Dodged a HUGE bullet
Contributors to this thread:Equipment
From: Ucsdryder
03-Feb-20
On the way home I told the girlfriend to grab some elk burger out of the freezer for dinner. I have 2 chest freezers in the basement. She called me back. “We have a big problem. The meat is soft.” My heart sank! Got home and just went theoufh it. The GFI tripped. Time to change that out! One freezer was packed full and was off but still rock hard. The other freezer was half full. Stuff on top was soft, stuff on bottom was hard.
The warmest piece of meat, measuring the middle was 44 degrees. I’m not sure how long it was off but obviously not too long. Nothing smelled rancid but it smelled like meat, if that makes sense. Any issues with the elk meat? I had a frozen pack of pork ribs that read from 40-44 degrees depending where I poked it. Anybody with knowledge of meat want to throw in their 2 cents?!
From: JTreeman
03-Feb-20
Never have your freezer plugged in to a GFCI for obvious reasons...
—Jim
From: Ucsdryder
03-Feb-20
Thanks Jim. Lol
From: keepemsharp
03-Feb-20
No problem turn it back on. May even tenderize some.
From: Ben
03-Feb-20
I wouldn't hesitate to use the meat. The fact that you had meat still frozen lower in the freezer indicates it hadn't been off too long and everything stayed cold. I had almost half a beef in the freezer once and I don't know how long it was unplugged but everything was cold but, it had thawed. Got it plugged back in and divided it up between two freezers and refroze. That beef ate just fine so I'm sure your elk will too. How long would you keep it in an ice chest and still eat a steak that was in there? I age my deer in the beer refrigerator for 5-7 days this would be more time than your freezer was down and close to the same temp.
From: drycreek
03-Feb-20
Send me a bunch of those elk steaks and I’ll see if they’re still good ! ;-)
From: bighorn
03-Feb-20
It's fine.
From: DConcrete
03-Feb-20
I refrozen a bunch of meat when I had a freezer go out. It was all the way thawed out but still Very cold. The meat was fine and the quality didn’t suffer.
From: wildwilderness
03-Feb-20
If you are worried cooking it thoroughly will kill any problems. I wouldn’t eat much bloody rare off the top rack.
From: LUNG$HOT
03-Feb-20
That meat will be better than good. I wouldn’t hesitate to cook it rare either. Especially if you still had frozen meat in there with the soft stuff. I purposely age my steaks in the fridge then set out on the counter to come to room temp before cooking. Just my 2c
From: Jaquomo
03-Feb-20
I disagree. It will definitely poison you. You should give it to me and I'll donate it to the wolf sanctuary. ;-)
From: nvgoat
03-Feb-20
If you give it to the wolf sanctuary make sure to include a little arsenic in it.
From: Shuteye
04-Feb-20
When I built my house about 55 years ago I didn't even know what GFI was. I normally do all my own work but recently had an electrician do work in a new porch. He installed GFI receptacles. I told him that a friend of mine lost a freezer full of meat due to a short power failure. He said the new receptacles would come right back on after a power failure. I'm not sure about that but my freezers and plugged into my old receptacles. BTW I would eat the meat.
From: altitude sick
04-Feb-20
They sell cheap alarms for freezers.
The better ones send a signal to your phone.
From: elkstabber
04-Feb-20
I'll repeat what altitude sick said. Just buy a freezer alarm. They cost about $18 and you can set them to alarm at any temperature. My freezers stay about 0'F so I set them at 20'F.
From: buckeye
04-Feb-20
this same thing happened to me . I will say the meat refreezes a lot faster if you take the thawed out packs and stick them in an already cold freezer . waiting for the warm one to refreeze in my experience takes longer than I was comfortable with. Hate GFI outlets.
From: Supernaut
04-Feb-20
Had a freezer thaw while on vacation about 5 years ago. Our cats hang out in the basement and when we go away, I just fill giant food an water bowls for them and use an extra large cat litter pan. Well, apparently one of them decided to play with the freezer power cord and unplugged it. I could smell it as soon as we pulled in the garage attached to the basement. I lost about 80 pounds of venison and everything else we had in there. It was a mess, stunk something fierce and took a lot of scrubbing to get everything cleaned up. I bought a freezer alarm and relocated the freezer so the cats can't get to the cord I now keep tucked in behind it. Education is expensive.
From: olebuck
04-Feb-20
i'm in the meat business. at 44 degrees your good. just get it back down frozen ASAP
From: longspeak74
04-Feb-20
I agree with Lou, that meat is bad! I will, however, take it off your hands. My shipping address is...!
From: Fuzzy
04-Feb-20
a good reason to have canning skills. the meat will be safe but there will be some loss of moisture. In that situation in the past I always pull any thawed or softened meat and can it.
From: APauls
04-Feb-20
Unplug freezer, fill with water, stick a sous vide in there and set to 132 and call us all over. By the time it's ready we'll be there. BOWSITE PARTY!!!!
From: Brotsky
04-Feb-20
Supernaut, I would have relocated the cats and kept the freezer in place :-)
From: Brian M.
04-Feb-20
My son's friend's freezer quit about two years ago. He had half a beef in it. When he opened it, it was all lost and smelled putrid. He put a couple ratchet straps around it to keep the door closed. I'd hate to be the guy that eventually opens that freezer. LMAO. Yup, it's still in his basement.
From: Supernaut
04-Feb-20
LOL Brotsky, you're not the first person to say that. We have 2 cats, they are both pretty cool they are smart enough to stay out of the way when I'm shooting in the basement. In addition to the 2 cats, we have 2 dogs and a turtle as well. If it were up to my wife, I'd have a small zoo at my house. I grew up on a farm and she grew up in a city. Our house we bought after we got married is in a rural area. She found out it was zoned "agriculture" and decided we should get goats and chickens. I asked her who was going to take care of these goats and chickens and she said she would. I asked her who was going to take care of the goats and chickens when it was 5 degrees outside, that ended the discussion of goats, chickens or any other live stock.
From: Surfbow
04-Feb-20
I had a very similar thing happen a few months ago, our electric company decided to change meters but didn't say when they were coming, so when the guy put the new meter on it popped my garage breaker when the compressor and freezers all started at once. My freezers were about the same condition as yours, one full and frozen solid, one half full and starting to soften on top. I just took the stuff that was soft (low 40s on the thermometer) and made some pastramis and brined smoked roasts out of them, all was good, nobody died.
From: TD
06-Feb-20
Never mind...... clicked on this thinking yur coach might have gotten to the visa card statement before you did.....
Meat will normally "tell" you it's bad before you cook it. Get the question all the time "is this meat still good?". I don't know. Smell it. That solves the problem every time. I've never come across meat that smells "kinda" bad..... it's always pretty clear, toss it. And have never seen any issues with with meat that smells good, no matter it's recent history.... (I know folks who freak out if it's been out of the fridge for even a short while..... )
From: Stryker
07-Feb-20
All our freezers are in our garage so out of sight out of mind. To be able to tell if everything is good I put a cheap radio on the same outlets my freezers are on that way if I walk in and don’t hear music I know there is an issue.
