How to make freezer slow freeze poultry

[iceman31]

Hi Iceman31
I assume by trying to get ice crystal damage you are trying to get some sort of meat tenderising? or increase the WHC of the meat to increase revenue.
The problem with slow freezing is you will have a high product moisture loss. To reduce this, your meat is blast frozen to seal outer skin then slow frozen at your crystal formation temperature.

Best would be to control refrigeration with a product probe (meat inserted) to maintain core temp at desired temp and utilise a close control setting on a controller.(or multiple depth probes)
Domestic fridges are notoriously bad at maintaining close control around set point. The lack of air flow over product in a domestic fridge gives poor heat transfer rates. defrost design will destroy your aim with the product and increase drip.

increasing heat load in a refrigerator would reduce cooling capacity but this is very hit and miss and you sound like you want to do a far more scientific experiment. I would rent/ build a freezer with product probes, wide fin spacing and a temp range of 0 to -45.

Thanks for these replies. I am not looking for meat tenderising and I do WANT MOISTURE LOSS. Actually the more moisture loss the better. However I do not want to do this using a meat dehydrator because not only do I want excessive moisture loss, I also WANT THE ICE CRYSTALS TO RUPTURE THE CELLS, something that can only be achieved using freezing.

Why am I doing this? Well it's a long story and this is not a commercial project. Guys I really need to be able to do this. I am not a freezer engineer or anything like that, just a chronically ill guy who sits at home most of my days. I absolutely need to find out how to do this.

Can you give any more suggestions? How much would it cost to build something like this and is it something I can rent?

Anticipating your reply. Thanks

[iceman31]

Guys, I also notice nobody has answered the specific questions I asked. Please can somebody do that if possible.

ALso I take it the suggestions are:
1. Overload domestic freezer and hope for the best.
2. Build/buy/rent a freezer which will fluctuate between -1 to -3.
3. Use fridge compartment on lowest setting.

I can try 1 but other say it will probably not work, do you think it is still worth trying?

I have to research/find something that does 2.

A low setting fridge compartment goes to -0 however the freezing point for chicken is -2.2c. Also the bigger ice crystals occur at -3 to -4 so I don't know if a fridge compartment can go that for.

Also, even if we control the temperature, might the freezer not still freeze it fast and bring it up to the required temperature e.g. you put the chicken in and it could be within 3 hours it brings it to -4c which would be too quick?