delis sliced turkey

Just “inherited” 2 lbs of deli sliced turkey. How long can I keep it in the freezer? Thanks!

I was told by our local Home Economist Agent that food in the freezer, if frozen & maintaining a temperature of zero or below, will be safe to eat forever. It could lose it’s flavor & also suffer from freezer burn if kept too long.

Here’s the big part. Deli meat should be broken down into individual serve size packages & placed in air tight plastic bags, labeled, & then stored in one large plastic bag & placed in the freezer. From personal experience, any turkey deli meat frozen more than 2-3 weeks loses it’s real flavor. When thawing, place a paper towel on a plate, remove the meat from the freezer bag & place on the paper towel & cover with paper toweling again. Send to the fridge for thawing. Pat the meat dry before using. For some reason, frozen deli meat gives off a lot of water during thawing. It won’t taste the same but if used in a sandwich with other things (tomatoes, lettuce, mayo, bacon, etc.) it will still be ok.

The quality of the deli turkey can also have a big affect on the outcome.  Good luck.  

You’re lucky to have it & if you treat it right you can save a lot of money, not to mention it’s very handy.

The reason Deli Meats give off a lot of water after being frozen and even just in the neat keeper in the original package is that in the meat buis. Water is weight and these meats are sold by the pound. If most of the weight is water, the processor is saving money on the actual meat and can make more product by adding water. Example: Fresh ham cost over Cured ham. A fresh ham is injected with water to give it more weight at the sales counter. A cured, smoked ham, cured with salt and Brown sugar, has had most of the liquid removed by the salt drawing the juice out and the smoke also draws out more of the juice. This was originaly done so the meat could be kept longer in the days before refridgeration and freezers. That is another reason a Salt cured ham has to be soaked before cooking. The soaking removes most of the salt and the pra-boiling before roasting, draws out more of the salt and replaces the juice with the cooking water for a moister ham at service

Freezing also concentrates this water and the ice crystals form on the surface of the item and when thawed it runs out on the plate

I seldom buy preformed deli meats but when I do I always ask the person working in the deli to please print out the nutrition & ingredient label so I can read it before purchasing any. Yes, they can do it & very easily. It will list everything, sodium, percent of injected so called ‘juices’, calorie & fat content & almost anything you want to know. It’s amazing what you’ll find in that piece of meat. One way to look at it is…why do all those large so called turkey (beef, chicken, pork etc.) ‘roasts’ in the deli case have the exact shape & how did they just happen to grow without bones? I’ve been there & realize that with a family it’s almost necessary to hit the deli meat section rather than a fast food place but please realize that it is not pure meat. It’s sad that so many families, through no fault of their own, no longer have time to cook fresh meat for a meal & have left overs for great sandwiches.

What I DON’T understand is why grocery stores can’t cook those same types of fresh meat & then cut & slice them in the deli. They have in-store bakeries for making donuts & breads & rolls & other fried bakery treats, in-store ovens for making rotisserie chickens only (loaded with oil for moistness), are able to deep fry fish, chicken, & potatoes, & greasy snack foods, …why not in-store ovens for easy meat roasting? Ummm…where are the food police now?

Sorry, I ruined the person’s enthusiasm that inherited 2 pounds of deli meat. I’m just wondering why…

When we buy meat my family consumed it for at least a week. We don’t stock meat for too long. We cook it as early as we can.

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.

I have been preaching these same thoughts for years and no one listens. Young women today were not taught to cook, they were taught how to run a can opener and eat-up from boxes and cans.

I can remember the evolution of the Local Market “Deli” (?). Some here in Florida even had pre-cooked Hot Dogs, wit the fixin’s under the heat lamps to sell hot dogs that were over their sell by date. Except for so called “Store Brands” each and every local, delivery supplier would swap out over date products for fresh. Then they started roasting the over date Chickens and some did Hot Wings as well and then some used the unsold cooked Chickens that hadn’t sold for one last ditch effort and made Chicken salad, using imperfect Onions, Celery

and bell peppers and unlabeled jars of Mayo as dressing rather than turn them in for credit. Before long they opened full deli counters and the use grew to where they ahd the salads and other things made at the local warehouse or special companies sprang up selling the salads to meet the growing demand for such things. I can, and mostr any woman who really was taught to cook from scratch, can make much better salads and meals

and bell peppers an

Everyone here is so right! Now, not far from that deli counter filled with deli meats & salads you will find…the infamous free standing salad bar, open to all, including people that reach with their fingers to taste a piece to see if it tastes OK, open to flies and other insects & bugs and no temperature control to see if maintained at safe levels. There is only a large plastic shield over the top, like a tent, but all sides are open & exposed to the air. How safe is this? And people pay over $5.00 per pound for this? Totally disgusting.

I really like the comment that people don’t know how to cook. Well, they actually do (I’m being sarcastic here), just look at the fancy gadgets Williams-Sonoma sells & people buy. Look at all the expensive grilling equipment people purchase & use. If they know how to use those items & do use them, WHY can’t they take the same amount of time to put together a simple meal? It only takes 60-90 minutes to roast a chicken…why not roast 2 at the same time? Hot meal, cold sandwiches or salad. How about those instant beef roasts? A nice chuck or eye of round roast, placed in heavy duty aluminum foil with seasonings, a can of cream of mushroom soup & a package of dry french onion soup, wrap & seal tightly & place in the oven for a few hours, no looking, no checking required. Remove from oven & chill, slice. Heat & eat, on a plate or in a hot sandwich. Has to take less time then driving to & browsing the deli case, checking items out, & driving back home, THEN you get to put it together…not to mention it doesn’t taste great. I am a fan of packaged frozen veggies when in a hurry or when out of season. They’re reasonable & inexpensive…and simple, not to mention, just pure veggies.

It’s sad that now days you walk into mega-grocery stores & stare at mostly prepared foods, regardless of the department. They used to say…shop the parameters of the store, that’s no longer true. Now it’s shop fresh produce & fresh dairy, always opposite ends of the store, then the fresh meat counter.

OK…anyone else have any comments on our so called Large Grocery Stores we have now? How many of you have a grocery store with an entire aisle dedicated to cold cereals? Don’t get me started.

Oh, and about outdated bakery? I have a friend that worked in grocery. Yes, tags are switched, worse than that, often you’ll see expiration dates printed in blue ink on some major brand bakery items that a store was able to purchase in bulk when on sale, as in hot dog or hamburger buns or even brown & serve dinner rolls for Holidays. These items were placed in the large store freezer, to be brought out to sell at regular price after the sale was over. However, because of the blue ink date showing them to be over the ‘sell by’ date, people working there (she refused) were given a cotton swab & some rubbing alcohol to remove the ‘sell by’ date from the package. Think that’s bad? In the meat department when hams were on sale for Easter dinner, those that didn’t sell & were close to expiration date had the same thing happen to the expiration date on the label. Amazing what rubbing alcohol & a cotton swab can do to help raise grocery store profits.

Please share your comments, concerns & other things we should watch for in grocery stores. All will be helpful. I know this is far from the very nice question that started these comments, about the turkey deli meat, but I think all these comments & hints are helpful to all of us. I know they are to me.