Freezing Fresh Venison (Sorry if this is in wrong tab)

**JustMegan79** · 11-27-2011, 03:31 PM

Hi,

My husband got two deer yesterday. He dressed them out as usual, hung them up, and last night we ground and packaged it in freezer paper (just as we did the one from last week) and put it in the freezer. The one we did last week, nothing odd happened. But this afternoon I opened the freezer (to get something else out) and discovered that there is frozen blood all on the bottom of the door shelf. Only the packages on the bottom seem to have bled, they are all frozen rock solid.

But now I have a dilemma. Do I take the bottom packages out and unwrap them (since they leaked and now the paper is bad) and re-pack, or do I take them out, do not unwrap, and just put another layer of freezer paper around them and relabel, and then clean out the frozen blood?

I am sorry if this sounds icky or if it is in the wrong spot. I would appreciate any advice.

Thank you in advance

**Darlene** · 11-27-2011, 04:21 PM

I'd do a complete rewrap and good cleaning. Congrats on having all that meat in your freezer!

**lparker** · 11-27-2011, 04:37 PM

Get a FoodSaver for next time. Wouldn't be without one now. Actually if you are just using freezer paper, you could vacuum pack the frozen packages. Won't get freezer burn and it won't leak.

**ladytoysdream** · 11-27-2011, 06:06 PM

If you have any ziploc type bags, I would use those.
I would just slide your original pkgs as is into them.
I would not rewrap them.
It would be cheaper to use the food storage bags versus
the freezer bags if retaining the original wrapping.
Get a bowl with very hot water and a rag to wipe the blood out of the freezer area that it dripped in.
If the blood is just on the vension pkgs, you should be fine.
If on other food items, then you may have to dispose of them if it leaked through.
Use the messy pkgs first if you retain the original wrapping.

I like to let the meat set over night in the frig after getting it cut down, before bagging it. Sometimes I use bowls and / or food storage gallon bags. In the morning, put the meat so much at a time, in a colonder to let it drain of the excess blood. Doesn't take very long.

I keep both quart and gallon freezer bags on hand this time of year, and I do have some gallon storage bags.

We put 2 deer in the freezer this season. I like to make
1 pound pkgs and I flatten them so, they stack real sweet.
I use freezer quart bags ( Aldi's bags are the cheapest )
A small scale to weigh.
I ground our hamburg with our own grinder. As is with no
additional fat.

I also bought some frozen beef liver from a meat processor recently. The pkgs are in 1 pound vac packed. I used a quart freezer bag to slide over each one before I put them in the freezer. I didn't have to do this step but now I know which liver I got this year versus some from last year that needs to be used first. Mainly this gets fed to the 2 dogs.

I also have 6 flat metal long sheets, think cookie trays, about 12 inches by not quite 24 inches. I use them in the freezer as needed to hold the meat bags. When meat is frozen, I remove the trays and restack. The trays stop any leaks.
When adding more vension, I alternate the frozen bags with the fresh stuff going in. That way, the later bags don't freeze together, and freeze faster.
I defrosted the 2 freezers back in Steptember I think it was. I took inventory at that time. Thank goodness. First I did the one, and waited a few days, and then did the second one.

One of my freezers is really OLD. I keep enough canning jars on hand in case there is problem with one of the freezers. We don't normally lose our electric and if we do, it would be only like 5 or 6 hrs max. We also have a older generator so we should be okay.

**JustMegan79** · 11-27-2011, 06:35 PM

Thank you all for your advice! I wish I had a food saver/vacuum sealer, but I don't have one yet. What we ended up doing is removing all the packages that were soaked with blood on the bottom of the freezer door and re-wrapping them, without removing the original paper. I re labeled them and re packed them into the door, after dh took towels and hot water and cleanser to the freezer door.

I have come to the conclusion that we packed too much into the door (we only have a fridge freezer) and that it took too long to freeze. Though it was cold enough to keep it safe to eat. I really need to invest in a deep freezer.

**JustMegan79** · 11-27-2011, 06:36 PM

As a side note, previous to moving to town, we always hung the deer and soaked the meat for two days in salt/cold water. I am thinking that because we did not soak it is part of the reason it bled also. Thoughts?

**SewFrugal** · 11-27-2011, 06:42 PM

Congratulations on getting two deer in the freezer. My dh got a deer on Thanksgiving. We take it to a butcher. We butchered one ourselves years ago, lots of work and we just aren't set up for it. In fact we just picked it up today and put it in the freezer. There's nothing like venison!! As far as your question. . . . I'd rewrap it in a ziplock and clean out the freezer. Congratulations again!!

**ladytoysdream** · 11-27-2011, 06:47 PM

Depending on how cold the weather is here, we let than hang at least one day, maybe several days. It lets the blood drain out.

The only meat we let soak in cold water would be the liver and the heart to get more blood out of it.

I have never seen regular deer meat soaked in water or salt added. Not sure what the reason would be to do this.

Both our freezers are uprights. I tried something new this year, and used 2 of those plastic crates to hold the meat pkgs after they are frozen. Sure beats stuff sliding out.

I was going to mention about putting too much at a time in a freezer area. Like if we were to buy half a cow, I would have to use both freezers to split it up, if it went in unfrozen.

**JustMegan79** · 11-28-2011, 07:05 PM

Originally Posted by ladytoysdream

Depending on how cold the weather is here, we let than hang at least one day, maybe several days. It lets the blood drain out.

The only meat we let soak in cold water would be the liver and the heart to get more blood out of it.

I have never seen regular deer meat soaked in water or salt added. Not sure what the reason would be to do this.

Both our freezers are uprights. I tried something new this year, and used 2 of those plastic crates to hold the meat pkgs after they are frozen. Sure beats stuff sliding out.

I was going to mention about putting too much at a time in a freezer area. Like if we were to buy half a cow, I would have to use both freezers to split it up, if it went in unfrozen.

To be honest, I am not sure what the reason is/was for all the previous years of soaking/salting. I married into a hunting family, and had not been exposed to it at all when I was younger. So, that is the way they did it for tons of years I just assumed that was the way to do it.

I also assumed that since we did not do it that way this year that was why it bled in my freezer. I have decided that we put too much in at one time, long and short.

But now it is all re packed and even if it was not totally frozen all the way through, it will still be safe because it was almost frozen...right? (And now as of tonight, I have not opened the freezer at all until now and it is all totally frozen).

**low-1** · 11-29-2011, 07:52 AM

A salt water brine would theoretically help preserve it so it would last longer. I do that with anything I'm smoking or making up into jerky, but the rest just gets frozen. The way we wrap is to wrap up tight in saran wrap first, then freezer paper. Never EVER had a problem. A vacuum sealer would be nice, but I can't justify the expense over a economy roll of cling wrap at Cosco. The friend that I shared a moose with this year uses old bread bags rather than saran wrap. Actually looked a lot easier than saran wrap, we just don't really go through that much bread.

A deep freeze would definitely be a good investment.