To ask a dumb question (defrosting meat)

[Cherryblossom99]

So I've always avoided freezing meat to defrost it as I have an irrational fear of giving myself food poisoning.
But the time has came due to the cost of living crisis and I can't afford to waste food anymore.
So I froze pork sweet chilli sausages on Saturday in an open pack. It just says to defrost for a minimum of 12 hours before cooking, so could you defrost them say 20 hours before cooking? Or is that too long? Can you also say take 2 sausages out of the pack to defrost and keep the rest frozen?
I feel I'm overthinking this and feel really silly but just looking advice to make sure I don't make myself sick haha 🙈

so could you defrost them say 20 hours before cooking? Yes.
Can you also say take 2 sausages out of the pack to defrost and keep the rest frozen? Also yes.
Literally no problem with either of those things OP. Except you might struggle to separate only 2 sausages, but give the whole pack a hefty bash usually loosens them. Better than stabbing at them with a knife IMHO.
For future ref if you know you only use say 2 sausages at a time freeze them in separate plastic bags or tubs in the portions you are likely to use.

Or you can defrost in microwave just before cooking.

I "open freeze," stuff ie. separately, sausages, quiche,so you can just defrost what you need

I think the the rule of thumb is to defrost meat (or anything) in the fridge for up to 24 hours, so I wouldn't leave it thawing longer than that. It just needs a hit of planning, so that you put your dinner for tomorrow from freezer to fridge after today's.

I live on my own so for things like sausages I'll just cook the lot then put portions (two per portion for me) in small ziplock bags, put the bagged portions in a larger ziplock bag then freeze them. I just take what I need out and heat them through at medium heat in the microwave until they're piping hot inside. I do the same with cooked chicken portions. For frozen fish fillets they're usually already bought in separate portions but in a large bag so I'll either take a portion out the night before and defrost on the fridge or use the defrost program in the microwave when I need them. 🌹

I always freeze stuff as soon as I get it, which I think is the most important thing. Not a good idea to leave stuff in the fridge for ages and then freeze IMO.

Then I cook it to defrost.

So for sausages just bung them frozen into the airfryer and they cook fine. I haven't poisoned myself yet. As others have said, the biggest issue is separating out the frozen food, so for example sausages are quite hard (but not impossible) and bacon practically impossible to separate out frozen - you have to separate before freezing. And always make sure they are piping hot before serving.

Should I actually be "defrosting" them before cooking them ? Seems weird.

Thanks all, the zip lock bags to separate are actually a really smart idea! I'll deffo do that next time.
I'm actually quite smart but lack common sense when it comes to this sort of thing haha

I take any meat I've bought and portion it up on the day I buy it. There's just me and DS so I separate sausages, cut packs of mince in half and freeze chicken breasts etc. That way you can take out what you need the night before and leave in fridge. Also avoids trying to break up frozen food and amputating a digit!