Cooking Previously Frozen Meat

But, should you put the Mayo on before freezing?

What it boils down to is what works for you might not work for me . The cook has alot to do with the finished product . I have won with fresh and frozen so I dont believe it has a advantage either way . Just my 2 cents

Tom,

My understanding is that when water freezes it expands. When you freeze meat, cells that contain water burst from this expansion. This in turn cause the meat to be mushy.

I just cooked up a bunch of frozed briskets and butts. These were culls from my contest season last year. I use a specific commercial freezer to store this stuff. It is kept at zero and isn't opened often. Before this last cook, I would tell you that it makes no difference. However, after the disappointment of this last cook, I would say otherwise.

It definitely matters how long the meat has been frozen and even at what temp. I try not to use any previously frozen meat for competition. Having said that, I too have won categories with frozen butts and ribs when I couldn't get the product I needed. I've never tried chicken or briskets.

Back to that last cook, the product quality was way down. I cannot pinpoint exactly to what I should contribute this. However, I feel that this left over contest meat that was in my freezer for six to eight months played a very large part to my disappointment. The condition of the meat before it goes into the freezer what matter also. In this case, everything was fresh.

I'm rambling. My short answer is that I now feel frozen meat will produce different results than fresh.

Rod

Rodney,
I've noticed that the meat that is in cryovac doesn't seem affected so much by freezing as grocer packing meat. I can definitely taste the freezer burn taste on meat that is frozen after 6 months especially if it has bone exposed.
I wonder if sometimes what you buy has been frozen, thawed, refrozen, etc. They say you can refreeze if there are ice crystals still. So how many times have they refrozen the meat? And how many ice crystals are acceptable? I like the method of 1st in, 1st out.
I know that rabbit meat when frozen tastes mushy when cooked. I only like fresh rabbit. So maybe it does make a mushy taste on other meats to someone who has a better bunch of taste buds than I do.
So, I agree with you. Frozen and fresh give different results.
Peggy

myself i think the difference is the meat commercially frozen or home frozen?
ice cyrstals that cause celluar bursting dont normally occur with commercially cyrovac frozen products. as a matter of fact visible ice crystals would cause me to reject an entire order in my old chef days. that really drove sysco nuts!!!! it was a sign that the product had been frozen defrosted and refrozen and was reason enough for me to reject everything on the truck.
however properly stored cyrovac product is a whole nother bear. if you take the 4 to 5 days to properly defrost that in a refrigerator the product is great and will turn out just what you want.
learned all of this in school and the 5 years of varifiable experience not to mention the 4 hour written exam.
just dont let it set in the freezer more than 90 days and all is well
hope this helps
jack

28 Degrees is considered "Fresh".

The colder the meat is held, the longer it keeps.

I use an NSF commercial chest freezer at -25f. I only freeze what comes already cryovaced. I often cook all 4 meats from frozen in competition and am happy with my results.
~Konrad