Our new freezer has turned into a long a frustrating saga. We purchased and had it delivered about a month ago. One of the features that attracted us to this freezer is that it has a high temperature alarm. The freezer beeps when the temperature gets above a certain temperature. I have lost a freezer full of food before when I left the door open. It is a painful event not only because of the cost of the food lost (about $400) but because of the labor that went into making the lost food and the fact that I no longer had that food to rely on to make my days easier. A high temperature alarm sounded like a good feature to have on our freezer to avoid losing food in the future.
Unfortunately the high temperature alarm goes off constantly despite the fact that the freezer is plenty cold. GE has sent out a repairman three times now. The first time he reset it and declared it fixed, but the alarm came back on in a couple hours. The second time he ordered some replacement parts. The parts were on backorder and we had to wait a while for them. He came for the third time yesterday and installed the replacement parts. It was declared fixed again. And yet again the alarm came back on in a couple hours.
I have held off on filling the freezer just in case it needed to be unplugged for repair or returned even though the repairman has assured me it is fine to use since it is freezing fine and the alarm is the problem. I'm still too wary to go full on with my plan of cooking for several days and filling up the freezer all at once., but I have been gradually adding a few things at a time. I made some dinner-sized portions of marinated chicken breast and froze them. I also made spicy black bean soup. One batch makes way more than my family can eat in one meal,so I froze four containers of that. This is all making me think I should do a post about eat one, freeze one meals that are easy to have for dinner and stick an extra in the freezer.
Yesterday I decided I was tired of waiting and to start really filling up the freezer. Right now isn't a great time for me to do my original plan of cooking a bunch at once. School is ending, and there's a lot going on with that. Plus we have guests coming soon and are probably going to do some traveling shortly after they leave. I don't have a whole week right now to fill up the freezer. I decided to do it gradually instead, starting with the simple stuff. Specifically I'm starting with the smoked pork and chicken. If the method of gradually filling up the freezer appealed to you over the getting it done all at once, then this is for you. I prefer to get it over and done with, but this is what I can do right now. The key to successful freezer cooking is being flexible.
Day 1 (Saturday): Smoked Pork
I can smoke two pork butts in my smoker at a time. It takes all day but doesn't require much from me.
10:15 am to 11:15 am
I start the day by setting up the smoker and preparing the pork. During this time I:
- Pulled out and set up the smoker
- Cleaned the grate
- Got the coals going
- Made Memphis Meat Dust to coat the pork
- Rinsed, dried and rubbed the pork with the dust
- Stopped occasionally to help or discipline children
By 11:15 the meat was in the smoker and everything was cleaned up. I like to be home when the smoker is going, but since it doesn't require much attention I can go about my day as normal.
5:00 pm
I have been out twice to briefly check on the pork. Other than that it's just a day at home. We have been catching up on a lot of cleaning and laundry. Now I need to check on the pork again to see if we can have it for dinner tonight. That was my original plan, but I got it in pretty late for it to be done in time for dinner. It's okay if it doesn't work out tonight. I have pasta I can make, and we enjoyed our lazy morning.
I have been out twice to briefly check on the pork. Other than that it's just a day at home. We have been catching up on a lot of cleaning and laundry. Now I need to check on the pork again to see if we can have it for dinner tonight. That was my original plan, but I got it in pretty late for it to be done in time for dinner. It's okay if it doesn't work out tonight. I have pasta I can make, and we enjoyed our lazy morning.
The pork is currently 144 degrees. It needs to be at 190 to be done, so it has a ways to go. It looks like it is Spaghetti Carbonara for dinner tonight!
9:30 pm
9:30 pm
The coals in the smoker are dying, so I move the pork into our oven inside at 250 degrees to finish cooking. Pork butts can be unpredictable and specifically they can stall for hours around 150 degrees. Or, the butts I bough this time still had the pig skin on. I've never come across that before, and I was too lazy to remove it before cooking. It's possible that slowed the cooking process. Next time I'll buy my meat at a different store to avoid that.
11:15 pm
The pork is finally done cooking and smells amazing. The oven definitely helped it move along. This did take a long time. The stall combined with the dying coals slowed things down. If you do your pork in the crockpot or oven it won't take this long. I think smoked pork is worth the wait though.
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| The meat cools faster when spread out on a large tray instead of being piled up. I also like to work in sections on the tray. I'll add a pile of meat to one section and then move onto the next section instead of putting hot meat on the cooling/cooled meat. This way when I'm done shredding all the pork, the first section of meat is cool and ready to be packaged for the freezer. |
11:45 pm
I'm finished. In the last 1.5 hours I have:
- shredded the two pork butts and spread the meat on a sheet tray to cool
- eaten quite a bit of the delicious, crispy bark while I shredded meat
- woke my husband up to have some of the bark as well. In the past he has informed me that if he is sleeping when there is barbecue coming out of the smoker I should wake him so he can have some of fresh bark.
- helped a child who woke up crying with growing pains.
- pulled out and setup the vacuum sealer
- realized I have not used the vacuum sealer since we moved and I have not idea where the bags for it are
- searched the kitchen until I found the bags
- helped another child who woke up crying with growing pains. My kids are having a rough night.
- portioned the meat into freezer bags, sealed and labeled them and put them in the freezer
- relaxed with a refreshing popsicle (shredding freshly smoked pork butt is hot work)
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| Check out that pink smoke ring! |
Summary:
Number of Meals Made: 6 - 5 for the freezer and one set aside for dinner tomorrow.
Hours of Active Work: 2.5 - Granted I did end up staying up late since the pork took a long time. However I am a night owl and often stay up late anyway. Plus my kids had a rough night and I would have gotten up twice with them if I had been asleep.
Total Cost: $30.44
Cost per Meal: $5.07
Time per Meal: 25 minutes
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| 5 packages for the freezer and 1 container for dinner tomorrow |
Day 2 (Sunday): Barbecue Sauce
My original plan was to smoke the chickens this afternoon after church, but I decided to take a nap and smoke them tomorrow. Instead I made a double batch of my favorite Mustard Barbecue Sauce for pulled pork. I didn't do a great job timing myself since I was making the sauce while getting other things ready for dinner, but it comes together pretty easily. I would say I probably spent about 20 minutes total making the sauce. 10 minutes for chopping onions and peppers and another 10 for adding various ingredients and stirring throughout the cooking process.
All told the sauce spent about an hour cooking while I worked on coleslaw, cutting up watermelon and making brownies for dinner. I let the sauce cool while we ate and then divided it into small containers for freezing, which was another 5 minutes. I meant to get a picture of my pulled pork dinner, but I was looking forward to eating it and forgot. The meal was delicious. I'm sure that some people will think I'm nuts for spending an entire day smoking pork butts when there are faster and easier things I could make, but the meals I make with smoked pork are among my favorites. I promise I'll post about the easy meals too.
Summary:
Containers of Sauce: 7
Active Work: 25 minutes
Total Cost: $10.63
Cost per Container: $1.52
Time per Container: 3.5 minutes
Day 3 (Monday): Smoked Chicken
Today I am smoking chickens. My smoker can hold three chickens at a time, and they need to be cut in half. Unlike pork butts, chicken cooks pretty quickly. Generally each batch takes 2 to 4 hours, so I do two batches for a total of six chickens.
11:55 am - I get started on the process. I spend 45 minutes:
- emptying the ashes from yesterday out of the smoker
- getting the coals going in the smoker
- cutting the chickens in half, seasoning them and placing them on smoker hooks
- cutting my finger pretty badly
- cleaning and bandaging the wound
12:40 pm - The first batch of chickens go into the smoker. I cut up and season the second batch of chickens. No finger slicing this time.
1:05 pm - The second batch of chickens is prepped and in the fridge waiting their turn in the smoker.
4:50 pm - The first chicken comes out of the smoker. The rest are getting close
5:10 pm - Another chicken comes out. That's 2 of 6 done. The other four seem to be hovering around 155 degrees when they need to get to 160. I decide to take them out and finish them in a 350 degree oven so I can get the second batch of chickens in. It seems like the meats are taking longer to smoke than usual and I am baffled as to why. Then I realize that I smoke outside, and I am accustomed to smoking in Mississippi. I recall meat cooking faster in the smoker on particularly hot and humid days there.
This is my first time smoking chickens in New York and only my second time smoking pork here. It's likely the warm, humid, Mississippi air gave the smoker a boost over the cooler, drier air of New York and consequently the meat cooked faster. Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining! I love the weather here. I will simply need to adjust my expectations for cooking time in the smoker. The first batch of chicken goes in the oven. The second batch goes in the smoker.
5:40 pm - The rest of the first batch of chickens come out of the oven.
5:55 pm - I've shredded the two chickens that came out first. I broke the other four into pieces so they will cool faster, but they are too hot shred right now. I will shred them after dinner.
7:00 pm - We've finished dinner and it's time to get back to work. We had some of the smoked chicken for dinner as well as leftover barbecue sauce, coleslaw and watermelon from last night and added some roasted corn on the cob tonight. It was delicious, but in the future I will save the mustard barbecue sauce for the pork. I love it with the pork, but I don't care for it on the chicken. Time to shred!
7:30 pm - I have shredded the remaining four chicken halves, divided them all into portions a vacuum sealed them in bags. They're in the fridge right now. Later when the rest of the chicken is ready I will take it downstairs to the freezer all at once.
9:00 pm - The chickens still in the smoker are hovering around 130 degrees and once again the coals are dying. I am moving them into the oven at 350 degrees. I will have to rethink how I smoke meats in this cooler climate. I could add more charcoal around the 6 or 7 hour mark when the coals start to die. Or I could just plan on moving the meat to the oven around that time. Smoke only penetrates the meat for the first couple hours of smoking. After that the flavor with not be impacted.
9:53 pm - The chickens are done cooking and now I am waiting for them to cool enough to shred them.
10:45 pm - The chickens are cool and ready for shredding.
11:40 pm - The chickens are shredded, vacuum sealed, labeled and in the freezer.
Summary:
Number of Meals Made: 10 - 9 for the freezer and one set for dinner tonight.
Hours of Active Work: 3 hours
Total Cost: $63.54
Cost per Meal: $6.35
Time per Meal: 18 minutes
And that's the end of the first three days of making freezer meals. It included two pretty long days but not too much actual work and now I have 14 dinners worth of cooked meat in my freezer to make things like tacos, noodle bowls, salad and barbecue. In a couple weeks I'll be back with more freezer cooking.
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