Storing Smoked Meat/Keeping Flavor

[JMel]

I currently smoke my meat in a CTO from Ole Hickory Pits and then vacuum seal it and store it in the freezer and/or fridge until we need it. We portion our meat(pork,chicken, brisket, etc.) out in 1/3rd lb vacuum sealed bags so we can control the meat count and have as little waste as possible.

Obviously BBQ has the best taste right out of the smoker and it loses it's taste when you store it in the freezer/fridge for days-to-weeks at a time.

What are some tips/tricks I can do to bring the flavor back and get it tasting like it did right out of the smoker?

Do I just cook enough meat for a couple of days to keep in the fridge and get rid of the freezer? Quit using a microwave ? Do away with a vacuum sealer? Any and all suggestions are welcome.


I'm not very experienced and just trying to find ways to make the flavor best as possible.


Thanks in advance.

[Harry Nutczak]

is this for home use, or restaurant use?

First off, Vacuum sealing without a variance from your health inspector is typically frowned upon for food safety reasons.

Other than that, I have no suggestions because I have never done what you're doing.

I did pull 3 microwaves out of the building we bought, I can ship those to you if you'd like them, I refuse to have one at home, and especially at my restaurant.
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[Harry Nutczak]

[qfanatic01]

If done correctly vacuum packing is one of the safest ways to store and reheat food IMHO. You want to hot pack, just like the commercial packers. The health dept. requires a HACCP and SSOP plan to insure that food is handled properly. If food is mishandled it can be exposed to pathogens (germs/bacteria etc.). If mishandled and vacuumed you’ve removed the oxygen and the pathogens that don’t need oxygen don’t have the competition of the other pathogens and tend to multiply quicker to toxic levels as well. You want to take it right from the smoker at temp to the bag with sanitized tongs and cool it down in a blast chiller or in an ice bath. Vacuum packing food that is not or cannot be sanitized is risky. You don’t want to vacuum pack leftovers from an event that has been sitting all day, even if it’s been held at proper temps. If food is exposed to air, there is a chance air borne pathogens have contaminated it. By holding at proper temps you can deter their growth, but given the opportunity their growth can explode. You have a limited window to handle leftovers. Even when cooled down properly, I tell my customers they have 24 hours to enjoy their leftovers. Even by killing some pathogens like Staphylococcus (staph) and Botulism there are still toxins remaining that can affect infants and invalids. Botulism can be found in honey for example and staph is found on our bodies. There are air borne pathogens and some found in drains such as Listeria which sometimes can’t be cleaned away. I have heard of a sandwich packager that had to move because of repeated instances of Listeria, they could not kill the beast. Now you have a couple wild cards in your hand when storing BBQ, they are why we have BBQ, rub and smoke, both are preservatives. They both increase the safety of the meat by deterring the growth of pathogens. In the restaurant and catering business we do not rely on those tools as we would have to create a HACCP plan just to run our businesses. Most of us choose not to bring that into the mix. We use smoking as a way to flavor not to preserve. By handling our food correctly without taking the benefits of rubs, curing and smoking into consideration our food is just that much safer. Google HACCP models and look for something similar to what you are packing for government standards. My health department wants a HACCP plan for none vacuum sealed bags now as well. They sure don't want to make it easy to do the job right!
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The lessons are in the customer's criticism. They aren't always right. The rewards are their satisfaction.

[RodinBangkok]

Aside from the safety concerns above there is the freezing process itself. You are not getting any better quality frozen product by vacuum packing it first, as a matter of fact most commercially frozen product is frozen before it is packaged with a process called IQF. The product is placed on trays or a conveyor in a single layer with little or no contact between pieces or tumbled. Then its blast frozen.

The factors in getting a quality product frozen does not involve its packaging, its mostly about the ice crystal size that is formed when the product is frozen, the lower the temp the faster the product freezes and thus the smaller the ice crystals. Large ice crystals burst the cells in the food making it soft and mushy. Pre packaging in layers of plastic and foil before freezing has no effect on the size of these crystals and in some cases can make freezing less efficient.
Multiple layer packaging may help prevent freezer burn. If your going to freeze something on a small scale or at home its best to get your freezer as low as possible in temp and put the pre cooled items on a rack to expose as much surface area as possible to the cold air. Then after is is rock solid can you package it. If you use a self defrost freezer you can forget about keeping the frozen quality as the defrost cycling will diminish the quality and reduce a properly IQF product to mush also.

We do MAP packaging for some meats (All within an HAACP plan), but these are raw and the atmosphere is an inert gas, nitrogen and or CO2. This type of packaging can extend shelf life and preserve color, but has nothing to do with frozen quality.
Home vacuum packaging systems are IMHO a gimmick that does not really do you any good, especially for freezing, remember its the ice crystal size not the atmosphere that makes a better frozen product!
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Rod