Deep freezer question

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tncattle

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I have my large chest freezer a little over 3/4 full of steaks and roasts. It is an older chest freezer that we've only had a couple of chickens in until now and it kept them frozen like a rock. It is 23 cubic feet. I put a popcicle in the middle on top of the meat to see if it's freezing and it's barely melted a little on the end. Should I worry or since I have it so full and dense will it take overnight to get the freezing air completely and evenly circulating? It took me about 2 1/2 hours from loading the beef at processor to getting into my freezer. I hope I don't have to go buy a new freezer! The inside of the freezer walls that I can see are icey and feel frozen as if it's working. Of course we've opened the top about 10 times since this afternoon.

Please advise, don't want to lose the beef!
 
I would suggest you purchase a freezer thermometer to be sure. They don't cost much and can save you a lot of grief and spoiled beef. There are some that sit inside - leave it in there overnight and check it in the morning. Or use one of the ones that has a thin wire that runs from a sensor inside to a temperature readout on the outside. You can get a couple different types of freezer thermometers at most good hardware stores.
 
Was the meat frozen when you put it in? If it was the popsicle hsouldn;t melt at all. If it wasn;t, it will take some time for the meat to freeze and the the temp to be safely low enough in the freezer. If the meat wasn;t frozen it should be placed loosely in the freezer rather thern packed tight. The air has to be able to get to all of the meat to freeze it.
 
We ask the processor to pre-freeze the meat for us.
I beleave I would reorganize the meat in the freezer to make sure the meat in the center gets frozen faster. Most Freezers come with baskets. They should be used and room should be left around them for proper circulation.
 
Rotate the meat.....till everything freezes....we just filled our same freezer with our own killed beef...the center will be soft till you freeze it all...so get rotating it then the freezer will freeze rock hard when all is said and done............all freezers are like that!
 
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I left a thermometer in overnight and it read 4 degrees this morning. I guess that is cold enough.
 
We shoot for -10 for long term storage but anything below zero will keep meat longer than the food safety folks reccommend...actually long term storage is more of a quality issue but we have defrosted three year old steaks that were just as good as any others.

The popsicle is a goos idea...a baggie with ice cubes works well as a powere loss indicator....cubes melted the freezer was above safe temps.
DMc
 

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