is this ham ok to cook?

Question

My son bought a pillars ham and put it in the freezer. It was best before may 30(but its been in the freezer). He thawed in in fridge over night and then thought he didnt have time to cook it so put it back in freezer. Is it still ok to cook

its a smoked ham

its a smoked ham

Answer 1

Let's take a look at what we've got here:

The best-before-date only declares till when the product will be in peak condition. A week past that, after having been frozen previously anyway, it can be completely disregarded.

The ham is double cured (smoke & brine), it was defrosted perfectly, it never really had any exposure to contamination and went from freezing to refrigeration to freezing again without an episode of room temperature in between.

That being so I would cook it quite happily, but I would not keep it frozen for any appreciable period of time again. It needs to go straight to the top of your must-be-used-quickly freezer chart.

You may well find that its structure has been damaged somewhat: having just been defrosted and then re-frozen, there will be a lot of water crystals in the meat now, expanding and damaging the tissue structures around them, but that's about the most deterioration I can see that it will have suffered.

It's a pain, but these things just do happen. I can't see anything in your description of how the ham has been treated to make it mandatory to discard otherwise perfectly good food. And in the end, when preparing to use it, look at it closely and smell it. Any doubts, any at all? Discard it. Otherwise, just cheerfully get on with cooking... :-)

Answer 2

You are never supposed to refereeze meat.
We've been told by reliable authorities that it's not good to refreeze uncooked meat. Why not? If freezing the meat in the first place helps preserve it, why doesn't this work the second time around?

The answer to this question lies in the fact that all food has some bacteria in it, but normally not enough to hurt us. We freeze uncooked meat so that bacteria will not grow in it. But freezing does not kill all the bacteria that are already there, it just puts them in a kind of suspended animation. When the meat is thawed the bacteria come back to life and begin reproducing.

If the uncooked meat is refrozen these new bacteria are put into suspended animation along with their living ancestors. This means that when the meat is rethawed there are not only the parents and their offspring, but the "grandkids," "great-grandkids," and so on, all reproducing faster than the proverbial rabbits. In other words, there are many more generations of bacteria to cause illness.

By refreezing uncooked meat we increase the odds of becoming sick from eating it because we give harmful bacteria more chances to reproduce and thrive. So if you can't cook it soon, throw it away, or give it to the dog, who is not as sensitive to those bacteria.

Answer 3

If it was in the refrigerator just overnight it probably didn't get completely thawed.
If it was a smoked ham it has already been cooked in the smoking process so it should be ok.
I would smell it and if it smells like it is still fresh it should be ok to cook it.
If it had been froze, then thawed, then froze again it shouldn't hurt it except that it may be "watery" and be sure to bake it well.

Answer 4

It relies upon on the ham, yet maximum will say totally cooked on the wrapper. If unclear, or looks style of uncooked, prepare dinner it. I honesty think of besides the indisputable fact that it incredibly is smoked, there's attainable it could't be totally cooked, interior the old days, sure, yet am uncertain approximately processing now.

Answer 5

As long as the ham was already smoked then you should be fine. The re-freezing will probably affect the texture of the finished product to some degree.

Answer 6

If the ham was kryovac'd you can. If you dont know what that is. Is the packaging on the ham tight around it? It is packaging that has all the air sucked out of it. If it is then yes you can refreeze. If it is not, I am not sure. But my gut instinct tells me no. Good luck,

Answer 7

I'd say yes,but if you throw it back up I was wrong.

Answer 8

Nope..toss it.

Answer 9

yessier

Answer 10

no you cant re freeze meat