Freezing Pork Fat

[Ladyhawke725]

Hi all.  I will be getting some pork fat this week from the meat locker so I can make sausage with venison.  My question is if you can freeze pork fat to keep it for making sausage down the road?  Also, how long will it keep in the freezer before becoming un useable?  My husband says it will get rancid fast but I am wondering why that would happen if it was frozen.  It's just that actually getting pork fat isn't easy most of the year.  The locker is doing hogs now so I can get some.

 

[Pork Belly]

If you do not have a vacuum sealer, wrap it tightly in two layers of cling wrap. Wrap again in freezer paper or place in a freezer quality zip bag and remover all the air you can. It will keep for a couple of years like this in a quality freezer. Most important is you need to eliminate air getting to the surface of the fat.

 

[Ladyhawke725]

Thank you so much, good to know!  I do have a vacuum sealer that I use all the time.  Perfect!

 

[Pork Belly]

I like to keep my freezer organized. I keep a brown paper shopping bag in there for the small bags of fat or trim I save between sausage making sessions. Don't be afraid to blend types of meat. Last year we made, Duck, Deer, Bison, Goose, Beef, Pork snack sticks. We called it "freezer meat", it was all the odd small packs that needed used.

 

[DivotMaker]

You might use the technique I use to freeze anything soft, or with a lot of liquid.  In this case, put the fat (while in liquid form) into a plastic container, and place in the freezer.  As soon as it's good and firm, remove from the container and transfer the block of frozen fat to a vacuum bag.  Seal the solid block.

 

[Pork Belly]

if he reduces the fat to a liquid it is useless for sausage.

 

[NDKoze]

Agreed Brian.

Tony, I believe the OP was talking about unrendered pork which should freeze well if properly packaged.

 

[DivotMaker]

if he reduces the fat to a liquid it is useless for sausage.

Oops...sorry, guys.  I understood it (in my mind) as rendered fat.  I'm not a sausage maker, so I didn't pick up on that aspect of it.  Thanks for the correction!  In that case, just throw the stuff in a vac bag, and call it good! ;D