[Eddie_T]

I read of a taste test of frozen breakfast sausage where pre-cooked Jimmy Dean sausage took the prize. The theory was that fat oxidation begins with grinding so immediate cooking resulted in the best preservation of taste.

I am planning to freeze my own pressed hamburger patties and wondered if searing patties before freezing would be a good idea or not. Another thought is that we want beef to taste like beef whereas sausage is heavily spiced, also pork fat may be more susceptible to oxidation than beef fat.

Any thoughts on this, or should I just give it a try?


Sidebar: On maneuvers in the Army when on the move we often had a hot meal morning and evening but for lunch three people would share a three meal C-Ration package. The most despised content was the canned sausage in the breakfast meal. I found that if I seared the sausage patties over a small fire they were quite good. Knowing this I would trade beanie weenies (the favorite) for sausage and get other items in the trade.

 

[IamZeke]

Saturated fats have a very slow rancidity progression. Especially when in frozen meat.

So while precooking may have some flavor advantages, I'm not inclined to attribute it to rancidity.

In any case, it seems an easy enough experiment to play around with.

Personally, I don't precook meat much because that removes meal flexibility.

 

[charliemeyer007]

Interesting. I have had some frozen pre-cooked sausage paddies my sis buys at walmutt. They are actually very tasty and fast to reheat but I would never buy them, way too much salt and other stuff.

I have had some frozen beef paddies from different stores, none were pre-cook. They were ok.

Vacuum packed might be a good plan.

I'll look in my book later today and see if it has anything on the subject.

A Guide to Canning, Freezing, Curing & Smoking Meat, Fish & Game by Wilbur F. Eastman Jr. ISBN 1-58017-457-4

 

[Potawami II]

You read a test paid for by Jimmy Dean. If I wanted to eat precooked frozen sausage patties or links I'd eat that **** at the local breakfast buffet. Never been to one of those yet that has edible sausage instead I just load up on bacon.

 

[IceFire]

I have made and frozen my own hamburger patties with no issue. You don't even need a hamburger press. Just place your ground meat between a couple pieces of waxed paper, then use a dish or pot with a flat bottom to press the meat into your patty shape. Since you already have your patties between waxed paper sheets, you can just stack your patties into meal sized packages for your family size, then either wrap in freezer paper and/or vacuum seal to have on hand for later use.

 

[Eddie_T]

Saturated fats have a very slow rancidity progression. Especially when in frozen meat.

So while precooking may have some flavor advantages, I'm not inclined to attribute it to rancidity.

In any case, it seems an easy enough experiment to play around with.

Personally, I don't precook meat much because that removes meal flexibility.

By your logic I came to the conclusion that I would probably be wasting my time with searing beef patties before freezing.

However I used to follow America's Test Kitchen on PBS finding their logic to be pretty sound. In wondering how they missed it I realized that it was me that missed it. The Jimmy Dean pre-cooked sausage I purchased was frozen only because it was in a grocery outlet and they freeze meat products before expiry.

So the Test KItchen sausage taste down test was a comparison of reheated pre-cooked sausage to several brands of fresh (or not quite as fresh) sausage. In that case the aging process whether oxidation or enzymatic was altered by pre-cooking. Those doing the tasting were doing it in the blind.

 

[Hammer 1]

About 4 times a year I make 100-120 premade sausage biscuits for the kids school breakfast. I grill my sausage patties over charcoal. 60 at a time. They taste great even after 2 months in the freezer. 4-6 hours baking and grilling on a Sunday for a 60 seconds breakfast


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