Shelf life of fresh meat in the refrigerator
The retail chain receives chilled and frozen meat. The product tastes different. Chilled meat has a tender consistency. The temperature of muscle tissue is 2-4 0 C. In this state, in industrial conditions the product can be stored for up to 20 days, in a home refrigerator, in a dry fresh zone, no more than a week. Ripened chilled meat from any animal and poultry has better taste compared to frozen meat.
In a refrigerator
The refrigerator method is the simplest and safest. It takes a lot of time. With this, you don't have to worry about overheating. But this method also has its drawbacks. Large cuts of meat, such as turkey or pork, will take a very long time to thaw. You will have to wait about a day for the meat to completely defrost. If you don't have that much time, try other methods.
It is better to place frozen meat in the refrigerator in a plate or special tray. During the defrosting process, water will begin to release from it, and if you do not use the tray, it will remain on the refrigerator shelves. If you need to defrost a large piece, such as turkey, you can use a large frying pan for this purpose. Meat in plastic containers can be left in the refrigerator directly in the packaging.
On average, defrosting this way takes 24 hours. You can periodically check how much the meat has defrosted. If you are defrosting meat in a plastic tray, you can turn it over to check if it has finished thawing. Be sure to wash your hands before and after touching frozen meat. This will help you avoid the spread of bacteria.
The advantage of defrosting in the refrigerator is that it is a gentle method. You don't need to cook the meat right away. You can re-freeze the remaining product until next use. In addition, meat can be stored defrosted for some time. Fish, poultry and minced meat – 24-48 hours. Beef, lamb, and pork can be kept in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days.
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Shelf life of meat in the freezer
In rural and country life, meat is often produced independently. When raising animals and birds for your own consumption, it is necessary to provide a storage method. The freezer is an ideal method for stocking up on homemade food.
After slaughter, fresh meat should be quickly cut up and first cooled to 4 0, then quickly frozen. These are two stages of one process of preparing a product for long-term storage. Rapid cooling reduces the proliferation of bacteria to a harmless amount, and freezing at –(30-24) 0 C allows you to stop the processes of biological decomposition.
The taste of dishes obtained from meat removed from the freezer is affected by storage time and conditions. How many months and at what temperature should stocks be stored? Beef and horse meat, deeply frozen during the day, can be stored at t = -12~-18 degrees for 8-12 months. It is important that temperature fluctuations should not exceed 2 degrees. Humidity in the chamber is maintained at 95-98%. Meat must be packaged to prevent moisture from escaping.
- Lamb can be stored for up to 10 months.
- Pork will not lose its beneficial properties for up to 8 months.
- The bird can be stored for no longer than 6 months.
The fresher the meat, the tastier and healthier it is.
You defrost meat using a hair dryer
People come up with a lot of tricks to help them defrost meat faster. They put it on a radiator or in hot water. Some housewives even decide to defrost meat using a hairdryer. Hot air really quickly turns ice into water. But is it safe? Of course not. Due to the high temperature, bacteria will begin to multiply faster than usual. As a result, eating such meat can cause poisoning. In addition, the hair dryer will heat the piece unevenly. It will dry out the outer layer of meat, but the inside will remain frozen.
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The subtleties of purchasing meat in a retail chain
There is one more condition that must be observed when creating stocks. At a market or retail outlet, chilled meat is often passed off as frozen. Therefore, you can buy it for use within a week. Refreezing meat again destroys the benefits of a valuable product.
There is one way to make sure that the meat is chilled - there should be a dried crust on the carcass. If the cut muscles release moisture, the applied palm becomes wet – the meat is defrosted.
However, from defrosted meat you can make semi-finished products - steaks, cutlets, dumplings and freeze them again. The storage temperature of semi-finished products in the freezer remains -(12-18) 0, but the shelf life is reduced to 4 months.
You put spices in not completely defrosted meat
Defrosting meat is a long process. Large pieces may take several hours to thaw. Of course, we all want to speed it up. Therefore, many housewives do not wait for complete defrosting. They take meat that has not completely thawed and put salt and spices in it, and sometimes mix it with other products. This cannot be done because of the many bacteria that are on its surface. In addition, it is not recommended to defrost meat next to other foods. It is best to allocate a separate container for it with a tightly closed lid. Or just put it away from other food.
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Tips on how to properly prepare, freeze and preserve meat
You only need to buy fresh or chilled meat for freezing. Be sure to wash the piece under running water, dry it and cut it into pieces for one use. Each portion should be packaged in a separate plastic bag, labeled as soup, pulp, and dated. Frozen in bags, lamb, beef, horse meat look the same.
Turn on the super freeze mode and lay out the bags in one layer. After 72 hours, you should switch the freezer mode to medium. Using the -24 0 C mode for constant operation of the freezer means unnecessary energy consumption and freezing of useful substances from the meat.
If there is a power outage for a long time, rescue operations will be required:
- Modern freezers can withstand long periods of autonomous cold storage. You can help by additionally wrapping the freezer body with blankets and old fur coats.
- If thawing has already begun, the meat must be removed from the bags and coated with vinegar or citric acid.
- A meat product placed in milk or curdled milk will keep fresh for 12 hours. You can wrap the piece with a rag soaked in saline solution.
We hope that our information will help you prepare meat products correctly and protect them in extreme situations.
Using cold water
This method takes much less time. A couple of kilograms can be defrosted within an hour. Larger pieces will take 2-3 hours to thaw. However, when using this method, thawed meat must be cooked immediately.
Fill a deep bowl with cold water. Place the pieces of meat in a plastic bag. It is better to use it with a special clamp. The meat should be sealed inside, having previously removed most of the accumulated air from the bag.
Place the meat in the bag in a bowl of cold water. The meat should be completely covered with water. The product must be kept in water until completely defrosted. Every half hour, drain the water and refill the container with water. It should be fresh and cold.
Meat thawed in water should be cooked immediately. Even though it was placed in cold water, the temperature with this defrosting method is still higher than in the refrigerator.
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Therefore, it should be prepared immediately. If you want to freeze a product, you will have to cook it first, and only then place it in the freezer in a ready-made state.
How to quickly defrost meat in the microwave
Almost all microwave ovens provide defrosting of meat products. All you need to do is place the meat or chicken on the tray and press the “Defrost” button. At the same time, you need to set the weight of the piece to be defrosted. To ensure that the meat thaws evenly, turn the piece every 5 minutes. If your old oven does not have such a function, then you can still defrost meat in the microwave.
- Place the meat on the tray.
- Set the power to the minimum level.
- Set the time to 10 minutes.
- Turn on the oven.
- After 5 minutes, turn the meat over.
- If ten minutes is not enough to thaw the meat, then increase it. Remember to turn the meat and do not increase the power.
Video: Defrosting meat at home
To ensure that meat does not lose its taste and healthiness during long-term storage, it must be frozen very quickly and then defrosted very slowly. But not all housewives have the opportunity to thaw a piece of meat or chicken for a long time, especially if unexpected guests come to the house. There are several ways to quickly defrost meat, but be prepared for the fact that it will not look completely “steamy”. Also, quickly defrosted meat will be denser and will have to be cooked 10 minutes longer.
How to defrost meat correctly so that bacteria do not multiply on it
Food poisoning due to bacteria is a common outcome if you defrost meat at room temperature, experts say. This quick method of defrosting is especially harmful when it comes to red meat or poultry.
Indeed, as soon as meat from the freezer begins to thaw and reaches a temperature above 10 °, the bacteria present before thawing begin to multiply.
- It is recommended that perishable foods should never be defrosted in air or hot water.
- It is also strongly recommended not to leave meat at room temperature for more than two hours. In fact, when you do this, the outside of the food, including the meat, is thawed, but the inside is still frozen. This allows pathogens to grow and multiply.
Therefore, it is necessary to learn good defrosting habits for your and your family's health.
Here are some ways to defrost meat quickly and safely.
The three methods we are about to present to you are, according to experts, the only way to safely defrost your meat. Any other method is dangerous to your health and can cause you several diseases.
In a refrigerator
One of the safest ways to defrost meat is to remove it from the freezer and place it in a bowl in the refrigerator. The refrigerator maintains a temperature from 1 to 4 degrees. This way, the food will thaw without being exposed to temperatures that encourage bacterial growth.
However, the defrosting process takes a long time. It is recommended to defrost small quantities of food, such as 500 g of minced meat or chicken breast, within 10 hours using this method. For larger quantities, such as a whole chicken or leg of lamb, wait about 24 hours.
So if you're planning on cooking juicy steaks for dinner, be sure to put them in the refrigerator in the morning before heading to work. Also, it's best to place the meat in a bowl and place it on the bottom shelf to prevent the juices from getting on other foods in your refrigerator.
Another benefit of this method: If you defrost your food in the refrigerator, you don't have to cook it immediately, which, admittedly, can be especially helpful when your schedule changes at the last minute.
Keep in mind that once defrosted, poultry, ground meat and even fish can be stored in the refrigerator for 1-2 days. As for beef, pork, lamb or veal, it can be stored for 3 to 4 days.
In cold water
The main advantage of this method is that it is much faster than defrosting in the refrigerator, however you should know that it requires a lot more attention from you.
Firstly, in this case, the meat is defrosted only in a package or bag to prevent the meat itself from coming into contact with water. Do not use hot water, but change cold water every 30 minutes - it should remain cold enough to avoid the growth of bacteria.
This method is very convenient if you forget to remove the meat from the freezer in advance.
For example, it takes about 30 minutes to defrost 500 g of meat in cold water; a whole chicken can be defrosted in 2-3 hours.
Fill your kitchen sink or large bowl with cold water, place the meat in a bag or waterproof bag and submerge.
However, once your meat is thawed, be sure to cook it immediately and not refreeze it.
Cook without defrosting
If you don't have time to use one of the two methods above, you can cook frozen food without defrosting.
However, keep in mind that frozen meat takes approximately 50% longer to cook than thawed meat.
A few tips to keep in mind
- Wash your hands thoroughly before handling meat, frozen or not.
- Clean all surfaces in your kitchen before handling food.
- Disinfect the cutting board and wash the dishes in which the meat was melted. The best way to treat boards and dishes is a paste of soda and lemon juice, which should then be washed off with hot water.
- Never put cooked meat back into the container where it was frozen before cooking it.
- To avoid the defrosting process, it is better, if possible, to eat meat immediately after purchasing it, or at least store it in the refrigerator for no more than a couple of days.
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