I did an experiment a while back
I had taken some ribeyes out of the freezer to cook up for dinner the same night. I always brine my steaks too, but had to thaw them first, and it got me thinking about something...
Up north, they put salt on the roads to melt snow and ice. If salt melts ice, and meat has high water content, will brining my frozen steaks also accelerate the thawing process?
I pulled the steaks out of the freezer and warmed the outsides with my hands just enough to soften the surface so the salt would adhere.. then dry brined and threw them in the fridge.
Low and behold, the salt quickly began penetrating the meat like it normally would with an unfrozen steak, and they were thawed out in no time.
Typical freezer temp is 0°F. So the meat has to very slowly warm in the fridge by 32°F before the ice turns back to liquid. By introducing salt, the freezing point is lowered and the frozen water only has to warm by about 15°F instead of 32°F before change back to liquid state. Theoretically speeding up the thawing process by around 53%.
I'm a crappy scientist and I was hungry, so I didn't bother checking to see how long it took, but I can say it was "very fast", and the experiment definitely worked.
So if you ever have any meat to thaw out, throw your brine on early and speed up the process.
:hungry:
I had taken some ribeyes out of the freezer to cook up for dinner the same night. I always brine my steaks too, but had to thaw them first, and it got me thinking about something...
Up north, they put salt on the roads to melt snow and ice. If salt melts ice, and meat has high water content, will brining my frozen steaks also accelerate the thawing process?
Salt lowers the freezing point of water. Ice melts faster when salt is added as the salt lowers the freezing point of the water, this is known as freezing point depression. The more salt you add the lower the freezing point. - source
On the average driveway, rock salt will typically decrease the freezing point of water to around 15 degrees - source
The answer, it turns out, is yes.Meat and poultry are composed of naturally occurring water, muscle, connective tissue, fat, and bone. People eat meat for the muscle. The muscle is approximately 75% water (although different cuts may have more or less water) and 20% protein, with the remaining 5% representing a combination of fat, carbohydrate, and minerals. - USDA
I pulled the steaks out of the freezer and warmed the outsides with my hands just enough to soften the surface so the salt would adhere.. then dry brined and threw them in the fridge.
Low and behold, the salt quickly began penetrating the meat like it normally would with an unfrozen steak, and they were thawed out in no time.
Typical freezer temp is 0°F. So the meat has to very slowly warm in the fridge by 32°F before the ice turns back to liquid. By introducing salt, the freezing point is lowered and the frozen water only has to warm by about 15°F instead of 32°F before change back to liquid state. Theoretically speeding up the thawing process by around 53%.
I'm a crappy scientist and I was hungry, so I didn't bother checking to see how long it took, but I can say it was "very fast", and the experiment definitely worked.
So if you ever have any meat to thaw out, throw your brine on early and speed up the process.
:hungry:
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