h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We had a BBQ party last week, the boys did food shopping, which meant we ended up with many, many sausages

Some of those had been left in the fridge and needed to be cooked, so one of the housemates cooked them then stuck them in the freezer.. fairynuff.

But would they be okay to eat? Obviously we'd heat them thoroughly, but I'm not sure whether being cold then cooked then cold then reheated is a good thing

Any help appreciated... I want my sausages!

Hmm, were they frozen to start with (I.E., before they were cooked on the barbeque)? Generally speaking, with meet, sorry, 'meat', its regarded alright to reheat it once after its been cooked, not sure how freezing would affect that premise though.... If you've not got an answer by tonight I can ask my Father (food hyginist/technologist/QC) He might know *trys to think... I imagine as a 'gut reaction' if you'd excuess the phrase That it would probably be alright if heated really well, I base this 'gut reaction' on the way that some frozen food is partly to a greater or lesser extent cooked or part-cooked, or blanched before freezing, I know they do it a lot with veg (holds colour, preserves some more vits and minerals, helps prevent degredation in the freezer, stops free fatty acids being quite so much of a problem), I believe* they also do it with some fish products that are frozen, and some meet 'meat' pies..... Though I wouldn't trust just my word; I rarely do

Thank you Doctor Badgerlegs

They were bought as refridgerated, rather than frozen, and kept refridgerated, then cooked under a normal grill (day after BBQ), then stuck in the freezer.

I don't mind waiting for an answer.. they're not going anywhere!

My sausages!

Because they were cooked before being frozen, they should be fine. Infact, if you bought them chilled, froze them raw, THEN thawed and cooked them it would also be fine. You should NOT freeze things twice while raw, or twice after cooking, but you can defrost raw things, cook them and then refreeze - the cooking should sterilze them a bit. If you refreeze something that hasn't been cooked (reheating doesn't count by the way, doesn't go on long enough) you are basically letting all the bacteria 'wake up' and start reproducing, so you are refreezing it with even more germs in. Cooking thoroughly should kill them off.

Am I making sense? I looked all this up in my Mum's vast complete cookery for eejits.

I'd eat them... But I've a bit of a tollerence to eating gone off food, I have frequently eaten things like porkpies several days out of date, and thats ment to be a bit dodgy... ate some half cooked fish fingers once; still frozen in the middle, no side effects

Cool!

mmmmmm....sausages....

Best way to defrost them? Should I take them out before work in the morning, just leave them out then heat them up properly when I get home? Defrost in the microwave? my experience of sausages in microwaves isn't good!

I don't cook much me

I'd let them defrost "naturally" before reheating them.

RF

I agree let 'em defrost badgerly

YAY! Thank you

Sausages round mine for dinner tomorrow!

Out of date pork pies sounds dodgy but since almost all fish can be eaten raw I'd expect raw or even frozen fishfingers would be fine too.

Sushi fingers - you heard it here first.

F

I've eaten reheated frozen cooked sausages many times and it's never done me any harm.

As long as they're defrosted (fish fingers I mean) there's no reason why you shouldn't eat them "medium rare". Nearly all the fish that ends up on supermarket so-called "fresh fish" stalls has been previously frozen; I personally prefer my fish slightly underdone, especially cod and haddock, but also salmon, and of course tuna should just be seared on each side for best effect.

And I'm still here.

RF

After all that, I forgot to get the flippin sausages out of the freezer this morning!

Will text one of the housemates to pull some out for me

When if any doubt about the edibility of food find a student and leave them in the kitchen on their own for half an hour with said food prominently displayed. If it is edible then you will find 1 student and 0 food after half an hour. If it isn;t edible then you will find 1 ill/throwing up/dead student and no food.

Actually, that's kinda like scroedingers cat isn't it? Until you actually go back into the kitchen the student is neither well nor ill and the food is neither eaten nor uneaten. Hmmmmmmm.

No, not quite.

The status of the student may be in a state of superposition (isn't it always?) but the food will undoubtedly have been eaten.



F

It's fine to eat meat that has been frozen after it's cooked. If your freezzer ever breaks down you'll find it very useful. Cook everything, then re-freeze it when the freezer is fixed.

Except the ice-cream...

F

Correct. The ice cream is there to be consumed whilst waiting for the freezer repair man to call. For this reason, you should always keep a tub of ice cream in your freezer. This is what is meant by "for emergencies".

RF

!

*makes note to always keep ice cream in fridge 'for emergencies'*

The sausages I've scoffed so far were lovely, must remember to defrost some more tomorrow


And yes, whether or not you've opened the door, I think it's fair to say the food would already have been eaten