The freezer full of venison from 2019 finally got used this month

We had that big power outage back in January, the one that hit the whole county for three days. My wife and I stood there staring at the chest freezer in the garage, the one my dad gave us, and we could see the frost line creeping up the sides. I was convinced we were going to lose everything, all that meat from the last few hunting seasons. But then I remembered this old trick my uncle used to swear by, putting a quarter on top of a cup of frozen water. If the quarter sinks, it thawed. Well, the quarter was still on top, so we got lucky. But that scared me enough that I spent the next six weeks cooking through everything, grinding, canning, making stews and casseroles. We finally cleared out the last of the 2019 deer meat last Tuesday. It felt like a huge weight off my shoulders, not just the money saved, but not wasting all that effort. Plus we saved about 80 bucks a month on groceries for a while. Has anyone else had to do a freezer purge after a close call like that?

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parkerkim1mo ago

Damn, that quarter trick is genius. I heard about it years ago but never actually used it until my brother lost a whole freezer of elk meat that way, and now I keep one in every freezer I own. That panic feeling is real though, once you see that frost line you start doing math in your head about every single package and what it cost you in time and gas money. Good on you for actually cooking through it instead of just hoping it stayed frozen. I did a similar purge after my freezer died last spring, ended up giving half of it to my neighbor just cause I got sick of eating the same roast every damn week. Now I keep a list taped to the lid with dates and what's inside, and I make myself rotate the oldest stuff out first. It sounds anal but it beats staring at a pile of thawed meat and wondering if it's safe.