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Q re refreezing meat

radcen

radcen

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I bought a ham yesterday. Stuck it in the freezer when I got home. It occurred to me later that I should have cut it into three pieces and wrapped separately prior to freezing.

Is it safe to thaw a (fully pre-cooked) ham, cut it up, then re-freeze it?
 
Don't thaw it:

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I don't see any problem at all. Ham is well-preserved and has a high salt content, which is usually great for inhibiting bacterial growth.
 
it's not the ideal practice, but it should not be harmful under normal circumstances
that frozen meat, once thawed and then cooked, can be re-frozen as the cooking will have destroyed the bacteria which could have become been present in its thawed state
 
radcen said:
I bought a ham yesterday. Stuck it in the freezer when I got home. It occurred to me later that I should have cut it into three pieces and wrapped separately prior to freezing.

Is it safe to thaw a (fully pre-cooked) ham, cut it up, then re-freeze it?
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As long as you thaw it in a refrigerator it should be fine. Never thaw meat at room temperature, as this can provide fertile ground for dangerous pathogens.
 
Paleocon said:
As long as you thaw it in a refrigerator it should be fine. Never thaw meat at room temperature, as this can provide fertile ground for dangerous pathogens.
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spot on:
Food thawed in the refrigerator can be refrozen without cooking, although there may be some loss of quality.
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The Big Thaw
 
I have never refrozen something after it thawed. I always had heard that it wasn't safe. :shrug:

And I have always thawed at room temperature. Much, much safer than thawing in warm water! :)
 
It's generally best to hold the thawing and refreezing to an absolute minimum.... can ruin the taste quickly, etc.
 
lizzie said:
I don't see any problem at all. Ham is well-preserved and has a high salt content, which is usually great for inhibiting bacterial growth.
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radcen... my motto is "listen to the woman".
 
lizzie said:
Well, I dunno. It may simply be proof that God exists, that I haven't died yet. :lol:
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I would definitely say that about me... going over a cliff, big wave surfing, the no rope rock climbing, being charged by a moose, in the wild with bears, struck be a rattle snake once and catching others with sticks (Separate incidents), etc.?? I have been blessed with all my extreme sport idiocy and walking away with minor injuries. On top of that I have been blessed to save the lives, or help save the lives of, 12 people including my mother and my daughter (separate incidents). Even though I don't believe in God it makes me wonder...
 
Crovax said:
Now thats just silly

Thaw-counter
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No...

The Big Thaw

By the time the inside of a meat product has thawed, the outside will have warmed up to room temperature and thus become fertile ground for the spread of potentially lethal pathogens such as botulism.

Superfly said:
I have never refrozen something after it thawed. I always had heard that it wasn't safe. :shrug:

And I have always thawed at room temperature. Much, much safer than thawing in warm water! :)
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Neither thawing at room temperature nor in hot water are safe. Meat should be thawed in the refrigerator or in cold water.
 
Paleocon said:
Neither thawing at room temperature nor in hot water are safe. Meat should be thawed in the refrigerator or in cold water.
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Meh, I've been thawing meat on the counter for probably 30 years, and never once have I gotten sick.
 
Paleocon said:
No...

The Big Thaw

By the time the inside of a meat product has thawed, the outside will have warmed up to room temperature and thus become fertile ground for the spread of potentially lethal pathogens such as botulism.



Neither thawing at room temperature nor in hot water are safe. Meat should be thawed in the refrigerator or in cold water.
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Just a bunch of tripe with no scientific evidence to back it up

Recently, Jiménez et al. (1999) reported a study that supports the conclusion that poultry can be thawed safely at ambient temperature, on the counter.* Large chicken carcasses weighing over 6.5 pounds were frozen and then thawed by 3 different thawing methods:* thawing on the counter at ambient temperature (72F), thawing in flowing water (72F), and thawing in refrigeration ranging from 38 to 45F.

Differences in bacterial population before freezing and after thawing were assessed.* The aerobic plate count,*Enterobacteriaceae, and pseudomonad populations of the skin of uninoculated chickens did not increase when the chickens were thawed on the counter in less than 10 hours to an internal temperature of 40F within the breast.* The most notable observation was that there was a small increase (0.5 log10*CFU/g) in the population of pseudomonad bacteria (spoilage bacteria) when the chicken was thawed under refrigeration, which took about 55 hours.
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Saves 2 days thawing on the counter with no discernible difference in bacteria
 
Superfly said:
Meh, I've been thawing meat on the counter for probably 30 years, and never once have I gotten sick.
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Yup. I just keep mine covered so that the bacteria in the air doesnt settle down on it. What should not be done is keeping canned meat in the can after you open it.
 
PoS said:
Yup. I just keep mine covered so that the bacteria in the air doesnt settle down on it. What should not be done is keeping canned meat in the can after you open it.
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Yeah I've actually never kept anything in the can, never kept anything in the fridge in anything metal, and if the kids put a dish in the fridge with the spoon left it in, I toss it. Just don't trust it.
 
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