Food Freezing Food In Blocks Of Ice?

[Rabbit]

I really would like your opinions on this. When I was a little girl my father loved to fish and he loved to eat fish too. Back then there were no vacuum sealers or anything much more than freezer paper. I'm sure many of you kept fresh fish frozen the same way he did, he would put it in a half-gallon milk carton fill it with water and freeze it.

Would that same method be feasible now for different types of meat? My experience with vacuum sealing bags in the freezer is not great, but I don't propose putting a raw steak or any other meat into a jug of water to freeze, I would vacuum seal it first and then freeze it in a jug of water.

I'm thinking it would keep the meat fresher longer and give you a little more time in a power outage or with an extended power grid problem. Stacks of small ice blocks in the freezer will keep everything in the freezer longer, it will make your freezer run more efficently plus a clean water supply when you melt it.

I haven't tried it yet and until I can afford to buy or make a solar generator this is the plan, limited as it may be.

 

[Babs]

My dad used to freeze his fresh caught and cleaned fish, in ziplock bags full of water. He said that because there was no air in the bag, it stayed fresher and never got freezer burn. I have no idea if this is true, because I've never tried it. Just passing on his experience.

 

[Millwright]

We did shrimp in cartons for years, It kept OK as I remember. Good for a year or so.

I just found some snapper in the freezer, it was vacuum packed in 2015.

Put it on the grill, perfectly fine.

You have to massage the air out as it's pulling down or there will be burned spots.

 

[Rabbit]

We did shrimp in cartons for years, It kept OK as I remember. Good for a year or so.

I just found some snapper in the freezer, it was vacuum packed in 2015.

Put it on the grill, perfectly fine.

You have to massage the air out as it's pulling down or there will be burned spots.

I use a chest freezer and my problems have been with the vacuumed packages being jostled causing small pinpricks that lose the tight seal.

 

[greysage]

I don't propose putting a raw steak or any other meat into a jug of water to freeze, I would vacuum seal it first and then freeze it in a jug of water

That seems like it'd be kind of a waste of energy and a waste of space to freeze and store that much ice.
What about vacuum sealing, then wrapping that in heavy paper (or free newspaper), maybe a layer of bubble wrap instead?

 

[briches]

My dad used to freeze his fresh caught and cleaned fish, in ziplock bags full of water. He said that because there was no air in the bag, it stayed fresher and never got freezer burn. I have no idea if this is true, because I've never tried it. Just passing on his experience.

Our neighbor gave us some rock fish that we decided to freeze. Hubby cleaned them and upon the neighbor’s suggestion, froze them in a gallon bag of water. Worked great. We then later used them for fish tacos.

I wouldn’t do it for everything as it takes up much more precious freezer space, but it did work and they still tasted great. (we wanted to test the theory to see if the fish would freeze well that way).

 

[ComCamGuy]

The ziplock with water is the way we freeze our fresh caught fish

 

[Freebirde]

If you have a frost-free freezer, the defrost cycle would age products faster. Long term storage of seeds can be extended by sealing the seeds in bag and freezing the bags in blocks of ice because no changes of temperature

 

[tnhillbilly]

That is the way I always froze fish.