Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Using Freezer Paper

Previous posts have noted that I like to brown, divide, and freeze hamburger, make ahead casseroles, make and freeze sloppy joes, freeze chicken in marinade, freeze raw chicken breasts, and now I'll show you how I wrap big hunks of raw meat for longer-term storage.

Many frugal minds agree that you can help your grocery bill by watching for things your family enjoys (and you use a lot of) to go on sale, then stock up as space and usage allows. I like to use my crock pot, and I've discovered that Goose loves to eat shredded pork, which was on sale last week. I bought several packages, and also some freezer paper and tape.

To prepare the pork roasts, I cut off as much fat as I can without wasting too much meat. (It isn't exactly wasted at our house - it goes to the barn cats!) North Dakota State University has a link which shows how to wrap meat for freezing. (Doncha know there, eh? Angela and Annemarie are probably the only people that will get that . . . ) I prefer the butcher wrap, myself. I then labeled with the type of meat, date frozen, and weight, and put four of them in the freezer. The fifth one went in the crockpot for tomorrow's lunch.

The original recipe comes from A Year of Crockpotting. My tweaks are as follows:

Crockpot Pork Sandwiches

3-4 pound pork roast (bone-in is fine)
1 tablespoon garlic powder
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon sage
1 teaspoon rosemary
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 cup spicy brown mustard
3 tablespoons honey
1 cup beer

Place meat in crock, sprinkle spices and brown sugar over it. Add Worcestershire, mustard, and honey, pour in beer. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours (Steph did 12 hours overnight and it was a bit overdone but plenty edible). Serve over rice or pasta, or as we do, as sandwiches.

Since I'm cooking it overnight, I'll shred it in the morning, and refrigerate the drippings/juice so the fat can come to the top and harden, then I'll skim that off and return the meat to the juice.

For more kitchen tips, visit Tammy's Recipes.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I wish I had a crockpot. There seem to be so many good recipes for a crockpot. Maybe one of these days.
The pork sandwiches sound so good, you're making me hungry and I just had breakfast.