So I've long been in the habit of freezing my meat when I get it home from the store, and then thawing it later. My fridge tends to be set rather cool (because someone in my house likes nearly frozen beverages) so if I leave the meat in the fridge, it may not defrost completely overnight. But I'm concerned about leaving it out in the sink for too long.
What's the best way to know how long to leave some ground hamburger meat from the store in the styrofoam tray that's been frozen once it got home?
Assume 1 or 2 lb chunks of meat, 85% through 97% ground beef.
Best Answer
I like to put the meat in a largish ziplock bag and flatten it out so it occupies the whole flat area of the bag but is only a couple of cm think. Then I press a chopstick into the meat lengthways both horizontally and vertically to create indents in the meat, as if I was making a naughts and crosses (tic-tac-toe) grid.
Then I freeze it lay flat in the freezer. Then when I want to use it I can 'snap' off squares of meat (along the indentation lines) to the amount that I need and I don't need to defrost the whole pack in a single go.
To defrost (I don't have a microwave) I leave the pieces on a metal tray for a little while, turning occasionally. This usually defrosts them in an hour or so, depending on how many there are