Defrosting Bacon And It Thawed Now I Want To Defrost Again ?

[dieseldick]

i bought heaps of bacon and sausages, took them out of freezer yesterday but i cannot eat them all and dont know what to make with them , about half kilo.

can it be defrosted again today ?

[naomi24]

If you mean can you freeze it all again - no. You can cook it and then re-freeze it.

[Ken4155]

Do you mean can you re-freeze them? If so the answer is no.

[Ken4155]

If i buy bacon and sausages in bulk, i separate them into portions before freezing. And if it is already frozen, it is possible to separate the rashers with a little patience and a great deal of care using a knife.

[Cloverjo]

"The experts" say you shouldn't refreeze something that's already been frozen and defrosted. I've never quite understood why. However, you could cook some sausages for your evening meal, have some bacon in the morning and cook the rest in a casserole to be used for a couple of meals.

[MargoTester]

Make a sausage and bacon casserole with them, then when it has cooled you can freeze it.

[Sycamore3House]

Cook it all then refreeze.

[waterbitch]

you can cook sausages chill them and refreeze(keeps about a month) but not sure about bacon,you could fry it then freeze in single rashers with foil in between may work or do the English thing and eat lots of bacon sandwiches for every meal

[gollob]

Bacon will keep in a fridge without any problem. The salt in it will preserve it for at least a fortnight.

[Old_Geezer]

http://www.livestrong.com/article/541007-why-shouldnt-you-refreeze-meat/

[boxtops]

Do as said next time, put into portion sizes before you freeze it. However - this time, just cook it all off, then freeze what you can't eat. It'll be fine once it's cooked.

[Hypognosis]

The problem with bacteria is two-fold.

Firstly, some bacteria can double their number in as little as 30 minutes. For the sake of argument, let's say the doubling takes an hour or more. If it is a particularly thick chunk of meat, it will take X amount of time fir the cook to consider it fully thawed. For most of that duration, the outer surface will have been above zero degrees and surface bacteria can start multiplying. Biological systems work twice as fast for every 10°C rise in temperature.

Refreezing requires a second thaw session which only doubles the time available for surface bacteria to multiply further. If there are enough, a handful may escape high temperatures and stomach conditions and cause food poisoning.

Secondly, with botulism, the problem is that the botulin toxin is not destroyed by cooking temperatures, even when the bacteria are. So long as the meat has a continuous history of storage at under 5°C (hint: the boot of your car breaches that specification, albeit briefly) then you should be okay.

Thawing in the fridge may take ages but at least it doesn't mean the surface of the meat reaches kitchen temperature.

In summary: a second thaw extends the incubation time for whatever is on it. If you have handled the meat with bare skin, bear this in mind. Left long enough I have seen refridgerated meat develop surface colonies even though the packaging is unbroken, so the bugs get onto the meat at the factory, afaic.

[Ric.ror]

But won't the re-freezing kill all germs and if not the surely the cooking will?

[Hypognosis]

@Ric.ror

You can't have read Old_Geezer's linked article then? Freezing makes bacteria go "dormant". It doesn't kill them

Cooking will kill bacteria on the outside of a chicken, for example, but the body cavity's inside surface might only reach 30-40C, which is ideal incubation temperature - rapid multiplication. A bit of under-cooked breast meat, from next to the ribs and who knows what toxins have migrated into it?

If it's a rolled up slab, the core or the cylindrical roast might barely get to 80C. In getting there, it might have spent 30+minutes at a nice incubation temperature. The bacteria will be all dead by the end of cooking but more or them would have been produced. Mostly harmless but…

As mentioned above, botulin toxin is just a molecule and it does not break down at typical cooking temperatures. Wherever the bacteria was, even on the well-crisped outer areas, there will be traces of toxin. Needless to say, freezing does nothing to change its properties.

[Tilly2]

That's why I always use a meat thermometer ^.