Frozen stock

Hi all:

How long can you keep frozen stock? I made some about 4-5 months ago and kind of forgot about it and haven't gotten around to using it in a soup. Is it still OK, do you think? Thanks as always for your wisdom.

I make sure there's a nice protective layer of fat on top, and I keep it a year or so. Really, even if it loses some of its flavor, how can it not be better than a commercial product that far down the road? I never have any sense of stuff like that going bad in that amount of time, unless you see it all turned to freezer crystals or something.

I keep it a year or so, too. Even if it does get ice crystals in it (I freeze it ice cube trays, then transfer to Ziploc), that's just water. If it were a piece of meat, ice crystals could rupture the cell walls and make the meat a bit mushy, but for stock that really doesn't matter now, does it?

I don't know, at some point I suppose the ice crystals might pick up freezer flavor, I guess. That's what the layer of fat is doing there, preventing that. In any case, I've certainly noticed no problems by my method.

Sometimes I leave the fat on, too. Haven't noticed any difference, but I've never done a side-by-side taste test, either.

If you're concerned about food safety, frozen stock keeps indefinitely.

The only thing that might suffer over time would be its quality. So, since it's safe to eat, the easy way to tell if it's still in good enough shape to use, is to taste it.

I've certainly kept frozen stock, well sealed, for more than a year, with no appreciable loss in quality.

USDA: Freezing and Food Safety

Thank you all for your advice. Glad to hear I can still put it to good use.

I par 6 months on everything I freeze, works for me.