Why do we have to thaw frozen meat slowly instead of just throwing it on heat?
In: Biology
Because if you do that then the outside will cook while the inside is still frozen. By the time the inside is cooked to a safe temperature the outside will have long since burned.
Several reasons actually.
1. Ice is a good insulator, it requires a lot more heat to get through it and by the time you’ve cooked the outside to the right level you want the middle will either still be frozen or in the best case scenario still raw (This has varying levels of danger depending on the meat).
2. This could also cause steam pressure to build up from within, leading to a disaster in the kitchen.
3. Lots of meat require cutting, good luck trying to cut through a solid block of ice.
It takes time for heat to go through the meat. Once you start heating it on the outside the inside is still cold. Turning up the heat will just cause it to burn on the outside as the heat does not move much faster to the inside. It takes a lot of energy to thaw something so this is going to slow down the cooking time even further. You have to wait for the outside to thaw, then the layer inside that, and then the center. If you just heat the outside while it is still thawing inside then you can burn the steak on the outside and it may still be frozen in the middle, or at least pretty raw.
This is why a lot of meat recipes call for taking your time. Both in thawing the meat before cooking it and also to let it rest after you have cooked it. The inside may still be cooking as it is increasing in temperature for some time after the outside is already done and taken off the heat. The practice of sous-vide is taking this even further and cooks the meat on a low temperature for very long. This allows time for the heat to go through the meat to the centre so it is all at the same temperature. You do not have to thaw the meat beforehand but it will affect the cooking time.
The meat thaws like it cooks, from inside to out
So the inside is that last part to freeze, the last part to defrost and and the last part to cook.
Burgers might be ok to cook from frozen, but If it is a thicker piece you are likely to get something that looks done on the outside with the inside still raw or even frozen
Or a cooked interior and a burnt outside
Or a burnt outside, a layer that’s actually cooked and it still undercooked in the middle
You can just throw it on heat. It will cook unevenly, and in order to make sure the center is cooked to the correct temperature, you pretty much have to completely overcook/burn the outer layer. So if you like mostly charred and dry chicken breast with a nicely done (and tiny) center spot, just toss the breast directly into the oven. But if you like chicken breast to be cooked uniformly and be juicy, then it’s a good idea to thaw it out completely before cooking. In other words, you really can’t cook a piece of frozen meat through (except in slow and low temp cooking, like a stew or crockpot) if it’s frozen.
Cooking meat is all about finding a balance between cooking the surface to have a nicely seared crust, but to have the inside be whatever doneness you like for instance 130-135F / 54-57C for a medium rare.
This can be quite difficult, you have to balance how thick your steak is and how hot the pan is. If you have a frozen steak this complicates the process a lot and you would need to heat the steak a lot slower.
However you can totally throw a steak in the oven completely frozen and then finish it up in the pan, this has been tested and done in a video by adam raguesea ; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5A5_8FUF2I&pp=ygUZYWRhbSByYWd1c2VhIGZyb3plbiBzdGVhaw%3D%3D](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5A5_8FUF2I&pp=ygUZYWRhbSByYWd1c2VhIGZyb3plbiBzdGVhaw%3D%3D)
The simplest way to explain it is that by the time it thaws all the way to the middle, the outside will have been cooked and overdone. Anyone who’s tried to microwave frozen meat to thaw it out will have experienced this. Thawing meat slowly with running room temperature water ensures that the water doesn’t become too cold from the frozen meat and that it stays raw and therefore better for cooking.
You might not need to if you’re cooking the meat in a stew or soup. If you’re cooking ground meat, a bit of thawing is preferable but if you plan to braise it for a long period in gravy, then thawing might not be completely necessary.
But high heat cooking, yeah thaw first so that it cooks through and you don’t have a lump of cold raw meat in the center.
Putting really cold stuff on heat also messes with the cooking time – so you’d have to know what you’re doing!
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