Thawing Meat with Hot Water

[Bearcarver]

The warm water temperature partially cooks the outside of the meat....thus the brown icky color  . It doesn't matter that it is in water.. it's the "warm" part that effects the color of the meat.

OK Thanks CG,

I thought that might happen in the higher temps mentioned (102˚ steak & 140˚ chicken), but I don't think it would cook wrapped, and in room temp water (70˚) they're talking about in my post #20. That's the only one I would even think about doing in an emergency. Meat isn't going to cook at 70˚ (room temp)--water or air.

However, I find it hard to believe them when they say that a 1" steak would be thawed in 20 minutes of room temp water. I have had steaks in room temp "air" for that long many times, and hardly even a little 1/4" corner got soft. I could see room temp water being faster than room temp air, but not that much faster.

Thanks again for your reply,

Bear

 

[justpassingthru]

Hmmmm, 21 posts and not one mention of living in the 21 century, ...I nuke 'em. 

In an emergency or I forgot to put the meat in the fridge the day before, ...come home from work late, wash my hands, take the meat out of the freezer and set it on the counter, go about my usual routine of opening windows and doors, emptying my pockets and petting the cat, by this time a frost has formed on the Zip-loc bag, into the microwave for 5 minutes with temp set at 5, after 5 minutes the frost will be gone, reset the timer for 4 minutes and temp at 2, light the grill, salt the steaks to draw up some moisture, apply the rub, prep the sides and on to the Genesis, dinner in under 30 minutes.  ...Works for me.

The only thing I defrost in cold water is frozen shrimp.

Gene

 

[venture]

In a pinch, nuking is a last resort.  I don't like it because it starts the cooking process before I get there.  But in a pinch, I guess??

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[justpassingthru]

Ahhh, that's the trick, to just defrost it and not cook it, I left out that between the two defrostings I separate the steaks and lay them out flat on the table, the second nuking brings them close to room temp, but yes I agree, the microwave can destroy meat in a hurry if you don't keep an eye on it, it just for emergencies.

Gene.