Can I freeze this?

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cambsno

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Had some pork and beef mince in freezer. Defrosted it yesterday and made a lasagne. As I had extra I made a smaller one. Mince has obviously been cooked for the sauce. Can I freeze this safely so I can just pop in oven in coming weeks or does the fact the mince was frozen before make this unsafe?
 
I personally never refreeze anything that has previously been frozen.
 
If you cooked it after taking it out then you can refreeze it.
 
Thanks. Know you shouldn't refreeze but thought cooking impound make it ok.
 
Yes - you can freeze it again now it's cooked.

Advice these days seems to suggest that you can also refreeze defrosted meat even if it hasn't been cooked providing it was defrosted in the fridge.
 
Yes, you can freeze it again - but this is the last time. Make sure it's piping hot all the way through when you reheat it.

I would never re-freeze without cooking, but I do it frequently in the way you've described Simon.
 
Yes you can this time. Properly reheating will kill any bacteria, but the problem is with the toxins they leave behind. They don't go away with heat and build up after repeated thawing/refreezing.
 
dinners said:
Yes - you can freeze it again now it's cooked.

Advice these days seems to suggest that you can also refreeze defrosted meat even if it hasn't been cooked providing it was defrosted in the fridge.
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I have a feeling that this only applies to raw meat that has been commercially frozen - they can chill it much faster than a home freezer can ever hope to so the refreezing is effectively the meat's first slow freezing. Personally, I never buy frozen meat and rarely freeze at home unless there's a very good special offer on something.
 
You can defrost your mince cook it and then freeze the end result.
The freezer storage time is the same as it was for the raw meat so if you had mince in the freezer for 6 months you can only store the end result for 6months (beef is safe in a 4* freezer for upto 12months).
You MUST recook it when you take it out, not just warm it through. With mince based dishes you can cook from frozen. This is not acceptable for seafood.
For information, now adays you can treat pork the same as beef I.e. have it rare or refreeze it. The farming processes are somuch better now.

Oh, & for lasagne, I recommend just batch cooking the ragu sauce rather then making up a large lasagne. You can you the sauce in a bolognaise & the pasta gets a bit chewy.
 
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Yes its fine once its cooked. As someone mentioned above, advice seems to be changing regarding refreezing. The U. S. Dept. of Agriculture say if meat has been defrosted in the fridge its can be refrozen without cooking.
 
In the same way that JPEGs can degrade images over open/save cycles.
 
neil_g said:
which is great if you can get to the shop every 5 mins.

cooking in bulk, freezing and defrosting when required for lunch or dinner is great. and convenient. and cheaper than going to buy sandwiches.
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i know a woman who lives 3 hours drive from the nearest shop...and thats in good weather....so freezing is the only option, mind you she lives in norway so no need to even use a freezer for part of the year :naughty:
 
If you're doing repeated, multiple freeze-defrost cycles there's more to worry about than flavour.. but we're only discussing two cycles which with a lasagne I think you'd struggle to spot any difference at all - beyond the "it always tastes better the second day" effect ;)

Curry tonight, and that will be several meals worth - so most of it is definitely getting portioned up and frozen for next week.
 
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daugirdas said:
Without going too far into the detail freezing and defrosting makes it taste worse and worse every time. Try buying and cooking only what you need.
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It's good general advice, but can be difficult to do in many circumstances. I love cooking but coming in from work and getting a meal cooked from scratch for the four of us before 6pm limits what you can cook. Having pre-made and previously frozen meals which are defrosted the day before mean we can eat nutritious meals even when both my wife and I are out working during the day.

Similarly, when our first child was imminent (and I was rather conveniently on gardening leave) I filled the freezer with 3 months' worth of dinners for two. I guessed that cooking decent meals might be a struggle given the change which was about to occur to our lives and schedules... turned out to be the best bit of forward planning I've ever done.

OP's question has been answered pretty comprehensively but I'd also back up what @Peter69 says about freezing portions of ragu and other sauces (inc white sauce if you're so inclined) and re-assemble on the day of cooking.
 
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