The length of time you can freeze your beef depends on the cut and its size, but if you look at most food authorities raw beef can be stored for up to six months in your freezer. This is particularly true for the larger or primal cuts. Small cuts those delicious steaks of yours, for example should not be frozen for more than four months. And beef mince clocks in at about a three-month maximum. The reason for this is the way that meat holds water, and what happens to this water when it freezes, and when it defrosts.
The best way to freeze your beef is vacuum-packed and frozen quickly to a very low temperature. If your beef is loosely wrapped and frozen slowly or frozen marginally , you risk losing the quality of the meat and subject it to freezer burn. When meat is frozen slowly, the water in it turns to ice crystals that grow large and rupture the fibre or muscle cell structure. This damage results in moisture loss upon thawing.
But when meat is frozen rapidly using methods such as blast freezing and temperatures well below zero , much smaller ice crystals are created. If frozen meat has defrosted, refreezing is not recommended unless it is cooked first, for a number of reasons:.
With a few quick tips and the right materials, you can freeze any cut of steak, whether it's raw, cooked, or pre-seasoned. Plus, this saves on a ton of potential waste. Once you see how easy it is to maintain the quality of your steaks in the freezer, you'll never toss a piece of freezer burned sirloin in the garbage again. Read more cooking tips and recipes from Mikayla on her blog The Flour Handprint.
One of the easiest ways to mess up freezing a steak is simply not using the right materials. As tempting and easy as freezing steaks in a plastic bowl or the original packaging may be, that's not the best idea for maintaining quality.
While it might be okay to freeze beef bones or scraps for stock this way, for steaks that you intend to cook and enjoy for a meal, we're more interested in protecting them from the harsh air of the freezer. To prevent freezer burn , as well as to protect as much of the fresh quality as possible, we need two layers of protection. This can be any combination of plastic wrap, foil, zip-top bags, silicone bags, freezer paper, or vacuum seal bags.
There are tons of options out there for sealing your steaks against the harsh environment of your freezer. If you know you'll be freezing steaks on a regular basis, investing in a vacuum seal machine may be beneficial.
They only require one layer of material to prevent deterioration of quality, thanks to the airtight nature of the hot seal. But for most home cooks, a vacuum seal setup simply isn't in their kitchen.
If it isn't, you can use a simple combination of plastic wrap and aluminum foil. That first layer is key for keeping any frost off the surface of the meat, but to really protect the steaks from the cold air of the freezer, we need a second barrier that is airtight.
The most common choice is going to be a zip-top bag. These days you can use either a standard plastic bag or a reusable silicone one, so long as the bag zips shut. Butcher or freezer paper is another option but is not quite as airtight as a bag. If using paper, be sure to wrap your meat very tightly and tape it securely to prevent any air from coming into contact with the surface of the steak. If you plan to freeze raw beef steak, start with the freshest meat possible.
A raw beef steak that was fresh when you froze it will taste better than a steak that was past its prime when it went into the freezer. Look for raw beef steak that is bright red and check the "sell by" or "use by" date on the package. To avoid the graying and hardening of meat known as freezer burn and maintain the overall quality of a raw beef steak, you must wrap your meat in an airtight package.
While you can throw a piece of raw beef steak into the freezer in its original packaging, the quality of the meat will be better preserved if you rewrap it in a freezer-safe wrap or bag sold in grocery stores, or use these products to over-wrap the original package.
Package raw beef steaks individually for faster freezing and thawing. Always wash your hands before and after handling raw beef steak. If you are freezing more than one raw beef steak, spread the packages out in a single layer on your freezer shelf to allow for quick freezing.
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