Hi guys, I have a question for some of you other hunters out there. Went out and bagged a couple wild rabbitts today and plan on making jerky with them after they sit in some salt water over night. My question is I have another rabbitt that was in the freezer from March or April of 2016. Do you think it is safe to cook yet. I looked on the usda website and it says as long as it has been frozen continuously in which it has it is safe indefinitely but for best test eat within one year of freezing. What do you guys think?
https://youtu.be/9TjQIjECJ1g
Should be fine.
I agree, should be no issues!
There should be no safety issue but quality may suffer. I would make jerky from the frozen one and smother fry the fresh ones. ;)
don't eat to much at a time we made jerky out of 10 of them ended up with the Hershey squirts :D
Also called the "Outhouse Trots"!
That's from a story by: Willy Makit, and illustrated by: Betty Don't! :D
Quote from: DanG on January 08, 2018, 10:05:51 AM
There should be no safety issue but quality may suffer. I would make jerky from the frozen one and smother fry the fresh ones. ;)
Yep. Two different issues. Is it safe to eat and then what will it taste like. Somewhere in the home preservation of meat there is a recommended time to keep frozen meat.
Yup, as long as it's been continuously frozen, it's safe to eat, as in, you wont get food poisoning or anything. Just that stuff in the freezer tends to dehydrate and get "freezer burn", so it might start getting tough and dry. Basically 1/2 way to jerky already. So the freezer time guides are about food quality, not safety.
I'd pull the frozen one out and throw it in the slow cooker for the day with some veges and stock. After that it will be "fall apart tender" again, and still good to eat.
Makes a big difference on how it was wrapped/bagged etc. I've had venison that was vacuum bagged hide in the freezer for 2 years and be fine while the same cut wrapped in butcher paper is suffering in 6 months, zip lock is somewhere between.
Film wrap prior to vacuum packing will last for a very long time even if the vacuum is no longer fully effective.