Do you ever find yourself in the situation where you want to make dinner quickly, but the ground turkey or beef you wanted to use is frozen in one large, solid hunk? Maybe you just want to add a little bit of Italian sausage to the pasta sauce for flavor, but there's no way to scrape off enough to be useful.
Lucky for us Biggie at Lunch in a Box is always thinking creatively and has offered up an idea (that she plucked from one of her Japanese freezing books) that makes it easy to break off a little bit of frozen meat in order to make quick work of meals. She advises that when you put the meat in a freezer bag, press it as flat as possible (squeezing out all the air). When it is sealed, gently score it with a chopstick or other long, flat utensil so that it's easy to break off pieces without defrosting the whole thing. This also works well with thick sauces.
Thanks Biggie!
A fraking amazing Battlestar Galactica cake
Iced Tea 101
Pierogies + cheese + onions + kraut = Parmageddon!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-15-2008 @ 12:05PM
Julie said...
I want to kick myself when I see ideas like this. It is so simple yet absolutely brilliant and I wonder why the heck I didn't think of it. I am going to use this method of freezing ground meat from now on, it just makes so much sense.
http://www.noshtalgia.blogspot.com/
Reply
4-15-2008 @ 12:05PM
Marisa McClellan said...
I know, I had the same thought when I saw it. She also suggests that if you have tight freezer space (like I do) that you can fold the packs into thirds. Also very smart!
Reply
4-15-2008 @ 12:24PM
kevjohn said...
I can already envision the infomercial for the totally unnecessary gadget that will do this for you!
Announcer Guy: When was the last time YOU tried to score your sealed meats?
Woman: [throws down broken chopsticks in disgust] Tsk! Not again!
A.G.: Now you can let Meat Freeze Buddy do the work FOR you!
Reply
4-15-2008 @ 2:12PM
Sharon said...
I've been using this method for awhile now.
Got the idea from Good Eats.
I use a can to roll the meat flat
(After it's in the bag of course)
but you can use a rolling pin,wine bottle or whatever.
Also good to freeze it on something flat,like a pizza box or cookie sheet.
Reply
4-15-2008 @ 2:39PM
Alex Falk said...
Under the bottom shelf in my freezer is a collection of flattened meat, sauce, and broth(from braising experiments gone right) This really helps with speed of defrosting, and when you buy the Costco sized package of ground beef. I use a French rolling pin, but have not needed to score the meat, as I prepackage to sizes I would use.
Definitely a space saver though, especially flat stacked.
Reply