Handy mince freezing tip

[haaammit]

Just thought I'd share the way that I freeze minced beef and pork at home. We have an American style fridge freezer so the freezer part isn't the best for storage. I buy and freeze mince and found that if I out the meat into a medium freezer bag (approx 26x26cm) and flatten it out to fill the bag, it A: Takes up much less space/bulk and B: Defrosts so much faster than if it's in the original "block" form.

Yes - that's just how exciting my life is

 

[cheesyboy]

Good idea that. I actually tend to avoid putting mince in the freezer because of how long I have to plan in advance of using it to let it defrost.

 

[rossk26]

nice idea, will have to do this next time!

 

[Mr Jones]

Good Idea that.

I personally portion them into individual portion, around 125-150g "sausage roll" style. They stack quite nicely when you have 4 or more at the back of freezer. Then when I'm cooking for myself or missus and I can take portion by portion the night before.

 

[boxman2000]

Good tip, particularly these days the packets of mince you get from supermarkets are quite inflated.

 

[FrenchTart]

Freezer burn is less likely to occur in these bags compared to a tupperware containers. The way to avoid it is to leave as little air in there as possible and obviously to not open/close your freezer a lot. A vacuum sealer massively improves the retention of quality of frozen food.

 

[boxman2000]

Freezer burn is less likely to occur in these bags compared to a tupperware containers. The way to avoid it is to leave as little air in there as possible and obviously to not open/close your freezer a lot. A vacuum sealer massively improves the retention of quality of frozen food.

Edited previous post - you are quite correct, I had always understood the risk of freezer burn to be down to thinness of storage rather than down to amount of air.

I would still put in a tupperware container just to keep everything together, although I have a big freestanding freezer so need to be organised as it can be hard to find what you want if it's all over the place.

 

[HazardO]

Yummy 500g smashed beef patty. Would need a foccacia to serve!

 

[MooMoo444]

Might do this. Waiting for things to defrost is quite a pain and when it's warm the outside is soft and warm and the inside is still frozen, it's a health risk.

 

[Glaucus]

Spend £30 and get a vacuum sealer.
Even better and makes portioning up meat before freezing so easy.

 

[physichull]

That is actually a very good idea.

 

[pinkowl]

I freeze mince like that well as flat as the bag it goes in to allows. Gives much more space in freezer.

 

[D.P.]

You can defrost mince beef in a microwave, if in abg put it in a bowl of warm water. You can also fry the block from frozen and just keep scraping the cooked outside off.

Chicken breasts,,steaks,,beef joints etc are much harder to defrost,from frozen. You can't cook them from frozen. Chicken defrosted in a microwave always ends up with th ends cooked and rubberized while the center is frozen. You can't cook any of these meats from frozen unlikely frying minced beef.

 

[valve90210]

You can defrost mince beef in a microwave, if in abg put it in a bowl of warm water.

Yes, you can do that but it can have a huge impact upon the flavour of the meat!!

 

[ADT]

We do that at home already, saves you an incredible amount of space

 

[randomshenans]

I make it in to penis shapes.

 

[D.P.]

Yes, you can do that but it can have a huge impact upon the flavour of the meat!!

Never noticed. Nothing stops you frying the meat afterwards


For something like burgers or meatballs then you can defrost in hot water.

For spag bol etc then just fry the meat form frozen, scraping it down.