here.
01-22-2007, 01:59 PM
#6
Fork Horn
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Chippewa Falls WI
Posts: 353
RE: How long will deer meat stay good in the freezer?
In all actuality you should go through your freezer every year and use the oldest stuff first, Not sure how someone has meat from 10 years or even 5 or even 3 for that matter,I try to use up everything from the previous year before I start restocking the freezer, I watched a show on t.v. one time and they were talking about meat, they say you shouldnt eat fish after 1 year, some meat after 8 months and like pork was something like 5-6 months dont remember exactly what the time frame was but it was very interesting, if you look online you could probably find out...You will probably be fine to eat stuff for a long time but I just elect to eat my stuff within a year or so if possible.
