Defrosting meat to eat - time and safety

[bloodyunicorns]

Have just defrosted my freezer after way too long.

We have a couple of turkey joints in there that are about four years old along with smoked salmon that's a year old, chicken that is a year old...

dh wants to eat them to save waste, but I don't. Would you eat them?

Nope. Let DH eat them though if he wants.

Why have they just been sat there though?

If the freezer is in good condition I think they’ll be safe…they might not taste as nice. I’d happily eat them but I’m robustly healthy. I don’t think I’d feed them to DC.

If they pass the smell test and are. Cooked to oblivion, they'll be ok

No.

The quality of frozen meat starts to deteriorate after 6 months. They may not necessarily be unsafe, but they won't be of great quality or suitable to eat after 4 years.

I'd probably risk it but I'm very gung ho about this kind of thing. I wouldn't have high expectations of the texture and flavour, but I'd hate to waste a whole joint.

Yes I’d definitely eat that. Sure the quality will likely have degraded somewhat, but it’s still absolutely fine to eat.

Certainly the fish and chicken that’s only been in there for a year. The turkey joints I’d probably make curry or tagine/some kind of stew/casserole with it because it’s probably not going to taste all that great for roasting and the texture and flavour might be compromised.

Also depends on your freezer, mind. I’m confident about eating from mine were I in your circumstance but I couldn’t say for sure about yours as I don’t know if it’s a deep freezer or if there’s any chance it’s been partly thawed out or defrosted and re-frozen multiple times over the years. However if it’s been frozen at a low enough temp and stayed frozen the whole time I’d quite happily eat it.

They are perfectly safe to eat if prepared correctly.

I tell you, some people will never survive the zombie apocalypse. They will starve once the use by dates have passed.

I would eat and cook them but then I buy food that's past bb date anyway

They'll be safe, but just probably not very nice.
Are they in their original (vac sealed) packaging? If not, they must have some fairly serious freezer burn?

You can trim off the freezer burned meat.