Freezer Banking

I tend to talk a lot about pantry management as it pertains to what's in the shelf-stable storage.  That was the worst part of the food issue when I took over my mom's inventory.  Other than a few mentions of her mismanaged freezer, I pretty much ignore that aspect of meal planning.

I don't like to buy in bulk without a plan.  But these days, I find myself picking up anything that is a good deal with a reasonable shelf life or one I can extend with proper storage.  When chicken breasts were 99¢ per pound, I bought four of them.  Felt like I was stealing.  Smart & Final had ground beef for $2.99 per pound if you bought five pounds.  It was only 73% lean, which means 27% fat, but I had at least two ground beef recipes I wanted to make and only one pound of ground beef in the freezer.

Both of those buys got broken down into four-serving (one pound for the beef) portions and frozen.  I probably should have made 4 packets of 1.25 pounds for the ground beef, with all that fat, but I've been trying to make smaller portions anyway.  As much as I hated to buy five pounds of anything, it did feel good to know I was putting away 16 servings of chicken for less than $5 and 20 servings of ground beef for $15.  At the rate I eat meat, that's about 10 weeks, presuming I didn't have something in-between on a meat rotation.

So how long does meat really last in the freezer?  It depends on how you store it.  My Food Saver stopped sealing things, so I've been on the Ziplock train for the past few years.  It isn't as good as the vacuum seal you get from a Food Saver, so the items don't last as long.  Vacuum sealed meats can avoid freezer burn for 12-18 months.  Freezer bags, even the heavy duty ones, really only protect for 6 months, less if you have a power outage at any point and the items get above 10ºF.  Not sure why 10º is considered "freezing" for food safety purposes, probably as a buffer and to account for salt and fat needing to be frozen at lower temperatures.

I'm not into prepping freezer meals yet, mainly because they require extra containers.  Also, it's hard to find four-serving aluminum casseroles.  And I don't like single-use anything.  I try to use only previously-used freezer baggies for meats, since I know I won't reuse any that have had raw meat in them.  There's plenty of room still in my freezer if I were to remove the flours and the drop-in rack.

If you're going to do freezer banking of items you regularly use, make sure you do use them.  Freezer burn is not yummy.  If you have a large chest freezer, writing down an inventory and sticking it to the freezer with a magnet is not a bad idea.  My chest freezer is on the small side, so I can pretty much keep track.  I found a plastic beach tote at Ross that is the right size to hold most of my meats, so now they aren't slipping all over the freezer.

Also, remember to write the contents and date on whatever you store them in.  The teriyaki lamb was not a pleasant surprise.