There are so many people who love eating bacon. Bacon is common in several homes and it is usually served along with various other foods. There are also different exciting and easy recipes for cooking delicious bacon dishes. Regardless of how you like to cook your bacon, it’ll come out nice if you’re experienced with it.
Because of how useful bacon is in the home, it makes sense to want to stock up on it. It will be an added bonus if you can get your bulk purchase of bacon at a discount price. After purchasing a large quantity of uncooked bacon, you’ll need to preserve it effectively.
So, can you freeze uncooked bacon? Yes, you can freeze uncooked bacon. There are a couple of tips that you should be aware of when you want to freeze your uncooked bacon. These tips will ensure that the bacon lasts for a long time when frozen in the freezer.
For instance, it is advisable to split the bacon into smaller bits and freeze before finally putting them in freezer-safe bags and freezing again. With your uncooked bacon tightly sealed in a freezer-safe bag, you can preserve the bacon for up to 12 months. Although the bacon can actually last 12 months when frozen, it is at its best qualities within the first 6 months of freezing.
This writing discusses freezing of uncooked bacon, but you should know that cooked bacon is also safe to freeze.
Freezing Uncooked Bacon
Bacon is sourced from pork. It is salt-cured and usually cut from the pork’s back and belly. However, there are also other parts of the pork that bacon gets cut from. The salt curing of bacon naturally allows it to last for a significant amount of time. One factor that makes bacon so popular is that it can be used in the preparation of so many different meals – you can also eat cooked bacon on its own.
The refrigerator can also serve as a means of preserving uncooked bacon, but only for a short while. After preserving the bacon in the fridge, you’ll need to take it out and cook it or put in the freezer for longer preservation.
The steps involved in freezing uncooked bacon are pretty simple to follow and they work quite effectively.
How to Freeze Uncooked Bacon
When you follow the right steps, you’ll be able to preserve your bacon in the freezer for up to a year. When the bacon hasn’t been removed from its original packaging, you can place it directly in the freezer. However, when the seal of the packaging has been broken, it is advisable to first pre-freeze the uncooked bacon before finally storing in the freezer. Here are some simple steps to follow when freezing uncooked bacon:
- If you don’t want to put the bacon in the freezer as a huge chunk, you can split it into smaller slices and freeze them in separate portions.
- When you’ve gotten all the slices of uncooked bacon you want to freeze, begin to roll them into little coils.
- After being rolled up into little coils place the coils in baking sheet and leave in the freezer till they’re totally frozen.
- Take the bacon slices out of the freezer once they’re well frozen and secure them inside plastic freezer-safe bags.
- Get a marker and write the present date on the freezer bags. Doing that will help you remember how much time the uncooked bacon has spent being frozen in the freezer.
With all these steps followed, you can have your uncooked bacon safely preserved for 6 to 12 months. Take note that uncooked bacon retains its best quality for the first 6 months of freezing – the quality begins to reduce afterwards. Also, uncooked bacon shouldn’t be refrozen after being thawed once.
How to Thaw Frozen Bacon
After several weeks or months in the freezer, you may want to take out some of that uncooked bacon and cook it. This means that you’d have to thaw it out one way or another. There are different approaches you can take when you want to thaw frozen bacon.
One popular way of thawing frozen uncooked bacon is by placing in the fridge. However, you should know that this option takes quite some time and is best done overnight. If you can’t wait that long for the refrigerator to thaw your bacon, you can submerge the frozen bacon in cold water.
In addition to these methods, the microwave also serves as a means of thawing frozen bacon. Once you’re done thawing the uncooked bacon, do not leave it out on the counter for long. Further exposing the bacon to room temperature is going to facilitate growth of bacteria and eventually render the bacon inedible.
You should also avoid refreezing the bacon after thawing it.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Here are some of the basic questions people ask about freezing bacon:
Must Bacon be Coiled Before Freezing it?
The answer is no. Bacon doesn’t need to be coiled before you can freeze it. The purpose of coiling uncooked bacon before freezing is to make the freezing easier. In addition to that, coiling bacon helps to save space in the freezer.
How Do You Know If Uncooked Bacon Has Gone Bad?
There are a couple of signs that indicate if bacon has gone bad. For instance, a change in the bacon’s original reddish color to a brownish color may indicate that it’s already gone bad. If the bacon also feels slimy when touched, that’s another indication that it must be disposed of. Bad smell is also another way of telling if the bacon is still edible or not.
How Long Does Bacon Last in the Fridge?
Unlike the freezer, the fridge can only keep uncooked bacon preserved for a short time. Refrigeration of unopened bacon packs can last for about 2 weeks. However, it the bacon’s packaging has been opened, the bacon can only be refrigerated for about a week.