Chest Freezers

[tug]

thanks bleachboy and fifi

my DH is in charge of labeling all contents. We have a vacuum sealer, and he has sharpies in ALL sorts of colors. I'm pretty sure by now that we have a color coded chart that lists contents by date, food type, potential menu ...

can you say anal retentitive?

oh! and my new Kitchen Aid ice cream bowl sits very nicely inside Frosty .. I'll have to check out the ice cream thread soon

[I_call_the_duck]

my DH is in charge of labeling all contents.  We have a vacuum sealer, and he has sharpies in ALL sorts of colors.  I'm pretty sure by now that we have a color coded chart that lists contents by date, food type, potential menu ...

can you say anal retentitive? 

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Ain't anal retentive if it works. I like the idea of the color coding system. Much more efficient when it comes to digging stuff out of the freezer.

Frosty is very cute.

[Kevin72]

We call ours' (same model) Hoth.

Wish I'd seen this thread sooner; I'd have advised that shortly after I bought mine at CostCo last year I was in a Home Depot or a Lowe's and saw a larger model for $20 cheaper.

[tug]

We call ours' (same model) Hoth.

Wish I'd seen this thread sooner; I'd have advised that shortly after I bought mine at CostCo last year I was in a Home Depot or a Lowe's and saw a larger model for $20 cheaper.

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we actually have no room/need for a larger model. I say that now. If, in a few months time .. we actually fill this thing .. we have wa-a-a-y too much food.

[Richard Kilgore]

We call ours' (same model) Hoth.

Wish I'd seen this thread sooner; I'd have advised that shortly after I bought mine at CostCo last year I was in a Home Depot or a Lowe's and saw a larger model for $20 cheaper.

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we actually have no room/need for a larger model. I say that now. If, in a few months time .. we actually fill this thing .. we have wa-a-a-y too much food.

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By the time you get a few quarts of dark chicken stock, light chicken stock, beef or veal stock, a deer, a pig and a side of beef in there, you may be running out of space.

[bleachboy]

Another tip, by the way, for a new freezer owner:

Go to a restaurant supply and buy a ton of those 1 and 2 cup Chinese take-out soup containers with lids. They sell them in sleeves of 25, usually, and you can buy 100 of each for under $20. They are fantastic for when you make big batches of stock, soup, stew, sauce, etc. They stack nicely. They are relatively cheap plastic, though, so don't overfill them or they will crack.

[Chris Hennes]

I'm currently in the market for a chest freezer since my hope is that I can find me some local 4-H kids who have a pig I can buy. I'm hoping to find one that can get REALLY COLD though, for better long-term storage of the pork. Anyone have any suggestions for models that go low?

[Richard Kilgore]

I'm currently in the market for a chest freezer since my hope is that I can find me some local 4-H kids who have a pig I can buy. I'm hoping to find one that can get REALLY COLD though, for better long-term storage of the pork. Anyone have any suggestions for models that go low?

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Most if not all of the freezers sold in consumer retail stores are design for storing already frozen food. If you read the fine print, their manuals either ignore the issue or point out that it holds the temp somewhere above zero and you should put only a little bit at a time in the freezer at a time. And if it is in a warm or hot environment like a garage or unairconditioned room, it will not do well.

On the other hand, check out your local restaurant supply house for a commercial quality freezer. It will cost about twice what you would pay at a retail store (Wal-Mart, Sears, etc.) but should do what you need it to do. But read the fine print and talk to someone at the restaurant supply or manufacturer who is knowledgeable.

Good luck and let us know what you end up getting.

[RobertCollins]

I like to keep mine at -10°F. Better keeping and only a pain if you want to scoop ice cream from that freezer.

For those who want to make dry cured sausage, according to M. Ruhlman in Charcuterie quoting from CDC; 5° will kill Trichinosis Larvae in 20 days, -10 in 12 days, -20 in six! So in two weeks its sausage time.

As for putting a lot of not frozen product in at once that really isn't hard. Pick up a block of dry ice and put it in with the product or maybe better, a while before. At -40° F or C, the numbers are the same at this intersection temp, a 5 or 10 pound block will suck a ton of heat out of that hog Chris wants.

Edited June 5, 2008 by RobertCollins (log)