How to thaw frozen meat? Soak in water? wrong! These two are the scientific and healthy ways to thaw!

Affected by the raging African swine fever a few years ago, there was a time in China when the price of pork soared rapidly, even rising to tens of yuan per catty.

　　Because of this, although the price of pork has dropped now and will continue to be stable in the future, there are still many people who are uneasy, afraid that they cannot afford pork, and choose to buy a large amount of pork to freeze in the refrigerator.

　　Yes, the refrigerator is indeed convenient for our lives, but it is very difficult to eat the frozen pork quickly. Especially for office workers, it takes a long time to thaw frozen meat. Therefore, there are many ways to thaw meat, among which the most widely circulated is thawing meat by soaking in ice water or hot water, but is it really scientific?

　　Below, let's take a look at a few common ways to thaw meat:

1. Thaw at room temperature

　　In fact, it is not recommended that you thaw meat at room temperature, because this thawing method consumes a very long time. Moreover , it is easy to breed various bacteria during the thawing process.

　　Especially now that it has entered the spring, the temperature during the day is relatively high. If the meat is thawed at room temperature for a long time outdoors, it is likely to cause the reproduction of bacteria , making the meat stale, or even rotten, spoiled , etc. Condition;

2. Rinse with running water

　　Raw meat actually contains a lot of bacteria, such as Escherichia coli is one of them. Some people rinse the raw meat directly under running water in order to thaw the meat quickly.

Although the thawing speed is faster, it also causes a waste . Moreover, the running water washes the meat, and the splashing water droplets may also run on the table or other things, and the bacteria will travel with the water droplets , which poses certain health risks;

3. Soak in water

　　This is also the cold water and hot water immersion method mentioned above. In fact, this is also an unreasonable thawing method. First of all, the efficiency of freezing with hot water is very low, and when the blood is flowing and the room is warmer, a large number of microorganisms may breed.

　　Freezing meat with cold or warm water tends to take away the moisture contained in the meat. At the same time, during the thawing process, it will expand and break cells, allowing nutrients to be lost with water , reducing the edible value and taste of the meat . Bacteria can also grow if thawed for too long.

　　In this case, which method is the scientific and healthy way to thaw?

　　1. Microwave oven

　　I have to say that the advent of small household appliances has indeed facilitated everyone's life, such as microwave ovens. Many microwave ovens have a defrosting function, and you can use the microwave to defrost meat.

　　In this case, the thawing time is not only shorter, but also the loss of nutrients is relatively small . However, you should pay attention to the choice of temperature to avoid setting the temperature too high and protein denaturation;

2. Defrost in the refrigerator

　　If you decide what kind of meat you want to eat the next day, you can put the meat in the freezer of the refrigerator to thaw in advance. This method is relatively safe and will not waste your time . It's best to put it in the freezer the night before, though, as it takes about 10 hours or so from freezing to thawing.

　　Finally, I would like to remind everyone that meat actually has a shelf life. Putting meat in the freezer will indeed prolong the shelf life of meat.

　　However, if it is left for too long, the moisture and nutrients in the meat will be lost, which not only makes the meat lose its edible value, but also reduces the taste of the meat, and even produces an unpleasant refrigerator smell. Therefore, it is best to buy fresh meat for consumption, and it is best not to freeze meat for more than 3 months in the refrigerator.