Cold water thaw and refreezing


 
BFletcher

BFletcher

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I have a full brisket frozen in a vac seal bag. I'd like to be able to separate the point and flat and refreeze one section. Can you experts help me understand the risk of doing this? The FSIS site advises that cold water thawed food must be cooked immediately and should not be refrozen without cooking first. Yet they advise that refrigerator-thawed food can be refrozen without cooking. I'm not smart enough to understand why the refrigerator method can be refrozen but the water method cannot. Thx.
 
Ok , I'll take a stab at it.:)

Fridge temps should be set lower than 40F ( like 35-38 deg) Cold tap water temps varies by location, source, so it can go higher like 50F
Even if you change the water every 30 mins, the average stays above 40 " the danger zone", so a fully defrosted hunk of meat set in a sink of cold water has been above 40 degs for hours vs a fridge defrost that hasn't.

FSIS says that you should cook it immediately, not that you have to.

I think for a big hunk of intact meat like a point or flat you could refreeze cause you'll cook that above well done, but your call.

Easiest way, just cook both and freeze the one for later.

Tim
 
Reality is...a frozen block of meat in small container water quickly makes water very cold, and meat is near freezing too.

And beef isnt as bad as pork or chicken/turkey either

The whole idea is total time in danger zone 40-130f. Time to thaw...time to refreeze....time to thaw again....time to cook to 130....

The times adds up.

And its a conservative approach as well..

I dont worry about freezing cooked meat thats been in refrig 4days.....i reheat by microwaving.....seconds in danger zone. But you wouldnt want to thaw that slowly really .
 
Last edited:
MartinB said:
Reality is...a frozen block of meat in small container water quickly makes water very cold, and meat is near freezing too..
Click to expand...

OK. That's all well and good, but in reality the OP is defrosting a whole packer brisket, and that won't fit in a small container, or in most kitchen sinks.;)
Fridge would be the best bet, but if you have to do it cold water, than a cooler would be a second for a Packer.

Tim
 
36-42 has always been the preferred safe zone, most folks are happy with 38, freezer 0-5 with 0 being the preferred temp. ,you lose quality when ever you thaw/refreeze ,
 
My thought to add to this discussion is that the entire packer does not need to be completely thawed in order to separate the point from the flat.
I would thaw it just enough to be able to separate the two sections and then refeeze the one section. I have often bought steaks and chops that were on sale, not frozen, and froze them for later use without any problems. But then this is just my thoughts and YMMV.
 
I appreciate everyone's feedback. We live in an area where there is no quick trip to the market for meat for "tonight's" dinner, so a significant amount of our meals come from thawing meat. Almost all of our cold water thaws are complete within 2 hours but that would not be the case for this 14 lb brisket. I've had enough experience with cold water thaws that I suspected the water temp would drop and keep in the low 40's(f) so long as I didn't do frequent water changes but I didn't know the true risk of being a few degrees above 40 for x hours.

FYI, nearly all our thaws occur in a cold water bath as opposed to the refrigerator because--well--we have teenagers and the fridge is jammed pack.
 
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