What is the best way to quick thaw Meat for Sausage?

[nickelmore]

I keep running into the same dang problem, I buy some pork on sale buts ham shoulder what ever is on sale. I cant get to it to it right away so I throw it in the freezer. I know I should take the time to vacuum pack it.....but I know it wont be in there for more than a few weeks......

Six months later I still need to vacuum pack it or use it. Tried thawing some venison and pork and some back fat out in my beer fridge. Three weeks later it was still froze like a rock.

So my brethen.....what are some suggestions that are still on the safe food handling side of business.

The only thing I have come up with is saw the meat into smaller chunks. This is not so bad of an idea since I need to try out my new grinder anyway.

[Fishawn]

I keep running into the same dang problem, I buy some pork on sale buts ham shoulder what ever is on sale. I cant get to it to it right away so I throw it in the freezer. I know I should take the time to vacuum pack it.....but I know it wont be in there for more than a few weeks......

Six months later I still need to vacuum pack it or use it. Tried thawing some venison and pork and some back fat out in my beer fridge. Three weeks later it was still froze like a rock.

So my brethen.....what are some suggestions that are still on the safe food handling side of business.

The only thing I have come up with is saw the meat into smaller chunks. This is not so bad of an idea since I need to try out my new grinder anyway.

If vac packed, or cryo packed, cold water in a sink changing water works, but its still kinda slow. Something I have been doing and like is chunk up the butts and vac seal as flat as you can,,even if it takes a few extra bags, you can thaw the flat bags in cold water a lot faster than big round bags stuffed full.

I hear ya on the beer fridge thing also, 5 days, they start to thaw

BUTT, ice cold beer is hard to beat

[Mark R]

Best bet is in the fridge for 3 or 4 days. Then cut up and grind.

[SmokinOutBack]

Grind before you freeze it, it'll thaw quicker.

[curious aardvark]

sink of cool water - doesn't need to be cold as the meat will drop the temperature anyway.

I either drop whole boned shoulder joints in or - if I've got my act together bags of precut meat.

Bear in mind you want the meat mostly frozen for grinding anyway.

So as long as it's possible to get a knife in and cut it into smaller parts - that's sufficiently defrosted.
I'd say for a 3lb lump of shoulder it probably takes a couple or 3 hours.
For the bags of turkey thigh and leg I did this week - maybe an hour, hour and a half.

You can actually put the meat into room temperature water - as I said it'll cool down quickly anyway and the meat won't ever rise above 'bloody cold'.

[dcarch]

40F to 140F is the "danger zone". That does not mean it is always a safe zone outside of the danger zone. All it means is that germs work a little slower outside of the danger zone. Given enough time, germs will multiply. Especially many home refrigerators are above 40F.

If you use the cold water method, get a 110VAC fountain submersible pump ($8:00) to circulate the water, thawing will be much faster.

If you use the refrigerator to thaw, get a computer muffin fan ($20) to circulate air inside the refrigerator. thawing will be much faster.

dcarch

[dward51]

I've taken to buying butts on sale and going ahead and trimming off the bone and cutting them into 1" strips before freezing. I can vacuum pack them flatter and they thaw pretty quickly that way. Also I don't let them get a full thaw anyway as it grinds better when the meat is still firm and partially frozen.

The partial thaw does not work that well with a recipe that calls for mixing the spices with the meat before grinding (single grind), but I just give it a full thaw if that is the case. Or just mix the spices after the grind.

I mark the weight on the bag and since it's already trimmed and ready for grinding, I know what amount of spices to mix up. I usually store them in 2.5 pound batches. Thin, flat, and stack nicely once frozen.

[nickelmore]

Guess I am going to have to break out the band saw if I am going to make sausage today......I probably have 50 or so pounds of meat that I need to deal with.

Or I can go for a ride.....

[Bbqgoddess]

Guess I am going to have to break out the band saw if I am going to make sausage today......I probably have 50 or so pounds of meat that I need to deal with.

Or I can go for a ride.....

I would go for the ride!

[DDave]

I keep running into the same dang problem, I buy some pork on sale buts ham shoulder what ever is on sale. I cant get to it to it right away so I throw it in the freezer.

At the risk of sounding flippant -- don't buy it if you don't have time to break it down into smaller packages that day. Sounds like your current method is creating way more work for you in the long run. You are fighting physics and physics will always win.

If you think about it, are you really saving any money by buying it on sale and then having to spend extra hours breaking t down on a band saw six months later? Your time is worth something too, isn't it?

Dave

[nickelmore]

Don't worry I have thick skin. I "usually" breakdown and package stuff into the correct ratio for sausage so I can just semi thaw grind and go.

When I bought these i was planning on making sausage a few days later but something happened and they just got thrown in the freezer without prep.

Since my beer fridge runs about 33-34 it never allows the meat to even think about thawing. I did adjust it up a bit and separated the pieces on different shelf's to get some air flow.

As of late I have been having challenges planning more than a day ahead so when I want to do something (make sausage) I generally can't plan a week ahead of time to thaw meat to do it. It has been one jacked up year so far.

[dward51]

You usually will not have to break it down the day you buy it. Meat on sale should be good for a few days in the fridge even if it is bought on the "sell by" date. I've bought it and held it until the weekend many times. And pork butts is usually cryovaced anyway so that sell by date is more of a suggestion.