How to thaw raw meat quickly?

[susan8020]

Thawing slowly in the fridge or cold water doesn't work in our chaotic schedule. We need to thaw it quickly for immediate use. Microwave or hot water have obvious problems. Any workarounds, or other approaches?

Comments

[twistedchick]

How quickly are you talking about? You may be running up against the inherent physical properties of the meat itself.

[busaikko]

Also, what kind of meat is it? I freeze thinly-sliced meat, and just throw it in the frying pan frozen. But that probably wouldn't work with thick chunks.

[windtear]

Okay, reading over the replies, it looks to me like what you need, more than anything else, is to prepare your meats before freezing in such a way that they'll unfreeze fast. Basically, separate your cuts before you pop them in the freezer (I'm single, so I put each piece into its own clean ziplock baggie [can be reused if you're on a tight budget but if you do WASH THEM FIRST] and thaw a baggie at a time; waxed/baking paper between cuts also works with multiple pieces in a bag), shape your mince into thin flat disks/bars like rissoles (don't forget your cut separators between each!) before freezing, and they won't take nearly as long to thaw, and pick thinner cuts (schnitzels thaw quicker than inch-thick slabs).

With frying and roasting, I generally find that if the meat is thin enough, the meat can be cooked from frozen almost as quickly as from fully thawed (maybe add five minutes).

Also, meat can sit in the fridge for a couple of days without going off, so if it is likely your partner will be in a position later that day to forage without you, it probably won't hurt anything to pull down an extra piece and have it there in the fridge for him to grab.

I guess what I'm saying is that it's all in the prep work, really, and it's doable if you put the prep in.

[17catherines]

I hate to say this, but at my food safety course we were warned *stringently* against defrosting by anything other than the fridge or microwave methods. The cold water method can be very dangerous, as it holds the defrosting meats at unsafe temperatures.

Your best bet is to freeze things as flat as possible - maximise their surface area so that they defrost quickly and evenly.

Actually, I've just noticed that windtear is right on the ball with all this stuff, and I'm not being too helpful, but I did want to mention the food safety thing, because I didn't know about it previous to that course.

[nineveh_uk]

When thawing meat I haven't got time to leave, or don't want to put in the microwave (particularly fish) I tend to put it on a metal tray on the biggest metal surface I can find - in my case, the not-switched-on metal hob of the metal cooker. It's not a good idea for an extended period of time or large items, but it works very well with smaller pieces of meat and fish (yesterday's whole sea bass was completely thawed in under an hour).