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.
Open the ground beef package but do not remove the ground beef.
Open a large freezer bag and hold with your left hand.
Place the ground beef inside the bag with your right hand until there is no ground beef left.
Close the bag when you are done filling it with ground beef.
Flatten the bag as much as possible.
Place the bag in the freezer.
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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Resources
Tips
- 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.
Warnings
- 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.
Writer Bio
Nellie Day is a freelance writer based out of Hermosa Beach, Calif. Her work can regularly be seen on newsstands, where her specialties include weddings, real estate, food and wine, pets, electronics, architecture and design, business and travel. Day earned a master's degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Southern California.
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