Is it bad to cook frozen meat without waiting it to be unfrozen?

Question

I wonder if it is bad to cook frozen meat (chicken, fish, beef,...) without waiting it to be unfrozen?

Sometimes, I realize I forget to take meat out of my freezer beforehand, when I am too hungry already.

Thanks!

Answer 1

It's really a question of taste. It's not going to hurt you, but there will be some undesirable effects. For example, to cook turkey properly, it must come to an internal temp. of 180. If the meat is frozen, it is going to take a lot longer for the int. temp to rise that high, so the outside of the bird will be somewhat overcooked (compared to roasting a thawed bird). That meat will be much tougher than it would be otherwise.

If your question is querying as to whether it will cause ill health, then no, it will not. My mom does it all the time. Her roasts are tough, though. I have done this, but only when I am braising the meat, or using a slow cooker, which will cause the meat to be tender either way.

Answer 2

I forget if this falls under the category of "convection" or "thermal diffusion" (if I'm wrong I welcome comments), but if you will take your frozen meat and put it in an airtight zip bag and then in a (clean) sink, run the faucet over this in tepid to cool water (not hot or even very warm). You will be amazed at how quickly this will thaw meat. It will thaw about an inch of meat about every 10 minutes.

The trick is that you want the littlest water possible, but enough to wash over the majority of the bag.

It will thaw your meat very quickly without having to microwave it or trying to cook a frozen piece of meat. If you're trying to thaw a roast then you're probably in trouble, but for thinner cuts of meat/fish/etc., this thaws very quickly.

Answer 3

The reason you are normally advised to thaw meat before cooking is simply that it is then easier and more likely that it will be cooked through properly.

Therefore, you can cook from frozen, but you have to be especially careful that the meat is cooked through. A meat thermometer is ideal, but you can also use your eye and finger to see and feel the state of the meat.

It is safer if the meat is pre-diced or sliced as it will cook through easier. Some supermarkets sell bags of pre-sliced frozen chicken for stir fries that goes straight from the freezer to the wok.

Answer 4

You can cook from frozen in a pressure cooker and it only adds about 5 minutes per half kilo of meat to the cooking time. Also, cooking a turkey to 82C (180F) is far too high a temperature, you'll just dry the meat to the point of inedibility. Turkey breast is so lean that it really ought to be cooked to around 60C (140F); however, you can only do that reliably and hold it at that temperature for long enough (29 minutes) cooking sous vide so it's not an option for most people. The FDA poultry tables are very useful here for working out what temperature you can pasteurise the meat at. For instance, holding turkey at 68C (155F) for 72 seconds is sufficient to obtain 7-log10 lethality of salmonella.

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/rdad/FSISNotices/RTE_Poultry_Tables.pdf

Answer 5

it would be advisable only in very thin on finely minced meat, where the is no risk of the food cooking on the outside and staying frozen (or raw) on the inside.

Answer 6

Thawing quickly will do more damage to the cells, causing the consistency of the meat to be less "natural". This also affects taste negatively.

Answer 7

When cooked, frozen meat will release a lot of moist. This is undesireable, specially if you want to pan fry it, and it will prevent the meat to cook evenly.

As you can see from other answers, a good advice to quick thaw is to put the piece of meat on a zip bag and run it under warm mater.

Answer 8

I understand that it is not advisable to cook chicken frozen as the heat does not penetrate though to centre adding risk of samonella. I do cook roasts and corned silverside in slow cooker from frozen they usually turn out nice and tender with good flavour and I have never had any health problems.