How to eat frozen meat?

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Very often ordinary customers in everyday life have to use frozen meat for cooking. What is special about this product and how should it be cooked?

Description of how to store the product

The diet of most people necessarily includes meat products. The exception is vegetarians, of whom there are not so many among us. It's no secret that fresh meat is the most beneficial for the body, but few people have the opportunity to use it for food every day. Such products are usually produced in large quantities and then stored appropriately to prevent possible spoilage. As a rule, the most popular option is used for this - refrigeration. There are several types of it:

1. Cooling. In this case, the meat is stored at a temperature of 0 to +4 degrees. It has a slightly dry crust on the surface. At the same time, the elasticity of the tissues inside is preserved.
2. Freezing is a method of processing at low temperatures, in which the product freezes outside by no more than 25 percent.
3. Freezing. The meat is chilledto such an extent that the temperature inside the piece does not exceed 8 degrees.

Many often have to use frozen meat. This has its own explanations. Firstly, such a product is stored longer. Secondly, it is much cheaper than fresh. But that doesn't mean it's worse. The main thing is that certain conditions and sanitary standards are observed during storage.

Good frozen meat can be identified even by external signs:

1. It should have a rich red color. Dull gray spots indicate regime violations.
2. It is unacceptable to have pink crystals inside the fabrics, as well as snow and ice on the surface.

It is better not to buy low-quality products in order to protect yourself from possible problems.

Defrost Rules

Some believe that frozen meat is a product from which it is no longer possible to make a really good and tasty dish. After thawing, it may become loose and lose its former juiciness. But this opinion is wrong. Such consequences can only arise if the meat was stored incorrectly or the mandatory conditions for defrosting it were violated. To prevent this from happening, you need to know in advance what to do and what not to do. You can, of course, put the frozen piece in the microwave or in the sink under running hot water. But it is best to do as experts advise. First, the selected piece must be removed from the freezer and put on the shelf of the refrigerator. Here the temperature isusually above zero. The process must be slow. It will take at least a day, depending on the size of the piece. During thawing, moisture will be released, so it is better to put the product on a plate.

Cooking Secrets

Very often novice housewives ask the same question. They are interested in how to cook frozen meat? After all, you can do two things:

1. Pre-defrost the selected piece, and then boil it until fully cooked.
2. Immediately lower the meat into boiling water.

Any experienced chef will confirm that the first option is considered to be preferable. There are objective reasons for this.

Firstly, the frozen product will take longer to cook. This will significantly degrade its quality. Indeed, meat, as you know, contains many useful substances that have the ability to break down under the influence of high temperatures. The longer the product is in such conditions, the less of these same substances will remain in it after the end of cooking. Secondly, it is necessary to take into account the fact that as a result of a sharp temperature drop, meat fibers are damaged. They simply burst and the juice that was previously inside flows out. After cooking, such a product will be dry. It will lose its natural juiciness and become tasteless.

How to properly store meat products?

Before talking about cooking methods, you must first ensure the conditions for the proper maintenance of products.

Storing frozen meat is a special process that has its own rules:

1. All products must be stacked neatly. This makes it easier to account for them and use them when necessary.
2. It should be taken into account that in the process of long-term storage, frozen pieces of meat, as a rule, lose weight. This is due to the weathering and dehydration of the outer surfaces. To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to pack each individual piece in a special cloth or plastic bag. Such actions will help prevent unwanted moisture loss without negatively affecting the quality of the product.
3. It is necessary to reduce the rate of air circulation inside the chamber as much as possible while increasing the relative humidity.
4. Respect the shelf life. It must be remembered that over time, irreversible changes occur inside the product. As a result of rancidity of fat, the meat acquires an unpleasant odor. Under the action of crystals of the frozen liquid, deformation and destruction of muscle fibers occurs. Vitamins are affected in a similar way. This reduces the nutritional value of the product.

Expert Tips

There are some important points and little secrets with which you can learn how to cook frozen meat. They must be strictly observed. Only then will it be possible to achieve the desired result. From a fairly large number of such secrets, several of the most important can be distinguished:

1. Noto preliminarily thaw the product in water. It must first be washed lightly, and then put in a closed container and put in the refrigerator for several hours.
2. It is necessary to cut off exactly the amount of product that is needed for cooking. Repeated freezing is very harmful. It leads to loss of quality and subsequent deterioration.
3. To prepare the broth, put the meat in cold water. This will make it more flavorful. But for the second dish, it is better to put it immediately in boiling water. The broth will not be as rich, and the meat will turn out soft and juicy.
4. It takes one and a half times more time to cook dishes from frozen meat.
5. For work it is better to use pieces of small sizes. This will speed up the process noticeably.

There are many more useful tips, but first you need to remember the most important ones.

Cooking conditions

Some housewives do not know how to cook frozen meat, and make many significant mistakes. In this matter, firstly, it is important to consider what kind of product is being processed. Secondly, you need to understand what exactly you need to cook from it.

For example, beef should be boiled for no more than one hour. This time will be enough. For pork, it takes 1.5-2 hours. Moreover, it is necessary to take into account the age and condition of the product. There should be enough water in the pot to completely cover the meat. This will ensure that all of its parts are boiled. You also need to add s alt wisely. This componentprevents the transfer of juice from meat to broth. If you add it at the very beginning of cooking, then the product will be soft and fragrant, and the broth will be empty. This is usually done in cases where it is necessary to prepare the product for further processing and use as a second course. If you need to cook soup, then it is better to s alt it at the very end.