Cold or Hot Water to Thaw Ground Beef
The Curious Cook
A Hot-Water Bath for Thawing Meats
EVEN in kitchens where fresh is male monarch, the freezer remains a handy tool. At that place'southward no easier way to deal with a bounty of meat from a large-box store or a butchering class or a C.Southward.A. share, or the haul from a fishing trip, or the unpredictable sighting of partridge and other rare birds in the Chinese market. In my house, the freezer is essential for drawing out the enjoyment of the prime mail-society meats that my mother sends for my birthday, and that make it stone-hard nether a block of dry ice.
Less handy, nonetheless, is the thawing process, which oft requires planning a solar day or more alee of the cooking. Food thaws slowly in the refrigerator, specially when kept in its plastic packaging, which is the method recommended by purveyors and the Department of Agronomics to minimize bacterial growth and the loss of juices. Thawing in common cold water, 40 degrees or below, is rubber and much faster — water transfers heat far more efficiently than air — but it can still have hours. I've never had much luck with the defrost setting on microwave ovens, which tin can outset to cook one part of the food while the residuum is still frozen.
Now there's good news for terminal-minute cooks. It turns out that we can thaw frozen steaks and other compact cuts in every bit piffling as ten minutes, without compromising their quality, and with very little endeavor. All you need is hot water.
This data comes, surprisingly, from research sponsored by the Section of Agronomics, though the methods aren't nonetheless officially recommended. The studies take been published in the Journal of Food Science and in Food Control.
At the United statesD.A. labs in Beltsville, Md., Janet Southward. Eastridge and Brian C. Bowker test-thawed more 200 one-inch-thick beef strip loin steaks in three different groups: some in a fridge at 37 to xl degrees Fahrenheit, some in a constantly circulating water bath at 68 degrees, and some in a water bathroom at 102 degrees.
Air-thawing in the refrigerator took xviii to xx hours, while the room-temperature water bath thawed the steaks in near 20 minutes, and the hot-summer-mean solar day bathroom in eleven minutes. These water-bath times are and so short that any bacterial growth would remain inside prophylactic limits.
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The h2o-thawed steaks actually leaked less juice than the air-thawed steaks. The researchers grilled the steaks, also, and institute that all the thawed steaks lost about 26 percent of their original weight once cooked, while never-frozen steaks lost 21 percent. The study found no meaning differences in tenderness betwixt slow- and quick-thawed steaks.
Xi minutes is pretty quick, but Brian A. Nummer and colleagues at Utah Country University in Logan shaved away another couple of minutes by heating the water bath to 140 degrees, the standard temperature of steam tables in food service kitchens.
The Utah Country group plant that chicken breasts about a half-inch thick thawed in a fiddling more than than 3 minutes, and inch-thick breasts in less than 9 minutes. Although 140-degree h2o would eventually cook the chicken to medium-rare, they saw no signs of cooking. The quick-thawed breasts did lose slightly more juice than the fridge-thawed breasts, but when the craven was grilled and served, a console of 18 tasters was unable to tell them apart. And based on their mathematical modeling, the researchers ended that any bacterial growth would remain well within safe limits.
Then at that place's no downside to quick-thawing steaks, chops, fillets and other relatively thin cuts in warm h2o right earlier cooking. Large roasts are a different story. They accept long enough to thaw that in that location may be time for significant bacterial growth on their surfaces. Prompt cooking might well eliminate that trouble, simply until this has been studied, information technology's safest to keep thawing roasts in the refrigerator or in water under 40 degrees.
Quick-thawing is like shooting fish in a barrel to adopt in the dwelling kitchen. But don't expect your thaw times to match the lab times I've quoted unless you lot accept an immersion circulator or another method to keep the water in motility and at a constant temperature. If the water is nevertheless, a cold zone develops effectually the food and insulates it from the remaining warm water. And without infusions of hot water or heat from a burner, the icy food cools the h2o bath.
Unless I'thousand in a rush, I'm happy to let the thawing proceed more slowly on its ain while I have intendance of other tasks. I fill a large pot with 125-degree h2o from the tap, immerse the plastic-wrapped meat, counterbalance it downward with a slotted spoon to keep it under water and stir the water occasionally. The water temperature drops, but stays above 100 degrees for a one-half-hour or so, depending on how much nutrient is thawing.
Last week, I thawed 2-inch-thick filets mignons in an hour, whole squab in forty minutes, a i-pound whole fish in 20 minutes, and ane ¼-inch-thick salmon fillets in 15 minutes. Thawing times can vary, depending on the volume, temperature and move of the water as well as the nutrient's thickness and how it's wrapped. (A lot of plastic swaddling interferes with heat transfer. It's best to remove it and place the food in a thin resealable plastic handbag, partly immersing it to strength the air out before zipping it shut.)
So when y'all scan your larder to improvise a quick repast, don't forget to look in the freezer. The makings of the principal grade may exist just minutes away.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/08/dining/a-hot-water-bath-for-thawing-meats-the-curious-cook.html
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