Although it's true that an aluminum pan will thaw meat quicker than other
surfaces, it's a fact, that submerging in cold water is still the best
defrost. If you need to keep the meat out of the water, put it in a plastic
bag before putting it in the water and remove most or all of the air. If
it's been vacuum sealed, even better... don't open it, just drop it in the
water.

don't use warm water though... I'm not positive on the proper temps of
water, but warm is BAD. I just use cold tap water.

if you test it, it should defrost faster than the aluminum.

good luck

"Dan Logcher" wrote in message
...
F t B wrote:

"Terry Carmen" wrote in message
...

I'm not sure how many people here buy fresh fish and freeze it, but
I've developed a pretty good process if anybody wants to try it:

A normal home freezer typically contains a small compressor that does
a fine job of freezing a few pounds of food at a time.


*snip*

If anybody tries this, please let me know what you think!

I use a food saver too for my salmon, but I don't pre-freeze the
portions. I
filet the fish, remove the pin bones then vacuum pack. The quality is
great.

I also use the Food Saver for all my meats. I buy large packs of
meats on sales vac-seal, and freeze everything I'm not going to use
in the next few days. I do not pre-freeze, but I've got a 7^3'
chest freezer to deal with larger quantities.

One trick I use for freezing fish is to make sure the meat is
a little wet, rinse with water and shake off the excess.

Thawing is easy if you freeze things flat. Just place pieces in
an aluminum pan and let it sit. Every so often flip the meat
to the other side, no heating required. The aluminum dissipates
heat and cold very quickly, basically sucking the cold out of the
meat. Thanks to Walter Rhee for that little trick.

--
Dan

Christopher wrote:

Although it's true that an aluminum pan will thaw meat quicker than other
surfaces, it's a fact, that submerging in cold water is still the best
defrost. If you need to keep the meat out of the water, put it in a plastic
bag before putting it in the water and remove most or all of the air. If
it's been vacuum sealed, even better... don't open it, just drop it in the
water.

don't use warm water though... I'm not positive on the proper temps of
water, but warm is BAD. I just use cold tap water.

if you test it, it should defrost faster than the aluminum.

I use a food-saver, so there is usually (almost) no air around the
meat when I dunk it in the water. I typically use cool water to
defrost, but sometimes the aluminum pan. The pan method works best
for flat items, steaks, filets, and such. Does not work for wings
and other odd shaped items.

--
Dan

Christopher wrote:

Although it's true that an aluminum pan will thaw meat quicker than other
surfaces, it's a fact, that submerging in cold water is still the best
defrost. If you need to keep the meat out of the water, put it in a plastic
bag before putting it in the water and remove most or all of the air. If
it's been vacuum sealed, even better... don't open it, just drop it in the
water.

This works even better if you put the container of water under a slowly
running tap -- or a fast-running tap, if you're in a real hurry.

snip

Thawing is easy if you freeze things flat. Just place pieces in
an aluminum pan and let it sit. Every so often flip the meat
to the other side, no heating required. The aluminum dissipates
heat and cold very quickly, basically sucking the cold out of the
meat. Thanks to Walter Rhee for that little trick.

Hmm. The transfer is going in the other direction.


--
Dan