Hello! I may be the most cautious food prep girl in the world, but I am REALLY hoping I havent completely ruined two pounds of grass fed beef (ground). So, I am going to ask this in hopes of somebody making me feel confident that all is well and I dont have to throw it out. I took (2) 1lb. packages of beef straight out of the freezer at 1:30pm and put them into a pan full of cold water. I had to run some errands which took much longer than anticipated. The beef sat in the water until I returned at 5pm. By the time I got to it, it was 5:15 and the beef was cool, not room temperature but certainly not cold. I immediately put it into a skillet and browned it because I am making chili out of it, but as it cooked I kept freaking myself out and am now at a screeching hault with what to do. It smelled fine, if that helps? Thanks for any input.
|
5
|
||||||||||||||
|
|
4
|
i let my steaks come to room temp before i grill them rare and i have always done this and i eat a lot of steak and i am 50....nearly. you are making chili as in long simmer time? |
||||||
|
|
4
|
Noses are amazing. Plus cooking kills bacteria. If you cooked it, no worries, I you didn't, 99.9% most likely no worries |
||||||
|
|
4
|
I've gone a LOT longer than that (usually on accident) and have never suffered ill effects. |
||
|
|
|
2
|
The question is not whether food should be brought to room temperature before preparing. That is obvious, if the food is too cold, you will not get the Maillard reaction which gives us that delicious complex flavor on the outside. People offering anecdotal 'not sick' stories aren't exactly helping. Ground meats are the riskiest and ought to be thawed with some consideration. The still water is the biggest possible issue. You want to leave the water running or at least change it every thirty minutes. http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/freeze/thawing.html Also I would say there is as near as no difference between grass fed beef food safety and corn fed, so this is not a paleo issue per se. |
|||
|
|
2
|
Minimal bacterial growth going on coming out of a freeze. Do though, be cautious. This is ground meat, any surface contamination that was there prior to grinding the meat is homogenized ans spread throughout the ground meat. Of course, you must always question your source as well. I wouldn't touch anything but well done ground meat, unless I did the grinding. Maybe that's why I eat very little raw food unless I control it it from field/pasture to plate. |
||
|
|
|
1
|
You're fine. I've been told from the place I buy my grass fed that it should be brought to room temperature prior to cooking. It does include the ground beef. |
||
|
|
|
1
|
Send it to me, I'll eat it! |
||
|
|
|
1
|
Food poisoning is overhyped in my opinion. A healthy immune system will fight off most things; I've eaten week old, open in the fridge, past use by date beef steak... it was fine. |
||
|
1
|
Update: Chili turned out to be yummy and had no problems at all with the meat. Thanks for all of your input! |
||
|
|
|
0
|
I agree with the noses comment - give it a smell, but I am sure it is fine... it's not like you left it out for a day or something! |
|||
|
|
0
|
I also set my burgers, steaks, and roasts out for a while before cooking to let them come to room temperature--up to an hour if I'm using a dry rub on a roast. I'm usually more of a better-safe-than-sorry kind of person, but if it was frozen when you left it couldn't have been sitting there defrosted for more than 1-2 hours, so I'm sure it's fine. |
|||
|
|
-1
|
"Grass fed beef thawing" Put frozen GFB in your microwave at the lowest level ("1" on mine) and go for 2 minutes. Check meat at that point, as it will continue to cook even with heat off. Perhaps go another 30-40 seconds, at same level. BTW: I understand health concerns vis-a-vis microwaves. Thus I didn't say: stand near microwave during this process. |
|||
|
