How To Quickly Defrost Minced Meat And Do It Right At Home, Including Without A Microwave + Photos And Videos

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

Defrosting minced meat - express methods or correct defrosting?

Even experienced hostesses have moments when they need to unfreeze minced meat unexpectedly, urgently (for example, for the arrival of guests), or they simply forgot to do it in the morning, and it's time to cook dinner for the family. For such situations, methods of express defrosting minced meat are suitable. But sometimes, in addition to the goal of “feeding quickly,” there is a desire to create a unique culinary masterpiece, and then you need to defrost the minced meat correctly, so that all its taste is preserved. There are many ways to defrost minced meat, consider them.

Content

• 1 Correct ways to defrost minced meat at home

  • 1.1 What determines the correct defrosting
  • 1.2 How long will it take
  • 1.3 How and what stuffing should not be thawed

• 2 How to quickly defrost minced meat, fish or chicken

  • 2.1 In the microwave
  • 2.2 In a water bath
  • 2.3 Defrosting without heating
  • 2.4 Running water
  • 2.5 Defrosting in a warm place
• 3 Conditions for proper defrosting of minced meat
• 4 Video: how you can and how you can not defrost minced meat

• 5 How to defrost minced meat correctly

  • 5.1 Defrosting in the refrigerator
  • 5.2 In air at room temperature
  • 5.3 In a bowl of cold water

• 6 How else can you defrost minced meat

  • 6.1 In a multicooker
  • 6.2 In the oven
• 7 Table: Evaluation of methods for defrosting minced meat
• 8 Video: how to properly defrost minced meat

The right ways to defrost minced meat at home

With the correct defrosting of minced meat, it is important to remember that this is not a quick process. The temperature should be higher than in the freezer, but lower than room temperature, optimally 2–4 degrees.

Defrosting minced meat correctly is not quick

What determines the correctness of defrosting

First of all, of course, on the type of meat. Chicken, fish, turkey, game, beef, lamb or pork - each type of meat needs its own time to defrost. Beef thaws for the longest time - this meat is the most fibrous and rather tough. Faster - chicken or fish. It is important to remember that you cannot cook chicken, beef or pork that is not completely thawed - this is fraught with food poisoning.

Ground chicken defrosts as quickly as fish

How long will it take

The size and shape of the piece determines the defrosting time. It is logical to assume that the larger the piece, the longer it will thaw. Minced meat pieces 1.5-2 kg can be thawed for up to 48 hours. A large piece weighing 1 kg is thawed for a whole day - 24 hours. You can easily see a pattern in this - for each kg of frozen product we add one more day. Minced meat, divided into medium-sized pieces or cutlets, defrosts faster - 8-10 hours is enough for it, provided that they are defrosted separately from each other.

The size of the product affects the duration of the process: the smaller the piece, the faster it will defrost

How and which minced meat should not be defrosted

Some creative housewives suggest defrosting minced meat with a hairdryer. Do not do this - the meat will turn out to be dry and tasteless.

There is no need to defrost the minced meat in hot or warm water - the protein curls up in it, and after cooking the meat turns out to be unpleasantly tough.

It is also best not to defrost minced meat twice frozen, dry or stored for a long time. Of course, it is also not worth re-freezing it, but if the need arises, do not defrost the semi-finished product, but cook from it right away - you can stew, cook or fry without thawing.

How to quickly defrost minced meat, fish, or chicken

There are several ways to defrost minced meat. Let's consider the most popular ones.

In the microwave

1. The fastest existing express way to defrost minced meat is to heat it up in the microwave. We place the product in a special dish for the microwave, after taking it out of the packaging or plastic bag. If it is difficult to do this due to the fact that the packaging is frozen to the minced meat, you need to soften it under running cold water.
2. Turn on the "Defrost" mode. The time for defrosting minced meat in the microwave depends on the weight of the piece and the type of product. For example, a semi-finished pork or beef product weighing 500 g needs to be heated for about 14 minutes. The same piece of minced poultry meat will defrost in 12 minutes, but for fish meat it will be enough for 10 minutes.
3. We take the product out of the microwave oven and use it for its intended purpose.

It is important not to overexpose the minced meat in the microwave, otherwise it will acquire an unpleasant smell and lose all its juiciness, it will become dry. In addition, a semi-finished product may defrost unevenly, or remain completely frozen inside, but scald from the edges. To avoid this, you need to turn the minced meat and, as it thaws, divide it into smaller pieces.

A microwave will help you quickly defrost minced meat

Almost every microwave oven has a rotating rack for even heating food. If your device does not have it, you will need to turn the minced meat, stopping the microwave for this every 2 minutes (sometimes it stops by itself), in this case, the product will not scald on top, and the bottom will not remain unfrozen. The uniformity is also influenced by the shape of the frozen piece - a semi-finished product that has a round shape will defrost faster than an oblong product or minced meat cube.

On a water bath

You can defrost the minced meat quickly using a water bath.

1. Pour water into a large saucepan - a little less than half.
2. We shift the minced meat from the package or bag into a bowl, it is desirable that it be made of ceramic, which we put in a pan.
3. Heat water in a large saucepan over low heat, bring it to a boil and let the minced meat defrost, periodically turning it over and removing the layers that have already thawed.
4. Defrosting time is 40-50 minutes.

You can quickly defrost minced meat in a water bath

Defrost without heating

A method that does not require heating. Defrost the minced meat with salt and a special hammer for meat (salt does not allow the liquid to freeze, and, accordingly, dissolves the already frozen meat juice). How to do it correctly?

1. We release the minced meat from the package.
2. We break it with a hammer into very small pieces.
3. Sprinkle with salt and leave for 20 minutes.

For 1 kg you need 10 g of salt, that is, 1 teaspoon.

Salt dissolves ice, and therefore is used to quickly defrost minced meat

Running water

Place the packed minced meat under the tap with running cold water, after 15–20 minutes (if the piece is not very large) the meat is ready to use. The downside of this method is that the quality of the product will change slightly, it will become less dense. It is not recommended to defrost minced meat under hot water, as in this case the meat will defrost unevenly and will also lose some of its taste.

You can defrost minced meat under running water.

Defrost in a warm place

We place the minced meat in a warm place, for example, next to the battery. After half an hour or an hour, the minced meat will be completely defrosted, but this will affect its taste. The product will lose its juiciness, dryness and hardness will appear.

Conditions for proper defrosting of minced meat

Minced meat is defrosted correctly only naturally - slowly, slowly. So in it all the juice, water-soluble vitamins and proteins are preserved in their original state.

According to SanPin, minced meat should be defrosted on tables with a gradual increase in temperature from 0 to + 6 or + 8 degrees Celsius or at room temperature. The meat must not be thawed in small pieces, as well as in water or near a working stove, because this deteriorates its quality due to significant losses of meat juice. Minced meat is cooked in quantities that can be cooked immediately, as the microbes in the minced meat develop quickly.

Video: how you can and how you can not defrost minced meat

How to defrost minced meat correctly

There are several basic ways to properly defrost minced meat.

Defrost in the refrigerator

1. Put the minced meat in a deep dish - it can be in a plastic bag, or without it. It is known that when defrosting, meat gives off juice that can leak - the dishes will protect us from such a mess. We do not cover the dish with anything.

2. We put the minced meat in the refrigerator, if we need it not soon, we put it to the back wall - there is the coldest place. The minced meat will defrost gradually, and if you don't use it right away, there will be less risk of spoilage.

   

   Defrosting in the refrigerator is the right solution

3. After such defrosting, minced meat can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 48 hours.

How to check if our minced meat is defrosted? We take it out of the refrigerator and press it with the pad of our finger - if a small hole remains in this place, it can be cooked. If the piece is large, you need to break it in half. If this is done easily, and the minced meat has already become soft, it is completely defrosted.

In air at room temperature

With this method of defrosting the minced meat, it will take 3-6 hours to become plastic and soft. This method is not for quick defrosting, but it helps to preserve all the useful properties of the product.

Defrosting minced meat at room temperature will preserve the beneficial properties of the product

In a bowl of cold water

This method requires less time than defrosting in the refrigerator, but with it, less useful properties remain in the minced meat. Above, a faster way of defrosting a semi-finished product under running water is described, in which the minced meat loses its density somewhat, while defrosting the product in a bowl will not entail any changes in its qualities and taste. Half a kilogram of frozen minced meat will take an hour to thaw, a kilogram - 2 hours, two kilograms - 3 hours.

1. We put the minced meat in a plastic bag, tie it tightly - the water should only be outside, but not penetrate inside, otherwise the minced meat may absorb it and become too watery.

2. We put it in a deep bowl and fill it with cold water so that the minced meat is completely covered. If you need to defrost a large piece of minced meat, you can use a whole sink instead of a bowl.

   

   Defrost the minced meat in cold water carefully so that the liquid does not get inside the bag

3. Every half hour, you need to remember to change the water in order to keep it cold. We check the degree of defrosting of minced meat in the same way as in the previous case - we press or break. If the meat is soft enough, then it defrosted the way we need it.

How else can you defrost minced meat

Creative housewives use some more methods for defrosting food.

In a multicooker

You will need the "Steam cooking" mode.

1. Pour water into the multicooker bowl (it should be slightly less than half).
2. Put the minced meat in a special basket.

3. We turn on the program.

   

   For defrosting in a multicooker, use the "Steam cooking" mode

4. Leave for 10-15 minutes until completely defrosted.

All this time, we periodically check our minced meat: open the lid, monitor the color (it should remain pink, as soon as the product began to turn gray - the process of scalding the edges has started, it can be avoided by turning the piece over) and consistency (we apply a teaspoon with the convex side to the semi-finished product and a little press, if a hole remains, it is defrosted). Remember that the product should only defrost, but not cook.

In the oven

There are several ways - using convection, inside the oven and just on the open door. How to defrost minced meat:

• we use convection - this is a fan with a ring heater. We spread the minced meat on a baking sheet, and turn on the selected mode;
• if there is no convection mode in the oven, we heat it up to 150-200 degrees, open the oven door and put a bowl of minced meat on it, which we need to defrost;
• you can also set the oven temperature to 40 degrees, put a bowl of minced meat inside, and close the door, leaving a gap of 2-3 cm. In this case, the product will defrost faster than thawing on the oven door, but the likelihood that the minced meat will bake increases …

Defrost minced meat in the oven carefully so as not to overdry the product

Defrosting minced meat in the oven or in a multicooker is quite fast, but it is possible to dry the minced meat.

Table: assessment of methods for defrosting minced meat

Way	Defrosting speed	Quality
In a refrigerator	-	+
At room temperature	-	+
In water	+	-
In the oven	+	-
In the microwave	+	-
In a multicooker	+	+
For a couple	+	-
Combined method (water + room temperature)	+	-

Video: how to properly defrost minced meat

There are many ways to defrost minced meat, some help to do it quickly, others make it possible to preserve its useful properties as much as possible. Which one to choose is up to you. Enjoy cooking!