Buying meat - frozen or never been frozen ?

[Rich Dahl]

I don't know maybe my taste buds are shot, but I can't really tell that much difference between a fresh steak and a defrosted steak done fast thaw or slow. The brisket I did on smoke day was in the freezer 11 months and tasted perfect. I had a two bone ribeye roast that was perfect after over a year in the freezer.
We have two freezers and they are full, from choice selections from the dog food section to sale items. Nothing ever retail. It's all good to us.

Bob I bet you know when that monkey wards freezer fires up, I bet the lights go dim.
I remember when we had a defrost it yourself freezer I used the wife's magnum electric hair dryer. Made it a quick but messy job.

 

[JayHeyl]

Our old upright freezer is like Jay's, ours is a Montgomery-Ward, and it currently needs the dreaded defrosting.
For thawing meat I often wrap it in layers of newspaper and leave on the counter turning it over a few times.
We keep our fridge at 34F so even a pound of ground beef would take days.

Best thing I've found for defrosting the freezer is a utility floor fan I got at Costco several years ago. It's the kind used to dry carpets. Empty the freezer and turn it off. Turn on the fan and adjust it to about a 45 degree angle and let it blow. In about a minute the water starts dripping. Inside of five minutes I've got hunks of ice falling off the shelves. Takes me about an hour, start to finish, to unload, defrost, and reload. It always looks like there's more room when I'm finished.

One of the best approaches I've found for thawing, discounting the microwave, is to put the frozen item on an aluminum baking sheet turned upside down. The aluminum sheet acts like a giant heat spreader and allows the cold to dissipate much faster. I've also used an aluminum fry pan the same way.