freezing ground beef,pork,etc

[draboo]

i was poking around in the freezer today and found a package of frozen ground beef.strangely,it was in the shape of a huge burger patty around 12" D and 3/4 " thick. i asked ruby "whatda??"

she said someone at work suggested freezing it like that. it thaws out much,much faster.

so,not exactly a cooking lesson ala`RAYH,but sure sounds reasonable

[Atomic Rooster]

Never heard that one before. We buy our ground beef in 4lb packages that are divided into four. Makes it easy to package and freeze.

Hey, now all you need to do is find a giant bun to go with that patty!!

[nunyadam]

on the surface at least it sounds reasonable.
more surface exposed.

[RayH]

Larger, thinner surface will make it defrost faster. But I hope people defrost in the refrigerator or in water. Air defrost will make you sick.

I don't freeze meat. I live three blocks from a 7 day meat /fish market, which is next door to a 7 day veggie market. It keeps the refrigerator clean!

But to quickly chill wine, spin it in ICE WATER, not just ice. The water holds a lot of BTUs. When I was a continental waiter, there was a tub of ice water to chill the wine bottles.

Ice water with salt in it is colder

(I use it when I need a quick diet coke)

Personally I think the way the stuff is wrapped is more important than shape for the freezer.

[RayH]

The issue was shape for quicker defrost, not storage for freezer.