Q: I want to know how to freeze individual portions of meat. I often buy meat, fish, and poultry on sale and need to freeze it for later use. How can I do this in a "green" way? I want to avoid using plastic wrap. I have tried aluminum foil, but I find that not only does it tear, but that the meat absorbs a metallic flavor. Any other ideas?
Sent by Kate
Editor: Kate, when wrapping or packaging meat for storage in the freezer, your chief aims should be to block out moisture and air. Most people do this by using a layer of plastic wrap, and then a layer of aluminum foil.
But our recommended method is actually to wrap the meat in butcher or freezer paper. This is a waxy coated paper (the waxy side should go towards the meat, with the paper side out). Wrap your cut of meat tightly in this paper, and tape it shut. Then wrap the whole package in an airtight layer of aluminum foil. (The foil can be used over and over again with future batches of frozen meat.) Add a piece of masking tape or paper tape and write the date and contents on it.
Some butchers and meat shops will wrap your meat in freezer paper if you ask!
Readers, what are your preferred ways of packaging meat, fish, and poultry for the freezer?
Related: Quick Tip: Freeze Leftover Cooked Chicken
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if you're using a ziploc type of bag, you can push out the air fairly effectively by dipping the bag into a bowl of water before sealing it shut.
Plastic wrap, aluminum foil and then tossed in a freezer bag.
We use the freezer paper and foil method in my household too. It works wonderfully. For longer term storage we vacuum-seal. The bags are sturdy and strategic seal placement allows us to reuse the bags over and over.
We buy most meats in bulk. For short term freezing (14 days or less) we just use a Rubbermaid bowl sized as close to the portion as possible (to keep air to a minimum).
For longer term storage, we use a vacuum sealer.
This was the method recommended to me by a butcher, but since I'm lazy and don't freeze meat often, I use ziplock bags.
Get a large piece of butcher paper lay the paper out so it looks like a diamond with a corner facing you. Lay the meat on the paper -- long side facing you ( <==> ). Fold the bottom corner of the paper over the meat, your hand folding it over and pulling towards yourself removing any space for air. Fold the two side corners of the paper over the center as tightly as possible (don't be afraid to squish the meat, it won't hurt anything). You should have one long triangle above the center. Roll the meat up into the triangle as tightly as possible getting as much of the air out as you can. Tape the corner (you should only need one piece). It may take a couple tries but if you wrap the steak (or whatever) tightly enough you should be able to keep it in the freezer for months.
I used to work at a butcher shop, that was how we did it and almost never got freezer burn.
Vacumm sealer. Most use reusable bags. You'll lose a lot of meat to waste from freezer burn using butcher paper.
I hear it's quite tricky to find freezer paper that is not coated with plastic, so if plastic is what you're trying to to avoid, worth looking into.
I used to solely rely on freezer ziplock bags with the squeezing the air out method, but it always ended up getting freezer burn at about a month after.
Now I wrap everything tightly in multiple layers of plastic wrap then store in a large ziplock bag. I find this will last up to three months.
Soon I will be investing in a vacuum sealer. Anyone have a quality but inexpensive brand/model I should get?
I save the plastic containers and lids we get from take away meals and reuse them. They are perfect size for us. They stack easily and I can take them out of the freezer and move to fridge or microwave to defrost very easily. Like these ones: http://www.cater4you.co.uk/acatalog/500cl-take-away-container-s.jpg.
I use glass containers with a lock and lock style lid. They stack reasonably well and work great in the fridge & freezer.
I use Ziplocs. They get washed and reused usually at least three times before I find they need to be replaced. My meat never freezer burns, because I freeze them with marinade in the bag. Makes weeknight dinners super easy too, just pop a bag in a bowl of water & as it thaws, it marinades too!
Exactly how we used to do in the old days, and it never left us. Plastic and foil became a thing that we ignored.
Never had reason to wrap it in foil, too... it's overkill.