Patty flash freeze

[grecco]

Hey guys. I had a thought about trying to flash freeze patties before packaging them. If everything goes as planned this year I might be cutting an elk or 2. I just bought a quick patty maker. I will be cutting the elk up at my family cabin that has a small chest freezer and a fridge that is from the 60s. Last year we cut an elk and barley fit it all in the freezer. It took a long time for all the meat to freeze.

My thought on making a flash freezer for patties is to get some dry ice and have that in a cooler and put the patties on a cookie sheet with dried ice under it then have a block that is supported over the cookie sheet.

Has anyone tried anything similar to this and how long do you think it would take to freeze them enough to package without them being 1 big chuck of meat.

[Jonathon]

grecco I don’t know how this would work but it sounds like a good plan. A few things that sound like a good idea to keep in mind, make sure none of the dry ice touches any of the meat, make sure none of the patties are touching each other, use parchment paper or thick plastic wrap to separate them from whatever you use to lay out the patties, and single layer is probably the best way to go.

Let us know how it turns out!

[cdavis]

grecco sounds like a good plan.

[Cory Brown]

That’s similar to what I do…using 1 sheet of patty paper on each patty, stacking them, and putting them in the freezer at least over night. After that, unstack in packs of 4 (4 in the family) and chamber seal. FYI, don’t stack too high or the middle ones won’t freeze. The patty maker on the stuffer or grinder definitely makes life much faster. My daughter (14 and not really wanting to help ) and I triple ground and made 100# of venison patties a month ago in about 4 hours with a #12 grinder.

Dry ice sounds like an interesting idea. Using the freezer I figure the biggest thing I don’t want is freezer burn, but them being basically uncovered for just one night has not had any issues. Actually, the ones we made have been some of the best we’ve had, but that could be the pats of butter I’ve been adding on top when I cook them.

[Deepwoodsbutcher]

grecco I had a few lugs of burger I needed to chill down quickly. I put a lug liner on top of the burger and filled it with ice. I sprinkled salt over the ice so that I would get super cold. The top layer of the burger froze. I’m not sure that would work differently or any better then your dry ice plan, just something that worked for me.

[processhead]

grecco Just browsing the web, it sounds like people have used dry ice to freeze food.
From what I read, for best results, pack the meat in small enough packages with the dry ice interspersed between them. That way the meat freezes quickly.

In other words, for best results, don’t try to freeze a large block of meat at the bottom of the freezer by just setting the dry ice on top.

[Cory Brown]

I would definitely say use the patty paper either way. It will allow the patties to “release” easier from the cookie sheet. Doing it I would see it as a 3 person job with 2 cookie sheets…1 person stuffing, 1 person working the patties onto the cookie sheet, 1 person swapping cookie sheets and vacuum sealing as they freeze. What I’m really not sure of is if the burger will freeze fast enough to be efficient.

If stacking in the freezer, definitely use lugs. That’s how we did it. As I stated before, we stacked about 4 over the top of the lugs and the meat in the middle didn’t freeze fully. I could have let it go for another day, but wanted to get it done. A disadvantage of the lug, without a drainage bottom, is that the bottom rows had frozen blood that had to be dealt with when sealing them the next day. Next time I will put in the bottom “lift”. I’m not sure what the false bottoms are called.

[processhead]

Cory Brown

Definitely agree on the patty paper. Anything not separated prior to freezing will be one chunk after allowed to freeze.

[chippewa]

grecco I always spray cooking oil on my trays when I lay my Patties out to freeze before packing.