Freezing the Meat

I am not a huge fan of freezing meat, but for most home cooks it is unavoidable. That said, you can take steps that will help keep your meat in optimal condition once you consider several factors, one of which is fat content. Fat contains no water, so during the freezing process there is less crystallization in fatty meat than in lean meat. Therefore, I advise you to eat the lean cuts first, grilling or roasting up your chops, loin, and tenderloin, and to freeze the chuck, shoulder, belly, and other fattier cuts, plus the off-cuts that you will eventually turn into ground meat and/or sausage. (Don’t grind the meat before freezing, as the thawing process will yield dry meat. Instead, freeze it in large pieces. When you’re ready to make burgers, defrost the meat gently, cut it into chunks just slightly smaller than the opening of your grinder, and then grind it.) Another factor is size: bigger pieces of meat survive freezing better than smaller pieces. A pork shoulder will freeze and defrost in far better condition than a pork chop. But, in some cases, you will still have more meat than you and your family can eat before it begins to go bad. If you need to preserve a large, lean cut such as a leg, I heartily advise you to cure it instead. For a leg of beef, make bresaola. For a leg of pork (a.k.a. “fresh,” or “green,” ham), cure it first, and then either smoke or dry it by hanging—then make your own prosciutto, for instance.