Fridge burn?

[cjsmith]

Put a pound of ground beef in a self-defrost freezer and pretty soon it'll be brown around the edges.

Put it in the fridge and sooner or later you'll see a similar brown. I don't think my fridge crosses the freezing point, not since we lost an expensive bottle of insulin to that very thing and messed with the thermostat a tad. Is the blood simply draining out of the tissue? What's going on there?

Comments

[commander-zero.livejournal.com]

What is called freezer burn is simplya very advanced dessication. The meat dried out in the dry cold environment. It isnt bad for you , but its not very tasty. Freezer burn is easily prevented by wrapping meat in plastic wrap before freezing, making sure to leave no airspace.

Best method is to use a vaccuum sealer. I routinely use meat a couple years old with no problems.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Well, freezer burn also involves bursting the cell walls, which I'm guessing isn't going on in my fridge. I had no idea oxygenation could turn muscle tissue brown -- after all, oxygenated blood is red -- but hey, learn something new every day. :-)

Yeah, now that I have a chest freezer, it might be worth looking into vacuum sealers. So far I haven't had anything long enough for freezer bern!

[commander-zero.livejournal.com]

Ah, but what color does the arterial spray on the ceiling turn after a few hours? Brown.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Well, that's true. I guess I don't know how long stuff like clotting agents last after a chunk of muscle goes through a grinder. I clearly don't read the right kind of novels.