If you have little time to come up with a dinner plan, don’t rule out what’s stored in your freezer. You can safely thaw steaks and other cuts of meat in 10 minutes in a hot water soak without harming flavor or juiciness, government researchers have found.
In lab tests, Department of Agriculture scientists thawed more than 200 one-inch-thick beef strip loin steaks in three different groups: some in a refrigerator at 37 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit, some in a constantly circulating water bath at 68 degrees, and some in a water bath at 102 degrees, explains Harold McGee in his New York Times food blog.
“Air-thawing in the refrigerator took 18 to 20 hours, while the room-temperature water bath thawed the steaks in about 20 minutes, and the hot-summer-day bath in 11 minutes. These water-bath times are so short that any bacterial growth would remain within safe limits,” he writes.
The methods have not yet been officially recommended, but the lab tests have been published in the Journal of Food Science.
While the methods are safe for smaller cuts of meat, the same can’t be said for large roasts, which take significantly longer to thaw, possibly allowing enough time for bacterial growth.
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