How Do You Freeze Sausage Meat?

I bought a couple of packs of sausage meat the other day, I planned to make a sausage meat pie or sausage rolls, but not straight away, so this needed freezing. It’s really easy to freeze sausage meat – but firstly I realised that I wouldn’t want to use a whole pack, so straight away I cut each pack into half.

When you freeze meat it’s best done by removing it from the original packaging and rewrapping it, preferably flattened; this is how workers in the food industry do it too. Having said that, it’s not essential and you could simply throw the full packets straight from the shop into the freezer and be done with it – but I have a tiny freezer, so need to optimise the space.

If you have sausages to freeze, then split the packet into portions, I’d repackage two sausages as a portion, making four parcels from the original pack of sausages, because that’s the most convenient portion size I’m likely to wish to cook.  Sausages and sausage meat are exactly the same product, just in different versions; sausages, however, are often available with other flavourings added.  Simple pork sausages and pork sausage meat are identical though.

Freeze Sausage Meat:

1. Wash your hands! Also, think ahead as you’ll be touching raw meat, so make sure you can wash your hands easily afterwards without touching anything else. Get everything you need out of the drawers/cupboards so you’re ready to go!  Tin foil, knife, freezer bag, freezer clip, etc.
2. Open the packets the sausage meat comes in and cut it into chunks of the size you’re most likely to use it – I’d never use a whole packet of sausage meat, so I cut them in half.
3. Wrap the sausage meat portions in the foil.
4. Place the foil wrapped sausage meat inside a freezer bag, cut out the cooking instructions and slide those into the bag too if you wish.
5. Put the freezer bag into the freezer – in most instances it will be frozen in under 2 hours.
6. Wash your hands and any implements that’ve touched the raw meat – and wash your cutting board or worktop down.

Using Frozen Sausage Meat: 

• It’s a good idea to defrost sausage meat before you cook with it – or you can factor in extra cooking time as it will take longer to cook from frozen.
• Defrost it by placing the sausage meat, still in the foil wrap (or packet if you didn’t take it out) into a dish in the fridge overnight.

What to Use Sausage Meat For: 

• I love sausage meat pie, there was one we had at school dinners that was sausage meat encased in pastry and served with boiled potatoes, cabbage and gravy.  An alternative serving suggestion is to serve sausage meat pie with chips and baked beans 🙂
• Sausage rolls are great too, either use the sausage meat as it is, or mix it with a pack of dry stuffing mix and herbs such as mixed herbs or oregano.  Optionally grate in an apple, or add some chopped onions.
• Sausage meat plait – this uses a lot of pastry, so isn’t something to eat without remembering that!
• Roll sausage meat into meatballs and cook by shallow frying in a little oil, or in a sauce, such as a tomato sauce.
• Shape into breakfast patties and fry, serve in a bread roll topped with a poached egg.

When I make a pie I’ll be using ready rolled pastry, which I sometimes freeze to specifically fit the dish I am most likely to use to cook it – or I’ll just cut it in half before freezing.  Having to defrost a whole sheet of pastry is most often more than I’d be wishing to cook.