I can rightfully conclude that bacon belongs to the group of food staples here in the United States. But not just in the US, but also in a lot more countries around the World.
The reason is simple. Bacon is so delicious and it can be used in a variety of dishes including fish, garnish meat, seafood, or vegetable dishes, as well as salads, pasta, stews, and soups. There are a lot of bacon recipes.
Since it is a fact that bacon can be used in so many dishes, there is a high probability that you have a certain amount of it stored in your own kitchen.
You can keep your delicious bacon in the fridge, but you can also keep it, for a certain amount of time, in the freezer, just like some other meat like, perhaps, chicken.
And, you can definitely find yourself in a situation in which you thaw a larger amount of it and you don’t know what to do with the rest of the bacon slices.
Then the question arises of whether you can refreeze bacon. And I can say that the answer is definitely positive, but you must be aware of some essential tips in order to do the thing properly. And, you will find that out in this interesting and instructive article.
So, Can You Refreeze Bacon?
You can definitely refreeze bacon. But you certainly have to know some important pieces of information because there are some ways are better than others in order to refreeze bacon properly, according to USDA guidelines.
According to them, the best way to refreeze bacon is when you have thawed it in the refrigerator no more than 7 days before freezing it again.
Of course, refreezing your bacon after thawing it in the fridge is not the only way.
You can refreeze bacon after defrosting it at room temperature, in the microwave, or under running cold water. But, the main classification lies in cooking, whether you have cooked it or not, before you freeze bacon again. So, in this article, I will put a lot of emphasis on this.
When it comes to the process of refreezing bacon, it is absolutely the same as freezing raw bacon. So, let’s see what that procedure is, shall we?
How To Refreeze Cooked Bacon Properly
When you know that the answer to whether you can freeze bacon is positive, you then have to know how to do it properly.
The fact is that you definitely can refreeze cooked bacon and prolong its shelf life a bit more. After the cooking time is over, you can begin this process by lining a rimmed baking sheet with a sheet of waxed paper. Then you can arrange cooked bacon strips in one layer on the lined baking sheet.
When you have done that, it is best to freeze it overnight or for several hours, and then transfer those strips of bacon into an air-tight container and, of course, put that container into the freezer so that it will do its job.
If you want to refreeze the whole piece of bacon, it is best to use plastic wrap. You will have to wrap your bacon as tightly as you can with that same plastic bag.
After that, you can freely put that wrapped cooked piece of bacon into the freezer-safe Ziplock bag or some other kind of freezer bag as a substitute and, of course, put that bag into the freezer.
Just make sure that you squeeze all the remaining air from the bag in order to avoid freezer burn. When you decide to use that refrozen bacon again, it is a good thing to be able to just get it out of the freezer, reheat it in the microwave for about 30 seconds, and use it in no time.
Can You Refreeze Uncooked Bacon?
Yes, you can refreeze uncooked bacon, but there are some important facts that you must be aware of and I will reveal them here to you. The answer to the question of: is it safe to refreeze uncooked bacon? is a bit more delicate.
Your best bet is to thaw bacon using a refrigerator rather than defrost bacon at room temperature. The main reason for this is that bacon will still be cold enough and will have ice crystals in it.
According to the USDA, you shouldn’t refreeze bacon or any other thawed food if it was left outside the fridge for longer than 2 hours.
If you are, in some cases, refreezing an unopened package of bacon (unopened bacon), that package will be enough to keep your bacon safe.
In my opinion, the best way to freeze or refreeze your bacon is to repackage individual slices of bacon, so that when you need some, it will be easy to only use the exact amount that you need.
You can also use the flash freeze method where you will roll up each slice into a tight coil and put them on the metal pan.
You will then place the pan into the freezer and leave it there for about an hour. After that, you will remove each piece from the pan and put it in the Ziplock bag in the freezer.
And, generally speaking, the last good thing to do is to label the package of bacon with the exact date of storing so that you know when you put it in the freezer.
How Can You Reheat Frozen Cooked Bacon?
In order to reheat frozen bacon that was cooked, you first have to pull it out of the freezer and put it in the fridge to thaw overnight. You can use it the next day to warm it up in just a few minutes using either the microwave, toaster oven, oven, or even the air fryer.
• Microwave: First you have to put your precooked bacon on a paper towel-lined plate and then put that in the microwave. The time of heating per slice is about 20 seconds.
• Oven or toaster oven: You must first reheat the oven or toaster oven to 400°F.
Then, you can place your bacon on a baking sheet (you can line it with aluminum foil for easy clean-up) with a rack and wait for about 3-4 minutes. For some extra-crispy bacon, you can heat it for an extra 2-3 minutes.
How Long Does Refrozen Bacon Last?
Although the process of refreezing meat (read: bacon) is almost the same as freezing it for the first time, the results, of course, won’t be the same. When I say results, I point to the quality of bacon, i.e. texture and flavor, but I also think about the total time of the process.
When you are freezing your bacon for the first time, it can stay in the freezer a bit longer than the refrozen one. So, when you freeze the original package of bacon for the first time, it will last for about 4 months in the freezer.
On the other hand, refrozen bacon in an unopened package can last for about one month in the freezer. If the bacon comes from an opened package, it will last in the freezer for about 10-14 days.
And last, but not least, refrozen cooked bacon can be in the freezer for a second time, for up to 2 weeks.
So, as you can see, although you can refreeze your bacon, there are definitely some consequences, and one of them is a shorter period of time that bacon can be in the freezer.
What Is The Average Time For Frozen Bacon To Thaw?
The average time for frozen bacon to thaw in the fridge is 12-24 hours. Here’s what the USDA says about thawing food in the refrigerator: “Refrigerator thawing takes the longest but the leftovers stay safe the entire time. After thawing, the food should be used within 3 to 4 days or can be refrozen.”
If you want to thaw bacon more quickly, it is best to thaw it in cold water. A pound of bacon will take up to 20 minutes to thaw this way.
There is an even quicker way to defrost frozen bacon and that is the microwave method where it will take you just a few minutes by using the so-called “defrost button” on the microwave control panel.
And, there is also the method of using a conventional oven. The conventional oven will take only about 5 minutes to defrost your bacon.
Final Verdict
As you can see in this article that answers the question of whether you can refreeze bacon, the process of refreezing bacon is not hard, but there are certainly some tips that you must know in order to go through the procedure properly.
The most important thing is to defrost your bacon first. If you are able to defrost it in the refrigerator, you can freely put it back into the freezer immediately.
But if you defrost it at room temperature, you must be aware that you first have to cook it and then just place it in the freezer.
These are the most important pieces of information that you all should know in order to properly do the thing.