Leave it in the fridge overnight? Or on the counter? It's not exactly rocket science.
I know a sink CAN be sanitary, but it takes more work than I'm willing to put in. I only clean my kitchen sink when company's coming over.
Water messes with the taste too. I dated a chick who used to like to boil meat. Always tasted like ass because all of the flavor inevitably got leeched out. She got defensive when I tried talking to her about how to cook stuff too.
Hopefully, you mean "dated" as in past tense. Hope you didn't marry her... (The only meat I EVER boil is prepared corned beef and that's more of a braise than a boil.) When I first moved to Iowa from Kansas City (for work) someone recommended a barbecue joint to me. I ordered a slab of spareribs. I got a slab of baby backs that had been boiled so severely the SOFT bone stuck out 2 inches from the meat. Which was grey. I decided right then that most Iowans wouldn't know good barbecue if it bit them in the ass.
I thought everyone knew to toss it on the counter when you left for work in the morning and it would be thawed when you came home 10 or 12 hours later. Daryl
I thaw in the sink, but it's still in the vacuum bag. Don't know that anything thawed this way would have any flavor left. It'll be safe to eat if you get it warm enough.
Same here: In a ziploc or vacuum sealed bag in a sink full of hot water. Much faster than the microwave and doesn’t cook the meat while you’re thawing it.
As long as you're just browning the meat for some other dish, just throw the frozen meat in the pan. as it browns peel the cooked off the frozen core with a utensil of your choice. (a pair of dinner forks works quite well). Obviously doesn't work if you're making a meat loaf, or burgers, or things that need to be mixed up when raw.
Truthfully, the meat is almost certainly fine. There are generally two ways bacteria make you sick: the kind that get into your gut alive and play havoc (such as trichinosis), and the kind that leave toxic by-products in the food that then poisons you (like botulism). Cooking thoroughly takes care of the first kind, and the second kind takes many hours at room temp to make you sick. That said, the roommate is an idiot and likely a shitty cook.
As a food safety Veterinarian I respectfully disagree, RK. Staph toxin (produced by Staphylococcus bacteria) is heat stable and cooking it doesn't denature the toxin. If your meat thaws on the counter, Staph (which are EVERYWHERE) can grow quickly (as Lucky said, doubling every 20 minutes at optimal temp, which can be reached in an hour on the counter) and when the food, now loaded with bacteria, is cooked the toxin is released and a few hours later you're losing everything since Christmas Dinner 1974. Trichina is a parasite which is generally found in hogs raised in the dirt, especially feral swine. It is killed by thorough cooking but I'd still not eat that medium rare porkchop, just to be safe.
I'm a Veterinary Pathologist with food microbiology background. Frozen ground beef... thaw only in the fridge or defrost in microwave. Thawing for hours on the kitchen counter is a noper. If you take a 1-lb chunk of beef and run it through a grinder, you've increased the total surface area to approximately 1 acre. If there were any surface bacterial contaminants, you've just mixed them into an ideal growth medium, and bacterial populations will double about every 20 minutes. The ONLY way to eat ground beef is WELL DONE, but even if you cooked it well enough to kill any potential bacterial pathogens present, some of the toxins produced by some species of bacteria are heat-stable; fortunately, most of those are not life-threatening - they just make you wish you could die for 24 hrs or so...
As a Veterinarian who works in food safety (for USDA) I second all of Lucky's info! Medium rare is fine for beefsteak but cook your burgers through (to at least 140 degrees. Chicken to 165 or 170 (dark meat)).
Nastilicious.
ReplyDeleteI use the microwave.
ReplyDeleteAin't no futzing way I'd thaw ground beef like this....
ReplyDeleteLeave it in the fridge overnight? Or on the counter? It's not exactly rocket science.
ReplyDeleteI know a sink CAN be sanitary, but it takes more work than I'm willing to put in. I only clean my kitchen sink when company's coming over.
Water messes with the taste too. I dated a chick who used to like to boil meat. Always tasted like ass because all of the flavor inevitably got leeched out. She got defensive when I tried talking to her about how to cook stuff too.
Had friends that would boil ribs before cooking...blah.
DeleteNo fucking way.
DeleteHopefully, you mean "dated" as in past tense. Hope you didn't marry her... (The only meat I EVER boil is prepared corned beef and that's more of a braise than a boil.)
DeleteWhen I first moved to Iowa from Kansas City (for work) someone recommended a barbecue joint to me. I ordered a slab of spareribs. I got a slab of baby backs that had been boiled so severely the SOFT bone stuck out 2 inches from the meat. Which was grey. I decided right then that most Iowans wouldn't know good barbecue if it bit them in the ass.
Perfectly fine as long as you eat nothing they cook.
ReplyDeleteHe's not dead yet?
ReplyDeleteHaving to ask the question tells me he's not any brighter than his roommate is.
ReplyDeleteI thought everyone knew to toss it on the counter when you left for work in the morning and it would be thawed when you came home 10 or 12 hours later.
ReplyDeleteDaryl
+ 10...... Lmfao
DeleteJD
Bet he's got one hell of a immune system. Gotta try and find the silver lining
ReplyDeleteBackwoods Okie
"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
DeleteWhat doesn't kill you merely prolongs the inevitable.
DeleteI thaw in the sink, but it's still in the vacuum bag. Don't know that anything thawed this way would have any flavor left. It'll be safe to eat if you get it warm enough.
ReplyDeleteSame here: In a ziploc or vacuum sealed bag in a sink full of hot water. Much faster than the microwave and doesn’t cook the meat while you’re thawing it.
DeleteAs long as you're just browning the meat for some other dish, just throw the frozen meat in the pan. as it browns peel the cooked off the frozen core with a utensil of your choice. (a pair of dinner forks works quite well). Obviously doesn't work if you're making a meat loaf, or burgers, or things that need to be mixed up when raw.
ReplyDeleteSend him the steak tartar recipe.
ReplyDeleteTruthfully, the meat is almost certainly fine. There are generally two ways bacteria make you sick: the kind that get into your gut alive and play havoc (such as trichinosis), and the kind that leave toxic by-products in the food that then poisons you (like botulism). Cooking thoroughly takes care of the first kind, and the second kind takes many hours at room temp to make you sick. That said, the roommate is an idiot and likely a shitty cook.
ReplyDeleteAs a food safety Veterinarian I respectfully disagree, RK. Staph toxin (produced by Staphylococcus bacteria) is heat stable and cooking it doesn't denature the toxin. If your meat thaws on the counter, Staph (which are EVERYWHERE) can grow quickly (as Lucky said, doubling every 20 minutes at optimal temp, which can be reached in an hour on the counter) and when the food, now loaded with bacteria, is cooked the toxin is released and a few hours later you're losing everything since Christmas Dinner 1974. Trichina is a parasite which is generally found in hogs raised in the dirt, especially feral swine. It is killed by thorough cooking but I'd still not eat that medium rare porkchop, just to be safe.
DeleteI'm a Veterinary Pathologist with food microbiology background. Frozen ground beef... thaw only in the fridge or defrost in microwave. Thawing for hours on the kitchen counter is a noper. If you take a 1-lb chunk of beef and run it through a grinder, you've increased the total surface area to approximately 1 acre. If there were any surface bacterial contaminants, you've just mixed them into an ideal growth medium, and bacterial populations will double about every 20 minutes. The ONLY way to eat ground beef is WELL DONE, but even if you cooked it well enough to kill any potential bacterial pathogens present, some of the toxins produced by some species of bacteria are heat-stable; fortunately, most of those are not life-threatening - they just make you wish you could die for 24 hrs or so...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info.
DeleteAs a Veterinarian who works in food safety (for USDA) I second all of Lucky's info! Medium rare is fine for beefsteak but cook your burgers through (to at least 140 degrees. Chicken to 165 or 170 (dark meat)).
DeleteI've been that fucked up before.
ReplyDeletesous vide. Latest Hipster fad way to cook
ReplyDeleteI'm just gonna go out on a limb and say that your roommate uses a lot of drugs.
ReplyDeleteIf YOU don't, move.
I patty mine up in ziplocs and freeze. You can have a burger or get what you need for some other dish. Thaws quickly.
ReplyDelete