How to freeze meat
The task of freezing meat has no greater complication, although you need to consider some essential details to carry it out with good results. Next, we tell you how to do it:- Know the potential of your freezer. Home freezers are categorized by stars from 1 to 4 (-6º, -12º, -18º and -24º). Since foods need to refrigerate at least below -18º, freezers between 1 and 3 stars serve to keep the food frozen, but they do not assure you an optimal process, so take it into account.
– Buy fresh and good quality meat. Do not acquire products about to expire, because you run the risk of spoiling during the process. Likewise, it avoids as much as possible to freeze minced meat, unless you have the assurance that it is very fresh; In this case you could freeze it. Finally, in the supermarket puts the meat almost at the end of the purchase.
– Prefer cuts that are easier to freeze. All meats, without exception, can be frozen, although some are better than others for this process, either because of the ease of manipulation or for their organoleptic characteristics. In this sense, keep in mind that the lean pieces resist better freezing than the pieces with the highest fatty content.
– Freeze the meat as soon as possible. Preferably do it immediately. Keep in mind that although the package indicates that several days are missing to damage, during that period of time it already begins its deterioration. That is, if you expect a lot, you will significantly reduce the durability time of the product.
– Discard the paraffin paper and the tray it brings. The trays are formed by a thermal insulating material known as XPS, which slows freezing, occupies a lot of space and is not always tightly closed. On the other hand, paraffin paper does not work well to freeze food.
– Remove visible pieces of fat. Fats tend to enreciate and, therefore, usually accelerate the decomposition of the rest of the meat.
– Store meat in portions. If it is a large piece, cut it into rations of 200-250 grams. In this way, you will get several advantages: you can handle the flesh more easily, the pieces will take less to freeze and it will be evenly, you will only defrost the necessary meat and the defrosting process will be easier and more safe.
– Wraps the rations of meat very well. Do it first with film paper and then introduce them into special plastic bags or containers to freeze. If you use bags, turn all the air and clever them tightly. Another option to freeze the meat without sticking would be to have a homemade vacuum packaging machine.
– Freeze large cuts in its original bag. We refer to products such as cochino, roast, round, etc. In these cases, check the package and check that it is tightly closed, otherwise, save the product in large special bags for freezing or be with film paper.
– Label the containers. Put the date of purchase, the day you froze them (if you did not frozen them when you arrive) and the product name.
– Take control. Have a list in a notebook or any electronic device (mobile, computer or tablet). A good idea is to create a list in Excel.- Place a deep dish or a grip under the meat. The idea is to prevent liquids products from the defrosting process to touch the meat. An interesting suggestion is to place a rack on a bowl or roasting, put the meat on top and, finally, place both on the last floor below, to the bottom. In addition, this practice prevents contamination of other foods.
– Keep it before cooking it. If you plan to consume it in a while or the next day, do not leave it at room temperature and keep it in the fridge. Ground meat, fish and birds can be left approximately 1-2 days, while beef, pig, veal or lamb endure approximately 3-5 days.
How to defrose fast meat with cold water
This method allows you to defrost 1 piece of meat that weighs between 1/2 kilo and 1 kilo in approximately 15-30 minutes. If it is a piece of 2.5 kilos, it will take you about 1 hour. Finally, if you have cuts from 2.5 kilos you will need about 2-3 hours. That said, we indicate below the steps to follow to know how to defrost meat with water:- Enter the piece into a bag. If you are already in one, leave it there. On the other hand, if you are in a plastic or other material container, pass it to a hermetic closing bag.
– Verify that the bag is well closed. This is very important, because no water should enter.
– Promerge the meat pocketed in cold water of the tap. The tap water has a temperature that ranges between 7 and 10 degrees Celsius.
– Change the water every 30 minutes to keep it cold. By defrosting meat with water, never allow it to reach 30-42 degrees Celsius. For this reason, if you live in a very warm place, you may have to change the water more often and add 1-2 ice.
– Kitchen the meat as soon as I defrost it. Quick defrost methods accelerate the development of bacteria.
How to defrose meat in the microwave
You can never miss an express method in the kitchen and the most effective in this case is the microwave. Although we must recognize that using heat to defrost meat is not the most advisable, the only safe way to do so is using this artifact. Defrosting with hot water and leaving meat at room temperature are completely ruled out. That said, then we leave you step by step how to defrost fast meat in microwave:- Unpacacked the meat and place it into a suitable plate or container for microwave. In case of wanting to defrost vacuum packaged meat, you will have to break the void and remove it from the bag.
– Program the option to defrost or defrost. Some microwaves will ask you for the weight of the meat, in this way, he will calculate the time necessary for this function. If not, the next step will guide you.
– Put time according to the type of meat and weight. The chicken with bone (for every 700 g), ground meat (for every 700 g), beef fillets (for every 450 g) and bone pork (per 450 g), need to start the 50 percent of power for 2 for 2 minutes. After this time, it reduces power to 30 percent for 1 minute. If these are boneless chicken breasts (for every 700 g), everything is the same, except that the final power is reduced to 20 percent. On the other hand, for pork chops or boneless fillets (for every 250 g), everything is repeated again by changing the power to 40 percent during the beginning and at 30 percent. These references of time and power are orientative, since they can change according to your microwave.
– Defrose at time intervals. Keep in mind that microwaves are different from each other when we talk about power. For this reason, total defrosting time may vary. Work at intervals of 1-2 minute at the beginning and after 30 seconds. If your microwave is not very powerful, you can increase the time at 3 minutes at the beginning.
– Watch in each pause the state of the meat and turn it. Verify its texture by clicking it with a fork in several parts, if you feel soft in general, it is already ready. Now, if you have several pieces at the same time, remove the defrosted. If you have doubts about how to defrost minced meat in this way, simply remove the parts ready and follow the process with the rest to avoid cooking.
– Cook it immediately and using high temperatures. This will avoid the accelerated proliferation of bacteria product of defrosting with heat.
– Clean the microwave. In this way, you foresee food pollution after defrosting meat quickly.
Once the meat is defrosted, you can check the following recipes:- Stew of vessel with mushrooms
– Lamb stew
– Loin in almond sauce
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