What to do with OLD meat you find in your freezer!

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Somehow, some way you have misplaced a piece of meat in your freezer. After a few times of shuffling things around to fit something in that beautiful hunk of protein found it’s way into the abyss. Two years later while cleaning out your freezer you find it.

Happened to me recently with a package of venison backstraps I was gifted by my brother from a doe he shot back in 2018. I remember him giving me the package of meat and I thought, “I’m going to smoke this sometime later this summer.” Summer came and went. As did another… Now here we stand in 2021 and I’ve found what is thought to be the prime cut of venison.

I do not want to waste it. No one wants to, or ever should waste wild game. (there is a whole respecting your game thing I could get into here but that’s for another time.) What do you do with it? How bad is it freezer burned? Can I cover up any “old” or “freezer” taste? The answer: YES!

Jerky. If you use a strong marinade it will cover up any off flavors. Plus, who doesn’t like jerky?

Now it was dead of winter when I made my discovery and didn’t want to go outside and fire up my offset smoker to dehydrate a mere three pounds of venison. I also don’t own a dehydrator. But what I do have is one of those trendy air-fryer, instant pot things! The Ninja Foodi. So, I bought some dehydrating basket online and got to work.

First step if to defrost or thaw the meat, or as we say in Wisconsin “un-thaw it”. Then inspect the meat for freezer burned spots. If you see them gently cut them away and pop the meat back into the freezer to firm up before slicing.

Next let’s make the marinate:

· 1 cup soy sauce

· ½ cup pineapple juice

· ½ cup Worcestershire sauce

· ¼ cup brown sugar

· 2 Tbsp cracked black pepper.

· 2 Tbsp honey

· 1 Tbsp red chili flakes

· 1 Tbsp onion powder

· 3-4 cloves of garlic (minced or micro-planed)

· 1” knob of ginger root (minced or micro-planed)

After the meat firms up good, take a sharp knife and cut it into ¼” slices. Put the meat and the marinate in a zip top bag and place it in the fridge for 18-24 hours. Every 4-6 hours take the bag and mash it around to stir up the meat and marinate.

After the meat has been marinated, place it on your racks and place into the air-fryer and turn on the dehydrate setting, set temp for 150-170 and let for 7 hours or until meat is good and dry. Feel free to flip the meat over on the racks after about 4 hours to help speed up drying.

After it’s done, store in a zip top bag on your counter for a week, if it lasts that long.

It’s a great way to use up any old meat. NOT just venison like I did. Old steak. Old pork chops? Even old chicken or turkey breast. I might even go as far as to say this could make an old flip flop edible!

Watch How I do it below:

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