# Resmoking Frozen Smoked Venison



## 68SS (Feb 16, 2020)

I was part of a group that smoked a lot of venison sausage, and due to some time constraints, I think some of the sausage should have been smoked longer.  I have the smoked sausage in the freezer, and I wanted to know if it was safe to thaw, smoke longer, and then freeze again.  The sausage has Venison, and Pork in it.  

Thanks


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## bradger (Feb 16, 2020)

generally seeking thawing and refreezing is a bad idea. not sure about cooking then refreezing.  of coarse smoking tends to kill a lot of bacteria.  I would do a quick google machine search. or go to FDA site to check.


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## Brokenhandle (Feb 16, 2020)

I would say it's a good question for 

 daveomak
  or even 

 chef jimmyj
  two very knowledgeable members of food safety on SMF.  Maybe they will chime in. 

Ryan


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## mike243 (Feb 16, 2020)

I wouldn't , just cook it to temp when time to eat, You would lose to much moisture when you thawed and reheated it imo. any time you refreeze something the quality goes down


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## chef jimmyj (Feb 16, 2020)

Does the sausage contain Cure? You smoked it already, what was the final IT? 
In general there is no issue thawing meat then re-freezing Once. Example...Thawing 20 pounds of Pork Butt to make Italian Sausage, then freezing the Sausage.
Take Extra care to do all the steps by the book. Only thaw in the refer. Work clean and as quickly as possible. Re-freeze quickly, arrange multiple pieces of meat in a single layer. Basicically, stay out of the Danger Zone as much as possible. 
Now, if you used Cure #1, the Cure will offer the same protection it did in the beginning.  If the the sausage was fully cooked, it would be Bacteria free as it came out of the smoker but, how it was handled my have introduced bacteria and then, further processing, handling, etc. Must be done with care.
I would suggest only thawing what you will and use the Smoker to add additional smoke as the sausage Cooks/Reheats, rather than thawing the Whole Batch...JJ


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