Judging by the label on the package, we still had a 2 deer limit back in 2012. I'm gonna thaw this bad boy out tomorrow and have a look. Any bets as to how it made out through 4 years in the deep freeze?
I'm gonna thaw it and go from there. I've had 2 year old deer meat that was fine, except for one edge freezer burnt, but otherwise no funky odor or flavor. We double plastic wrap, then butchers paper so our meat seems to fare pretty well. If I don't eat it I got two hounds that can't read dates.
Well being double plastic wrapped you might be okay, but I'm sure some trimming will be needed. We don't do a lot of roasts or steaks, mostly butcher and throw it all in gallon freezer bags until we make meat, then most of everything gets vacuum sealed. We've had pretty good luck like that
Don't think it could hurt you , flavor may not be the best Was always told beef -1 yr pork-6 months in freezer
Oh yeah, I'm not concerned that the meat has went bad in the sense of bacteria causing food poisoning. Strictly in the sense of being "off" or too freezer burnt. Reminds me of some venison my niece dropped off early 2016 from her late 2015 buck. They didn't do much for trimming fat and such, and ran it through a band saw bone in...my gosh I cooked one chop and was nearly ill over the smell. I don't know if it's bone sour or just the fat and tallow, but it was nasty.
If it was in a deep freeze then there is most likely nothing to worry about bacteria wise however it may suffer a bit in taste but who knows. I have eaten stuff that was two years old with no problems . You could always marinade it to help lol Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
Well, apparently 4 years is pushing it. Has a bit of freezer burn and that off flavor smell. It still has the silver skin (I dunno why I never zipped that off with the filleting knife) but the dogs are pretty pleased to see a batch of pooch slop go on the stove! Maybe it could have been saved by taking 1/4" off everywhere, and a marinade, but not going to worry.
One thing to keep in mind when thawing old meat is to thaw it slowly; preferably in the refrigerator. It does help some but you may still have to do a bit of trimming.
I find the best way to use the older stuff is stew it. V8 juice on low temp for a good while works well. Potatoes, carrots, onions, whatever to make it a stew. I shot a bison a few years back. Family of three. I was eating bison for a long time. Beer braised bison also covers a lot of freezer faults.
