The pamphlet that came with a new cooler advised against freezing sliced bacon, saying it could cause oxidative rancidity. We’ve frozen sliced bacon quite a bit, and weren’t aware of any problems. Our best guess is that perhaps it tends to go rancid faster after it’s thawed.
Does anyone know any facts or details about this?
Since bacon is sliced quite thin compared to a most meat, it has more exposed surface area that could react with oxygen which over time results in rancidity. It is also raw, but still salted pretty heavily which helps slow down microbial activity.
I imagine that since this warning label was found in a cooler that they assumed whatever goes in it will probably end up thawed out at the end of the day (even with good coolers I haven’t seen one that isn’t full of slushy water or half-thawed food after 12 hours).
So they are probably recommending against re-freezing thawed bacon since it may have started rotting a bit after being thawed. Of course there’s less chance of this if it’s sealed.
Vacuum packaged bacon is okay, previously opened or bacon not vacuum packed should not be frozen. Any meat that has been previously frozen will rot faster than meat that has not been frozen. The only meat I heard that shouldn’t be frozen are sausages that are in natural casings. The casing will freeze before the meat inside and it will break open.
There is no problem with freezing bacon. I usually buy from the meat market as it is of better quality than the prepackaged kind.
Freeze it this way. Get a roll of plastic wrap. Lay one end on the counter and place a strip of bacon on it. Now flip the strip and the underlying end of the plastic over onto the wrap, so that the strip is completely wrapped in a layer of wrap. Now lay the second strip on the first. Fold the wrap over the second strip and lay out a third. Fold over the third and lay the fourth, etc.
Now you will have a stack of bacon with each strip separated by a layer of plastic wrap. Put this in your freezer. When it is frozen, put the whole thing in a plastic bag. Now when you want some bacon, simply pull on the end of the plastic wrap, and as many strips as you want will come out of the block without being frozen together.
Viola!
I think you’re missing the point–since so much bacon fat is exposed (b/c it’s sliced so thin), it goes rancid much more quickly than other meats.
Rancidity is due to oxidation, not bacterial action. So the upshot is: don’t store sliced bacon for a long time. Frozen or not, bacteria-free or not, it will still go rancid.
Well, oxidative rancidity is, anyway. As opposed to micriboal rancidity. But yeah, what he said.
It is actually the salt content of bacon that causes the fat to become rancid. Even sealed vacuum packed bacon will go rancid in the freezer after 4 weeks. If you want to keep it any longer than that, part cook it slightly less than desired, drain, cool, wrap in paper towels and plastic and freeze it. It can later be chucked in a frying pan or microwaved straight from the freezer.