[shokkyy]

What is the maximum length of time you can get away with freezing beef and lamb? I've read somewhere that max recommended time for beef is one year, can't remember about lamb, but I've also read somewhere that in reality beef will keep almost indefinitely in a reasonably efficient freezer.

I'm wondering because I buy boxes of organic beef and I normally buy a 10 kilo box because there's only two of us and I worry that a bigger box would be in the freezer too long. However, I would really like to be able to buy the bigger boxes because they just work out so cheap. Even a 10kilo box isn't bad price wise, and it is fantastic Red Ruby beef, best I've ever tasted. But if you go for a 30kilo box it works out at £7.60 per kilo including a hefty delivery charge, and that's way cheaper even than supermarket prices, other than mince. I haven't tried their lamb yet because I never have room in my freezer for both boxes, but if I did go for a big box of both it would be worth firing up the backup freezer. I wish I knew someone who'd go halves with me on big boxes, but sadly I don't.

[agapanthus]

Well, we've still got some of our own lamb in the freezer (we had some today too) and they were slaughtered last October....still superb eating!! 

[shokkyy]

Oh, that sounds like I would get away with it then. I think some of these recommendation guidelines err hugely on the side of caution, but as long as the freezer's doing its job it's hard to see why meat would ever deteriorate very much even over longer periods of time.

I'd really like to try their lamb boxes too, they have Wiltshire Horn breed and I've never eaten that. I never realised how much difference the breed made to taste until the first time I tried Gloucester Old Spot pork, was hard to believe it's the same meat as the pork I buy in the shops. And the Red Ruby beef is easily the nicest beef I've ever tasted.

[GrannieAnnie]

We've had our own turkey in the freezers for over a year and it was still like it was killed and frozen yesterday!!!!

[Madame Cholet]

From a safety point of view freezing stops bacterial growth. Its fine to eat almost indefinately the flavour is supposed to deteriorated over very long periods.

[Spana]

We have our own beef so i get a whole bullock at a time.  I usually have a bit left over from the previous lot when the new bullock comes home.

I cooked a big joint of Highland topside last weekend that had been in the freezer 2 years. It was superb. :happy:

[mumofstig]

When they found mammoths and mastadons under the ice they were reputedly still edible, but I suppose the temperature there was colder than a household freezer   

[Willow_Warren]

From a safety point of view freezing stops bacterial growth. Its fine to eat almost indefinately the flavour is supposed to deteriorated over very long periods.

Ditto... the only think that can happen is that if the temperature fluctuates in your freezer then the quality can deteriorate.   For commercial freezing the norm is 12 months... for home freezing 3 months is the reccomendation, but I normally exceed without any problems just need to make sure it's well wrapped so there's no chance of "freezer burn..."

Hannah

[shokkyy]

Thanks for all the helpful replies. It does sound as though I can safely bulk buy my beef and lamb. The farm I buy from does a very good job of packaging and labelling, and that does make things a lot easier to find when they've been in for a long time. We'd get through the meat faster if it was winter all year, but in summer when it's hot I rarely cook roast dinners.

[mumofstig]

make sure some of it is small cuts for grilling, BBQ then.

I used to get lamb legs cut through in slices for summer BBQs 

[shokkyy]

I've never been able to get the lamb boxes before, but the cuts on the beef box are a really good assortment of steaks, mince, stew meat, roasts and slow roasts. I didn't have to repackage anything, it was perfect. They do give you the option of asking for any of the cuts to be minced, beef or lamb, and for the lamb you can specify whether you want the leg and shoulder whole or halved. That's a good idea to get the leg sliced though, cos I do like lamb leg steaks. Do you do that just with the top end of the leg or the whole thing?

They do sell a combo box, with 10kg beef and 10kg lamb, and that averages out at a bit less than £4 a pound or £8.75 a kilo including delivery, which is really very good. But 20kg meat is more than I can fit into my main freezer but not enough to warrant firing up the backup freezer. To use the backup I really need to place a bigger order than that.

[mumofstig]

I had them all sliced just to leave the shanks for casseroling 

[RsT]

Shokky, can I ask who it is that you buy from?

[shokkyy]

It's an organic farm in Cornwall. Their website is here - http://www.cottagefarmorganics.co.uk/meat-products.

[GrannieAnnie]

Somebody on the forum mentioned bircham mill in norfolk the other day for bread.  When I looked at their website.  They also do their own lambs  at the moment a whole lamb is £5.50/kg and half is £6/kg for half a lamb.

The lady we got our lamb from the other week was selling her whole lamb at £6.  Mind you, they did cost her £70 to buy, so she didn't make anything on them by the time they'd been butchered.

Don't know if Bircham mill deliver all over though.