Thawing and refreezing venison

Americanpride

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Jul 23, 2018
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So I threw my deer legs in the freezer because I was heading out of town. Now I'm back and I want to cut it up and debone and grind some meat, then throw it in vacuum sealed bags and refreeze. Is this a good idea.

My first time harvesting and processing a deer.

Thanks for the help and knowledge.
 
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If it's anything like fish or beef it's not the best practice but it won't hurt you. From what i know it lowers the quality of the meat. Its better to prep the meat into meal size bags before freezing. but i don't blame to be an expert on this
 
It’s totally fine and you won’t notice any difference at all. I like to process right away, but only because it’s a lot simpler than thawing out whole quarters, which can take like two days to do...
 
Dam not good practice as said before.
My boss said contact a butcher on this one. I don't know this one.
Maybe some one can chime in.
I suspect lots grocery meat frozen
Thaw out
Edit: oops you got an answer.
 
You've been thawing and refreezing?
You've been thawing and refreezing?

Yes. I take a small freezer with me on a lot of out of state hunts. Cut the animal up put it in the freezer and bring it home frozen.
Then when I’m ready to process it myself (which is usually sausage) I will defrost it.
Or if I take it to a butcher usually still frozen they have told me they defrost it to cut and wrap. Then re freeze it
 
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Yes. I take a small freezer with me on a lot of out of state hunts. Cut the animal up put it in the freezer and bring it home frozen.
Then when I’m ready to process it myself (which is usually sausage) I will defrost it.
Or if I take it to a butcher usually still frozen they have told me they defrost it to cut and wrap. Then re freeze it
Awesome thank you Lungpopper.
 
I dont have any first hand experience freezing venison but I heard a podcast from Meateater not too long ago and they discussed this issue. According to a couple of the guys including Steve Rinella they thaw and refreeze meat all the time and haven't run into any issues. Just make sure when it's being frozen that its wrapped and sealed properly.
 

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