once frozen ?

[Homunculi]

i got my doe last thursday and on the heels of the excitement i got some bad news ,,,
so saturday night i got to getting her butchered and packaged .. and had a friend with a burger grinder
for sunday afternoon but sunday is when i needed to be to services for my grand mother ..

i have a couple of packages that i have for burger but they are frozen now ...

would it be safe to thaw ... grind and refreeze ? or go buy a grinder and when i want to use those packages
thaw and grind when i am ready to use them ?

[Sailfish]

Personally, I have no problems thawing and refreezing meat. Done it often.

Dunno if its an old wives tale based on days of lore when processes and refrigeration wasn't what it was today or not. Or if it affects taste......but you are making burger and your going to readily refreeze it. I wouldn't hesitate.

[Deebz]

I ALWAYS butcher my deer and freeze the scraps I'm going to gring, then thaw them out for marathon grinding sessions with whoever else wants to grind. We all work together, and only make the huge mess once. Then we re-freeze our burger or make whatever brats or whatnot and freeze that as well....

[Jslotter]

Should be fine. The theory behind meat thawing and then refreezing I understand is air in middle of the meat will hold room temperature even after freezing and cause spoilage. I have taken out meat of the freezer a few times, thawed it in the fridge, refroze it all in the same day. Thawed it again weeks later and ate it up. Usually I do this after realizing Im out of charcoal for the grill . Never got sick doing that and nothing was ever wrong with the meat.

[kellory]

As I understand it, there is always some bacteria present on the meat, but it is only active when thawed. The less time thawed, the better, and while thawing, and refreezing, the the bacteria is working on the meat.

[Homunculi]

so ... if i thaw in the fridge and it does not reach room temp .. grind and package and refreeze .. things will be ok ...

but if i let thaw and get to room tem.. is when i might have a problem ,,,

sounds like a trip to harbour frieght to me for a meat grinder

[kellory]

Golem, you should be fine, but that is not what I said. To simplify it....only cooking and freezing stop or kill bacteria. Anything else, bacteria is active. You know you can not leave raw meat in the fridge very long, it must be frozen or cooked. Fridge just slows the bacteria down. Speed is more important than temp.

[Homunculi]

well i need a grinder anyway .. and my thought of leaving it froze till i want it is my better idea ..
so if i buy a grinder then i will not have to rely on a buddy an his grinder when i need to butcher a deer ..

and if my searches are correct the grinder i am looking at from bps dicks and walmart are almost 100$
over at harbour freight i can get a grinder and a slicer for less than the other stores

.. thanks for the input ...