Venison.. how long?

[The Yeti]

I'm sure this has been discussed before. How long can you keep venison in freezer..

[harvey lee]

I usually eat all my venison in a year. If well packaged I have kept meat for 1.5 years at the longest without a problem. My backstraps and roasts are all vacuum packed. I have wrapped them in freezer paper and left them for a year also. My smoked meat like venison sticks,breakfast links, summer sausage and ring bologna has also went for a year if it lasts that long.

The biggest key is to wrap very well or vacuum pack.

[Gissert]

You can maximize the shelf life as Harvey mentioned with a vaccuum sealer. In addition, trim as much as the tallow/fat off prior to freezing. This is often where the bad taste after extended freezer time comes from.

[BobT]

Until it is freezer burned. There seems to be such a fear about how long to keep frozen meat. I am not aware of any bacterial growth issues with meat in a freezer kept at 0 degrees, which is where they should be kept. What seems to happen over time is the meat dehydrates and this is freezer burn. Once this happens, the flavor is tainted. When I've run into this after finding meat that was buried in my deep freezer, I have often just cut out the burned portions with no problem.

The same is true for fish fillets.

Bob