Can You Freeze Smoked Sausage?

3 minutes

If you’re a fan of smoked sausage, you’ll know both how little goes a long way and how divisive it can be. If you’ve got plenty f sausage that you know won’t all get eaten, it’s not time to throw it out!

How to Freeze Smoked Sausage

If you’ve frozen meat products before, you’ll likely find freezing smoked sausage very simple – follow our steps to ensure success:

1. Portion: Portioning out the sausage is wise because you cannot refreeze the meat once it has been thawed. To ensure you don’t waste any food, freeze portions and only thaw what you plan to use.
2. Wrap: Wrap the smoked sausage in a layer of baking paper, and scrunch the ends of the paper together so that you form a rough seal. This permeable material will allow moisture to move away from the sausage in the freezer.
3. Wrap Again: Wrap the parcel with a layer of cling film pressed directly to the baking paper layer you just made. Form a tight seal with the cling film by pressing your fingers across it and smoothing it into place.
4. Freeze: Freezing the sausage in the centre of the freezer places it away from the frost front at the edges of the freezer. This allows it to stay away from freezer burn for as long as possible.

3 Tips for Freezing Smoked Sausage

Now you know how to freeze it, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing smoked sausage to have the best results:

Check the Seal
Ensuring that you form a good seal around the sausage is very wise. The smoky aroma of any smoked item can be easy to permeate in the freezer – being sure to avoid that will maintain the quality of some of your other items.

Add a Marinade
While freezing the sausage in a marinade isn’t too important, thawing it in a marinade can work wonders – it allows you to get a headstart on the marinading process, leading to your food being packed with more flavour in a shorter amount of time.

Meal Prep
Consider using the smoked sausage as part of a meal prep routine, and put it into several airtight containers with a starch and a veg side to allow you to have some meals ready to go at a later date.

How Long Can You Freeze Smoked Sausage?

You can freeze smoked sausage for around 3 months before you’ll start to notice any degradation due to it being in the freezer.

The meat can become chewier and tougher over time as it’s frozen longer, which isn’t ideal. The smokey flavour will also begin to degrade over time, which sort of defeats the point.

How Do You Defrost Smoked Sausage?

You can defrost smoked sausage by placing it into the fridge, without opening it, overnight. This allows you to let the ice melt over time, while also allowing the sausage to be kept at a safe temperature when it is thawed.

You can cook meat from frozen, too – generally, this is done in the oven or in sous vide.

To do this, we recommend following the recipe that you’re using, and adding five minutes to the cooking time to account for the frozen nature of the sausage.

It’s vital that you check the internal temperature of any meat that was frozen and then cooked.

Can You Refreeze Smoked Sausage?

No, you cannot refreeze smoked sausage.

As with any form of meat, smoked sausage cannot be refrozen as, when thawed, it’s likely that there will be some bacterial growth, making it unsafe to contaminate other food.

This is why we recommend only freezing meat in portions you’ll be able to eat, as it eliminates the waste of any food you cannot refreeze.

Does Smoked Sausage Freeze Well?

Yes, smoked sausage does freeze well. The main reason is that the sausage has relatively low water and high protein content.

This leads to a dense food item that freezes very well. Frozen for a long time can become tougher, which isn’t ideal. 

Related FAQs

If you’ve still got questions about freezing smoked sausage or smoked sausage in general, then these may help: