4 year old frozen stock

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Planning a seared scallop consommé this weekend, had a ratch in the freezer for a batch and found a lamb one that I can't even remember making. It'll go well with the meal as the main is a rack of lamb although the reason I can't remember making it is it is dated easter 2017!

My thoughts, frozen in sealed freezer bag-what could possibly go wrong in our freezer that's kept well below 0?

[21TonyK]

I'd be wary. I make a lot of stocks and sauces specifically for vacuum packing and freezing in a commercial freezer at around -29/30. These have a life of 13 weeks at work which is very cautious, I have used a few at home around the 12 month mark and they were fine but I wouldn't fancy much older.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

https://www.stilltasty.com/fooditems/index/16776

Google spits out this, 6 months is still good but reckons if kept frozen it'll keep indefinitely. Obviously I'm not using for commercial purposes but I don't exactly want to kill the wife!

[FredericRobinson]

Nothing that's going to do you any harm will grow at frozen temps what it tastes like might be a different matter, only one way to find out

[sherman]

It might have lost some of its flavour but it will be fine as long as it was cooked, cooled fast enough and put in a properly sealed container in the freezer when you first made it.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Well it’s clarifies alright! A bit week in flavour but then I want to be able to taste the scallops.




If I haven’t posted by Monday send help!

[sherman]

The scallops have a higher chance of killing you than the stock.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

All good so far, interestingly it did seem to provide a slightly weak tasting stock-where on earth does the taste go? And how??

However I was worried about it overpowering the scallop and in the end it matched them perfectly without being all about the consommé. Dressed with a little julienned cucumber and celeriac.

Escoffier’s recipe and method for the consommé worked perfectly.

[ruggedscotty]

well thats will be another 5 years before you have scallops again....

better get the stock made cooled and in the freezer...

[dapprman]

Trick I use for frozen stocks, which is less messing around than using egg whites. Put a couple of layers of muslin cloth in a colander/strainer and stick above a bowl. Put the frozen stock in the muslin and leave until is melts. Ditch the jelly like residue in the cloth and do not wipe the bottom of the colander/strainer in to the bowl as this can also contain the 'contaminants'. Works most the time - can't rememebr which chef I got that from, Maybe Heston Blumenthal or Nigel Haworth

[Evoluzione]

FredericRobinson said:

Nothing that's going to do you any harm will grow at frozen temps what it tastes like might be a different matter, only one way to find out

This ^
It's nothing to do with killing you, it's just the quality.

[Mobile Chicane]

That will be rank.

Fat goes rancid.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Mobile Chicane said:

That will be rank.

Fat goes rancid.

It wasn't.

It was however, weaker in flavour than i expected however it suited the dish perfectly (more through luck than anything). I have read that Escoffier's method of clarification does rob the stock of some taste as the egg whites take on that part of the stock as they coagulate. A little salt was all that needed to be added.

I should have tasted before I started the consommé to see if the lack of favour was down to the method or the age of the stock.

[Last Visit]

Im most fascinated as to how something can remain in your freezer for 4 years and not be eaten or chucked away. My teenage kids clear out the fridge and then set upon the freezer on a regular basis, food shop arrives and the process resets itself.

Was it a deep chest freezer in the garage or similar?

[dapprman]

Mobile Chicane said:

That will be rank.

Fat goes rancid.

the clarification process removes the fat