Can I refreeze meat?

[SpeckledlyHen]

I made a meat ragu and froze it. I took it out of the freezer on Saturday and made a lasagne out of it, but there is still loads left. If I make another lasagne tonight (to the built stage, not the fully cooked stage) can I pop it back in the freezer for final cooking (defrosted first) at another time. I hate wasting food and this was good quality butchers meat and I have enough ragu to make another lasagne for 4.

Personally I can't see a problem with it, but can anyone assure me I am not going to die eating the frozen once already frozen ragu in the lasagne?

No

I personally wouldn’t.

Nope double freeze is a no no

No because you made the ragu. If it was raw meat frozen then cooked into a lasagne thats fine but I wouldn't freeze again. Just have for lunches :)

You can only re-freeze it if you have fully cooked it, you cannot refreeze raw meat once it has been defrosted.

Nope I wouldn’t particularly as it’s already been out the freezer since Saturday

No it isn't. You can make your lasagne and refrigerate it for a few days though.

No

Nope!!

What they all said ^^

How about if you make the Lasagne and fully cook the Lasagne then freeze it? I'd think that was OK

I think there's some rule about you can change the "state" it's in,and that's fine, but you can only do it once.
Eg, raw, defrosted, then cooked, you can re freeze because you've changed the state from raw to cooked in the interim.
But you've cooked it once already, then frozen it, so you then can't re freeze it as you haven't changed its state in between.
Does that make any sense?!?!

No. You can't refreeze something unless you've changed its state. You already froze if cooked. You can't freeze it again.

Thank you everyone. I won’t do it, I’ll just have a spaghetti bolognese for dinner instead. Hate wasting food though! I should have frozen in smaller batches in the first place and only defrosted what I needed (which I normally do) but didn’t have any smaller tubs this time.

I have re-frozen leftover lasagne made from defrosted ragu in the past by mistake and been OK.

But I wouldn't intentionally do it. You are only reccomended to freeze meat once in each stage eg you could freeze raw meat, defrost it, cook it then freeze it again once cooked. But not cook freeze, then cook and freeze again, once it's defrosted it needs using basically.

So apparently you can defrost and then re freeze lasagne, if no kept at room temperature for more than 2 hours. I think the concern would be whether the ragu is cooked for long enough and at a high enough heat in making the second lasagne to be sure to destroy any bacteria, and whether doing that would make it deteriorate in quality

@SpeckledlyHen

Thank you everyone. I won’t do it, I’ll just have a spaghetti bolognese for dinner instead. Hate wasting food though! I should have frozen in smaller batches in the first place and only defrosted what I needed (which I normally do) but didn’t have any smaller tubs this time.

Get freezer bags, put single portions into them and stack the bag into a container. Once they're frozen, you can take them out of the container. I have fussy children and it means I don't waste much!

That’s a good idea @Clymene.. I used to save plastic takeaway cartons for single portions but now they’ve reverted to cardboard. Which is of course fantastic but leaves me short on freezer storage options..