How long can you store meat in a refrigerator?

[Beyonder]

Hey all!

I will be purchasing a whole lamb from a farm soon.  I am looking for storage options.  I am hesitant to freeze all that meat for taste and nutrition reasons.

My latest idea is to simply leave the meat chilled and uncovered in my own personal refrigerator.  I live in an apartment with other people and don't want to offend them with the smell.

Will this meat become high quickly?  I'd rather not do this because of the smell.  How long could I potentially store it with this method without the meat becoming high?  I am getting about 40 pounds of meat which would last me a full month.

Thanks guys!

[ys]

i store meat in the freezer for extended period of time (few months) and i do not notice much difference in taste.

i also do not worry about nutrition loss as i have not come across any study that shows significant nutrient loss if any at all.  some might say that freezing breaks the cells and might cause some nutrients to leak.  there is no nutrient leak of any kind in my case because i eat my meat when it is still solid but soft enough to chew.

if you let frozen meat thaw completely then it'll probably leak some of it's juices out including some of the nutrients.  this is especially true with frozen liver.  so i eat liver before its juices get flowing.

[miles]

As far as I know Iguana stores meat in his fridge for ages and it doesn't get high, by using meat hooks. Some butchers store meat for long periods like this too. If I store meat on a plate it only goes off on the side face-down, the rest just dries out a bit. I don't have any suitable place for meat-hooks unfortunately.

[Hannah]

I asked this question a while back too.

I cut my meat into small strips and seal them in single serve pouches with my vacuum sealer. It is VERY convenient and doesn't skeeve out anyone else.  I recently left a sirloin steak on a stainless steel plate in the fridge for a week. I don't like the texture as much as it gets dry but it didn't really bother me. There was NO SMELL! I was shocked.  Supermarket meat always smelled to me. I have had my nose in good grassfed beef and smell nothing. Otherwise I would freeze it. It shouldn't get high in the fridge though.

[Dima]

From my experience, lamb does not store well refrigerated for more than a few days. I would freeze it. Beef can be stored for weeks (until it dries out), but this does not seem to be the case with lamb.

[Iguana]

The leg on the upper left is lamb (the others are wild boar). It can be kept for months like this if there's not too much dampness in the fridge. If the meat becomes too wet on surface instead of drying, you can wipe it or put it in the flow of a fan a few hours occasionally.   

[bharminder]

Thanks Iguana I started using the fan method because I've had problems with wet meat sitting in the fridge going off....

it's really made the whole process or storing meat and cutting a piece off for a meal much easier because it is dry and not dripping wet.

When I take a slab out of the fridge to cut off a piece, I let it sit in the fan for 5 minutes and then put it back in fridge. After a couple times the outside seems to get dry enough.