The everything about food thread.

[jerrymrc]

Excuse me for being the dumb bachelor about cooking and foods. I usually eat whats in my house in a timely manner while mainly keeping a stock of canned foods. My question is, how long will frozen meats last? Frozen Steak, Frozen ground beef, frozen chicken breast, etc? I have usually never kept them longer than a couple of months before thawing, cooking, and eating.

* Bacon or sausage: one to two months
* Ham, hot dogs or cold cuts: two to three months
* Raw roasts, steaks or chops: four to twelve months
* Raw ground meat: three to four months
* Cooked meat: two to three months
* Raw, whole poultry: one to two months
* Raw poultry parts: nine months
* Cooked poultry: four months
* Raw, wild game: eight to twelve months

You need to re-wrap most items to prevent freezer burn. I can attest to the life of Bacon. I bought a bulk pack once and all was fine for the first 3-4 months. Then I pulled some out at the 6 month mark and had to throw it away.

[KevDen2005]

* Raw roasts, steaks or chops: four to twelve months

Why such a large range?

* Raw ground meat: three to four months

Does this include ground deer meat or is that wild game?

* Raw poultry parts: nine months

Does this mean chicken breast? Wings?

[jerrymrc]

Why such a large range?


Does this include ground deer meat or is that wild game?


Does this mean chicken breast? Wings?

Depends on the cut and packaging

I believe so. You can add a little to it (time) but ground meat of any kind has a short life.

Yes

[KevDen2005]

Speaking of food storage, and thank you Jerry for the info, what about Mountain House? I was looking today and have never tried it. Is it good? How long does it last? I was just browsing around at Gander Mountain today and was looking at the cans there. One can did not take up that much space, was light weight, and had 16 servings.

Your thoughts?

[jerrymrc]

Speaking of food storage, and thank you Jerry for the info, what about Mountain House? I was looking today and have never tried it. Is it good? How long does it last? I was just browsing around at Gander Mountain today and was looking at the cans there. One can did not take up that much space, was light weight, and had 16 servings.

Your thoughts?

It's good, It's expensive. Now if you just want a variety of stuff that everyone will eat for the short term then OK. There may be a vendor in the links that sells it by the case. Used to offer group buys on the files a couple of years ago.

[KevDen2005]

It's good, It's expensive. Now if you just want a variety of stuff that everyone will eat for the short term then OK. There may be a vendor in the links that sells it by the case. Used to offer group buys on the files a couple of years ago.

I did notice that it was pretty expensive and was planning on shopping around for the best price. I was certainly thinking short term or bug out with these items. My thought is that I would continue to keep normal canned and dried goods that I bought at the store for long term.

[Batteriesnare]

Speaking of food storage, and thank you Jerry for the info, what about Mountain House? I was looking today and have never tried it. Is it good? How long does it last? I was just browsing around at Gander Mountain today and was looking at the cans there. One can did not take up that much space, was light weight, and had 16 servings.

Your thoughts?

Its good stuff, decently tasty, kinda pricy. One big downside that I see is they require boiled water for most entrees. This means you have to have some capacity to boil water (I like the MSR Pocket Rocket, $40 at REI plus fuel. Great little stove, downside is shorter fuel cell life.) I'f you're looking for something that is size and weigh efficient and (in my mind a big plus) self contained (cooking ect) I like military (not civilian) MREs. Similar concept, but they come ready to cook with the materials necessary, some extras (tp ect), have similar shelf life and are more cost effective. Just my .02.

[KevDen2005]

Its good stuff, decently tasty, kinda pricy. One big downside that I see is they require boiled water for most entrees. This means you have to have some capacity to boil water (I like the MSR Pocket Rocket, $40 at REI plus fuel. Great little stove, downside is shorter fuel cell life.) I'f you're looking for something that is size and weigh efficient and (in my mind a big plus) self contained (cooking ect) I like military (not civilian) MREs. Similar concept, but they come ready to cook with the materials necessary, some extras (tp ect), have similar shelf life and are more cost effective. Just my .02.

I used to have a number of real MRE's. The ones that didn't get eaten got thrown away. I was advised by some people whom I think are experts on the matter that if they go through many temperature changes they will go bad...and they had gone through quite a lot of severe changes just from moving all over and having to store things differently.

I actually have three different back-packing stoves. One I bought runs on gasoline, kerosine, or white gas. I looked a lot of different ones that could run on more than one fuel, this was one of the best I thought. A friend of mine had one in the army that he would run Diesel Fuel through, which I thought was pretty neat because we were so close to a lot of diesel trucks...but I haven't been able to find one that will run off of diesel

[cowboykjohnson]

How does the food saver vacuum sealer compare to sealing in mylar?

[KevDen2005]

You need to re-wrap most items to prevent freezer burn. I can attest to the life of Bacon. I bought a bulk pack once and all was fine for the first 3-4 months. Then I pulled some out at the 6 month mark and had to throw it away.

Jerry, forgot to ask, what are your thoughts on storing and freezing home made soups and sauces?

Anyone else can answer to, Jerry is the only one that has thus far.