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Defrosted Frozen Turkey and Ham

samfsu

is one Smokin' Farker
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So i decided to defrost a half of turkey breast and piece of ham that I smoked from Thanksgiving '12. I tried slicing them but they seemed watery. Anyone have any experience like this? Do you slice then freeze?

Any thoughts and assistance are appreciated.
 
Freezing can change the texture a bit like you describe. Was the food otherwise OK?

With long term freezing the moisture can migrate out of the meat (freezer burn) and I use a FoodSaver (vacuum sealer) to minimize that.

Using frozen (raw) meat and freezing the resulting smoked meat are sometimes necessary. I can't eat eat everything I get from one batch in the smoker so freezing is a necessity. By the time I've reheated the smoked meat, it seems nearly as good as when it was fresh out of the smoker.
 
When I have leftovers to freeze, I cool, slice, and add any other necessary ingredients and then Vac-Seal. I then simply re-heat in water to the desired temperature in the bag and then plate / pan to serve.
 
These were already cooked and I used a Foodsaver. Both had a watery taste but were "ok" otherwise. Oh well. Maybe 2.5 months in the freezer was too long? Maybe they defrosted a little then refroze (i did have an episode where the freezer lost power for about a day but i didnt think anything thawed)....
 
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