We have a rather large shoulder of pork (I am talking about 12lbs) sat in the freezer and the power has been off for the last 8 hours.

We were saving it for a party in May but if the power isn’t restored soon I will need to cook it.

So – what the hell can I do with all that pork so it isn’t wasted?

Leave the freezer shut and it should be ok for 24 hours.

Ask someone you know who has power if they could store it for a bit?

….or go to your local supermarket, and stash it in with the frozen pizzas.

Even if it does thaw out (which it won’t if you leave the freezer door shut), you can just re-freeze it.

Is there a supermarket near by?

f so, go & buy some of those bags of ice cubes – open freezer and ram in the ice cubes as quickly as possible – shut freezer.

Coat it in salt and hang it out to dry for a few months until it has turned into Jamón serrano(*).

(*) This might only work if you happen to live in the Sierra Nevada.

Probably take a week to defrost if you leave it where it is. You could start worrying a bit if the power isn’t on again by Sunday perhaps.

Low and slow pulled pork. You can then freeze it in batches to have whenever you want. Get a leave in electronic probe thermometer, IKEA do one for £8. Cook on 150 c until the internal is 93 c.

Ours used to go out on a fairly regular basis. 72 hours without electricity (which means no water and little/no heat as well)

Never worried about stuff in the freezer.

A lot of the fridge stuff was fit for the bin after 3 days though.

BBQ it. Or smoke it.

lambchop seems very keen for people to eat pork…

Low and slow pulled pork. You can then freeze it in batches to have whenever you want. Get a leave in electronic probe thermometer, IKEA do one for £8. Cook on 150 c until the internal is 93 c.

You can cook it with the power you’re not using it freeze it 😆

BBQ it. Or smoke it.

Is the right answer.

And why wait until May? If it’s been in the freezer for a while there’s a risk it’s been freezer burned anyway.

You have no choice but to fire up there charcoal..!

You have 12lb of pork and the lights are out. Hmmm, what would David Cameron do?

And why wait until May? If it’s been in the freezer for a while there’s a risk it’s been freezer burned anyway.

It was vacuum-packed direct from the butchers so should be fine.

Even if it does thaw out (which it won’t if you leave the freezer door shut), you can just re-freeze it.

Hmmm… By all means, do this if you plan to eat it yourself, but if you’re feeding anyone else, then just don’t.

Just do what you were going to do with it in May (ie cooking, not eating!) then re-freeze.

Cure it with tonnes of salt not a single teaspoon.

You have 12lb of pork and the lights are out. Hmmm, what would David Cameron do?

Not while it’s still semi-frozen pork hopefully, things might stick.

Although I’d love to be able to see the reaction at the A&E Department that got that kind of visit from the PM 🙂

Will it fit on the BBQ (or do you have gas)?

A very long time cooking slowly in a pot (or pots), with pints of cider, chiopottles, chopped onions, ham stock cubes, (heaped tablespoon or two) molases/dark sugar (one of everything per kilo). Put meat to one side, boil the sauce to reduce it to consistency of ketchup (careful, with that much sugar it thickens a lot as it cools), shred meat, stir sauce in, divvy it up into freezer bags/Tupperware whilst still hot to keep bugs to a minimum and freeze when the power comes back on (if it lasts that long).

then just don’t

Why?

Huge pie. Pastry lid only.

If it thaws, bugs will grow and produce toxins. If you refreeze it, the toxins will remain and you’ll still get food poisoning even if you cook it thoroughly, killing any bugs.

Roundworm infection is less likely nowadays, depending on how free-range/organic the meat is. Supermarket meat is probably blasted clean before it reaches us.

Don’t refreeze, cook it now if it thaws, then freeze the cooked meat.

If it thaws, bugs will grow and produce toxins. If you refreeze it, the toxins will remain and you’ll still get food poisoning even if you cook it thoroughly, killing any bugs.

Tosh.

ChrisHeath – Member
If it thaws, bugs will grow and produce toxins. If you refreeze it, the toxins will remain and you’ll still get food poisoning even if you cook it thoroughly, killing any bugs.

Tosh.

enterotoxins fella

Richards right

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbial_toxins

Still no power. Daren’t open the freezer to see how things are holding up….

My Ikea meatballs are in there too! There will be trouble if they get spoiled.

There will be trouble if they get spoiled.

Ever seen Cool Hand Luke?

I reckon there’s a precedent to be set with Ikea meatballs.

It’s going to take a heck of a long time for that size joint to defrost and get warm enough for bacteria to start respiring fast enough to produce toxins. Stop worrying about it until your powers been off for 3days. If its vacuum packed as well it’s even less likely to start going off.

Ever seen Cool Hand Luke?

Only about 200 times.

What we got here is a failure to c’mmunicate’…

Or smoke it.

What Rizlas for smoking pork?

It’s going to take a heck of a long time for that size joint to defrost and get warm enough for bacteria to start respiring fast enough to produce toxins.

Quite.

US Food Safety advice:

http://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/charts/frozen_food.html

Obviously, if it’s left long enough and gets warm then bad things can happen.

Cool. Power came back on for a while and is off again so hopefully that has topped up the freezer a bit. Expecting a fix later this afternoon.

If it does defrost, warm up and go off make it into a curry. Curries were invented to make gone off meat edible.

You’ve at least 2 days before you need to worry.

What Rizlas for smoking pork?

at uni i was renowned for making multi rizla cigarettes, but i doubt even in my hay day i could wrap a 12lb joint