How to Freeze Ground Beef
Ground beef is a food staple in most homes, but the way it is packaged in the store does cause a glaring problem--when you want to use it, the tube packaging makes it difficult to defrost the entire package in time for cooking. Instead of leaving your packaged ground beef under hot water all day long to defrost it, there is an easier and more effective way that involves placing the ground beef in a different package. Continue reading this article to find out how to freeze ground beef for easy defrosting. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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Open the ground beef package but do not remove the ground beef.
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Open a large freezer bag and hold with your left hand.
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Place the ground beef inside the bag with your right hand until there is no ground beef left.
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Close the bag when you are done filling it with ground beef.
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Flatten the bag as much as possible.
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Place the bag in the freezer.
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The USDA recommends placing ground beef in a closed plastic bag under cold water for 30 minutes to an hour for defrosting. Change the water once or twice until the meat is fully thawed.
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Tips & Warnings
Placing the ground beef in a plastic bag and then flattening it makes it easier for the ground beef to become frozen and to be defrosted. By increasing the surface area of the ground beef in the package, the freezing and defrosting times become shorter.
Once you flatten the ground beef, the bags become easy to stack if you have more than one bag worth of ground beef.
You do not need to have a large bag if you do not have a significant amount of ground beef.
When handling raw meat with your hands, wash after you are done. Additionally, use a disinfectant to clean all surfaces that may have been in contact with the raw meat.
Thawing the meat in hot water may lead to food-borne illnesses.
Resources
- Photo Credit www.verdefarms.com
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Comments
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bizzyliz
Feb 09, 2009
Good article. I do this often. Maybe you could write an article on what cleaning/disinfecting surfaces after handling raw meat or something of that nature--maybe you already have. I'll check. I like this article. It's a great idea and it works. I never thawed the meat this way. That's a great idea, too. -
bizzyliz
Feb 09, 2009
Good article. I do this often. Maybe you could write an article on what cleaning/disinfecting surfaces after handling raw meat or something of that nature--maybe you already have. I'll check. I like this article. It's a great idea and it works. I never thawed the meat this way. That's a great idea, too.
