We went to Sams over the weekend and my hubby put the whole thing of hamburger in the freezer! I took it out this mornning. Any way to quickly defrost it? It's still frozen and I need food for this weekend. We are camping. I just want to throw the whole thing into a big pan and cook it up. I have onion but no green pepper.
Crazy question, but do you have a microwave? Mine has a defrost setting that works really well. I just keep checking the meat until it is where I can fry it up. Hamburger meat is about the only thing I use that setting for.
When are you leaving to go camping? It should be thawed by tomorrow morning. Then you could make patties or fry it up for sloppy joe, spaghetti, etc.
I was going to say the same thing. Hamburger defrosts very well in the microwave. Every time it tells me to turn the food over, I check for thawed parts and pull them off of the mass so the rest of it can thaw faster.
This is a little off track, but I found a good trick for freezing ground beef is to measure it out into one cup patties. This way if you need a lb, you pull out 2 patties. I can fit quite a few patties in a freezer bag and only pull out what I need.
This thing is a huge monster tube of hamburger. I didn't see it in the fridge and asumed that DH seperated it for me. I am the one that does all the seperating from the SAMS run. That night I delt with the children, baths and bedtime. He took care of it by tossing it into the deep freeze!
OH NO!! If you just cook it up than you won't be able to use it for patties. If you can fit it in the microwave do so. If not..place it in a pot of cold water for hours. Than it may defrost enough for you to cut smaller to fit in the microwave.
I'd fill up the sink with cold water and defrost it like a turkey. when you can try to use the biggest knife you have and try to chop it in squares---- tell your DH to use his muscles! If you get enough, to make patties you can then fry a lot of it up and divide it for tacos, sloppy joes, spaghetti, pizza tipping, soup, casserole, etc..... once cooked you can re freeze it.
FYI, according to the USDA site you CAN re-freeze meat. I'll look for the link, but since I read that I've refrozen a few things and it's been fine!
"Refreezing Meat and poultry defrosted in the refrigerator may be refrozen before or after cooking. If thawed by other methods, cook before refreezing." Page 2
