Can you freeze lunch meat?

[mousestruck]

I hate when lunch meat isn't fresh (like ham and turkey). Can you freeze it? Does it stick together?

 

[denise5374]

I do, it seems OK when it comes out of the freezer. I buy a pound at a time and freeze half. I bring it out of the freezdr and let it thaw in the refrigerator. I don't eat it so I can't say for the same quality but DD does and she doesn't complain about it.

 

[HeatherC]

You can freeze ham and turkey. I just put it in a freezer bag, squeeze out all the air and freeze it. When it defrosts, I just blot it with a paper towel to absorb any moisture. Works great when things are on sale and you want to stock up.

 

[stopher1]

Yes you can... we do it all the time, and it works great. DW gets a lot of fresh cut meats at the deli at the end of the deli's hours (9pm at our store), and they cut the price drastically to move the already cut meat from that day that didn't sell at regular price (ex: ham typically goes for like $5.99/lb during the day - then at 9p anything left is $1.25/lb). She stocks up and freezes what we don't need right then. She'll just pull a package the day before needed and leave it in the fridge for 24 hours and once defrosted it tastes just like it was fresh.

 

[Jennifer823]

I do this too, it works especially well with bologna, salami, stuff like that. Oscar Meyer bologna goes on sale buy one get one free often here, and I always throw the extra one in the freezer. If you freeze regular sliced ham, though, you may have a bit of a change in texture - it loses a bit of water. It's still OK to eat though.

 

[jrasmom]

I almost always have some in the freezer!!

 

[ericandliz]

I have recently been freezing turkey and ham from the deli by using the Reynolds Handi Vac- it's like a vaccum sealer but a lot cheaper, and you use special ziploc style bags with it. It seems to do the trick and after it defrosts it not as watery as it was with my old method, which was freezer paper and a ziploc. I've seen the Handi Vac at grocery stores but WalMart seems to have it the cheapest, plus there's some coupons out there for it....It is anywhere btwn $10 and $20.

 

[PAcpl]

Everyone has different taste buds, so im sure you will get different answers on whether you should freeze cold cuts or not. My general rule of thumb is if its a processed item you can freeze it, if its not you shouldn’t. Bologna, wursts, loaves are always processed. Your lower end turkeys and hams can be processed too (NEVER look at the ingredient list if it is, mechanically separated turkey meat is not something you want to know about! ). These are all fine to freeze. If you freeze whole muscle products they tend to dry out when they thaw and you tend to lose taste. Just imagine taking all of that leftover turkey from Thanksgiving and freezing it. You can do it, but when it does thaw it is much drier and bland. Its no different then if you are trying to freeze the turkey you just picked up at your local deli.

HTH and sorry to bore!

Brian