Emergency Freezer Clean Out: Help

[KopperBuck]

I've got a chest freezer that I rarely use, just over storage. Well, I went to get into it today and moisture must have gotten under the seal. Now I have half a chest freezer, other half giant ice cube. I'm thawing it out and will be pulling meat as it comes free. Whole muscle meat I'm going to can, maybe some jerky/sausage. But the majority in the ice cube section is burger.

Question: I'm thinking my best bet with the burger is going to be sausage, but it already has fat added to it. I can't tell you how much since I didn't process it. It was given to us from some friends that run cows down near Burns. Anyone had experience recycling burger into something else? Should I be adding pork, but at a lesser extent?

Any other ideas? Much thanks.

[ICEMAN]

We grind venison with the same quantity in weight of pork shoulder or pork butt, to bring in some fat...

Season and press into natural pig gut casings.... awesome.

[92xj]

I'm in the tricities and have room in my freezer for a ton of meat if you need a place to store it before cooking it or if you dont want to try and cook it all.  Losing meat would suck, so let me know.  It's available for you if needed.

[Johnb317]

Time for a big BBQ?    Once thawed don't you need to cook it?  Maybe the meat inside the block can be seperated out before it thaws. 

[ICEMAN]

We have thawed and refrozen meat many times, sometimes even on purpose...  

Never understood the fear in eating meat frozen twice, if it never spoiled between freezings it is no worse for the wear.

To thaw and then refreeze something that has been flash frozen for commercial sale, you get a crappier product after a re-freeze...  I have frozen large blocks of meat for later processing...thawed to process it, then refroze it... That is the normal process for us when getting ready to do a large sausage grind...  You just have to plan on a long thaw in a controlled environment, not on the counter.....  The middle of our blocks are usually still pretty frozen when we grind.

Mixing seasoning in to partially frozen ground or half ground meat is where we separate the boys from the men. You know what I am talking about only if you have tried this.

[Austrian Hunter]

Damn ice, that looks good!! 

[ICEMAN]

Oh yeah. Thanks! Next step is we smoke about half of them in a smoker. We freeze half of the batch as sticks, some smoked, some not.... and we pressure can the other half...some smoked, others not. Yum.

[WCTaxidermy]

Ice, that looks mighty good.  On that first picture, I won't even ask what is being done to that poor, poor grinder.     

[Austrian Hunter]

Ok, now you rubbing it in:((. Late season needs to get here so I can put some deer and elk in the freezer. 
I'm drooling now, thank you Ice

[DoubleJ]

If you're hell bent on turning it into something else, there is a ton of burger-only breakfast sausage recipes out there on the web.  I have made them many times when I wanted breakfast sausage but only had burger in the freezer

[ICEMAN]

Ice, that looks mighty good.  On that first picture, I won't even ask what is being done to that poor, poor grinder.     

Yeah, that grinder is nice and warm after a bit of grinding frozen elk and pork.... 



Not many grinders around which you set on the ground and stand over to load...

[Woodchuck]

I have room to store as well, just let me know.

[DoubleJ]

Ice, that looks mighty good.  On that first picture, I won't even ask what is being done to that poor, poor grinder.     

Yeah, that grinder is nice and warm after a bit of grinding frozen elk and pork.... 



Not many grinders around which you set on the ground and stand over to load...

Ever get tired and just sit on it whaile you're feeding it?

[Johnb317]

One suggestion.... when freezing a lot of meat I pickup dry ice and quick freeze in a cooler... once frozen I move it to my freezer.

[kentrek]

Ice, that looks mighty good.  On that first picture, I won't even ask what is being done to that poor, poor grinder.     

Yeah, that grinder is nice and warm after a bit of grinding frozen elk and pork.... 



Not many grinders around which you set on the ground and stand over to load...

Ever get tired and just sit on it whaile you're feeding it?

 

looks like a sore back after a couple hundred pounds of burger to me