Is it possible to freeze minced meat? Frozen minced meat

Minced meat frozen in the refrigerator is actually a very convenient thing. You can take it out of the freezer at any time, defrost it and cook something delicious from it, for example. Today, most of us no longer make our own dumplings, manti, cutlets and other similar dishes from this product from start to finish. We have long been accustomed to buying ready-made products in the store. And at home, all we have to do is prepare them, including the minced meat. Few people use a meat grinder themselves, although almost everyone now has electric ones, not like before. But before, in my opinion, everything was much tastier, because we prepared everything ourselves, from running the meat through a meat grinder to the finished product, for example, dumplings. It was a whole mystery. But let's return to our question about storing minced meat. How to do it correctly?

What are the benefits of frozen minced meat and how to freeze it correctly?

So, in order for you to defrost frozen minced meat quite easily, without any problems, you will need to freeze it correctly, in thin layers. To achieve this, we proceed as follows. Place the minced meat in a plastic bag in a small amount and then carefully press the bag with your palms and form a rectangular shape. After this, we put the bag in the freezer. Minced meat frozen in this way can be defrosted fairly quickly, and it is stored very compactly.

Here it must be said that you do not need to add anything to the minced meat that you are going to store in the freezer. Onions, after freezing and then thawing, become sweetish and change their taste. It would be best to add salt (and pepper, if you like) and finely chopped onion just before cooking. This way, your dishes that you will prepare in the future will turn out much tastier and juicier.

Since I have a spacious freezer, I have been freezing minced meat for several years now. This preparation is ideal when you don’t have enough time to prepare food. Minced meat is a unique meat product that allows you to add taste and aroma to any side dish, first course or second course. Even if you have a freezer with only three compartments, like most modern refrigerators, such a preparation will serve you well, because we will divide the minced meat and form various semi-finished products from it, packing them separately, and you will only have to cook them from 5 minutes to 30 minutes, depending on size.

To make the minced meat itself juicy and aromatic, use 1 part of pork (peritoneum or roll part) for about 1.5 parts of beef or veal pulp. Pork can be purchased with the skin, which is then cut off and used to prepare other dishes. There must be a greasy layer, otherwise dishes made from such minced meat will taste dry.

When creating minced meat, I do not add eggs, onions, garlic, or raw potatoes, since all these ingredients spoil and the workpiece acquires a rotten smell and gray color. I recommend adding them after defrosting or during cooking, for example, in gravy for cutlets, meatballs or meatballs. To prevent minced meat products from falling apart during frying, boiling, baking, etc., the product must be kneaded cooled for 30-40 minutes, until white threads appear, cooling from time to time in the refrigerator when it warms up.

So, let's prepare the necessary ingredients and start cooking!

Rinse both types of meat in water, carefully remove all films and veins. Cut into portions. Remove the skin from the pork, if any.

Pass the meat through a meat grinder, installing a grid with a large or small nozzle - as desired.

Add salt and ground black pepper to the minced meat. Mix thoroughly when cooled, beating it into the bowl and lifting the top back up.

The finished product should become lighter due to the even distribution of chopped lard.

Separate the pieces of minced meat and roll them into round meatballs. Then flatten half of them onto a board or work surface, creating patties for grilling, hamburgers, etc., rounding the edges slightly.

Layer each flat cutlet with cling film or a small bag. This way you will get cutlets and meatballs.

Don't forget about the meatballs. Roll small balls between your palms and place them on the board. Meatballs can be added frozen to a simmering broth to create a soup, gravy, or baked with potatoes. Place the remaining minced meat in a bag and freeze - you will need it for stuffing, etc.

Place all preparations in the freezer for 1-2 hours.

After this, remove and pack into bags, approximately trying on portions.

Place back in the freezer. Freezing of minced meat is complete.

Take out frozen minced meat to create some delicious dishes. The shelf life of such preparations is approximately 6-9 months. Before cooking cutlets, meatballs and minced meat, they must first be defrosted at room temperature! Meatballs can be added frozen to boiling water.

Many people buy exclusively store-bought minced meat - it is already prepared, there is no need to waste time on cooking. And cutlets from it are prepared very quickly.

However, I am one of those housewives who prefer to first choose meat at the market, and then prepare homemade minced meat and even freeze it and semi-finished meat products for future use. So, you can then quickly prepare any dish from minced meat: cutlets, meatballs, meatballs, dumplings, manti, hedgehogs and even homemade sausage! I believe that the taste of the dish will largely depend on how the minced meat is. Well, homemade dumplings will never taste like homemade ones if you use ready-made minced meat, don’t even convince me! The same can be said about stuffed peppers and cabbage rolls. Tested and proven from personal experience.

One of my friends once got a job as a manager of one of the enterprises where they processed and sold meat products. After she got to the meat processing workshop, she realized that she would only use homemade minced meat for food. That workshop was very clean, everyone worked in gloves, but in addition to meat, they added a huge amount of lard, imported fat, chicken skin, pork skin, sinews and a lot of other things to the minced meat that many people usually throw away. Moreover, if you can mince meat at home, then it will be trimmings from heads and legs.

Minced meat and what to cook from it

To prepare minced meat without much difficulty, it is better to have a powerful electric meat grinder on your household.

I prefer to immediately buy 5-7 kg of fresh meat pulp, using different varieties: beef,

sometimes lamb (if you come across a nice piece).

If the minced meat is waiting for subsequent freezing, then it is better not to add onions, garlic, peppers and spices to it immediately. And do this immediately before preparing the dish.

Ingredients:

• Pork,
• Beef,
• Mutton.

Cooking process:

Minced meat must be cleaned of small fragments of bones that remain when the butcher cuts the carcass. Then rinse the whole piece or parts under water and dry with a paper towel. The meat should be cut into pieces so that they can be easily pushed into the meat grinder without unnecessary effort. If the meat is lean, add a small amount of pork belly or lard.

Grind the meat into minced meat using a medium grid for cutlets or dumplings, but for making homemade sausage or manti it is better to use a large one. Mix the crushed mass with your hands and beat it off. Freeze some of the minced meat and use the rest for its intended purpose.

Methods for freezing homemade minced meat

I have one trick for quickly defrosting frozen minced meat. Previously, like my mother, I froze minced meat in a round bun, simply transferring it from a bowl to a bag. But now I do it differently. Chopped meat should be placed in a bag, and then distributed in a thin layer. This method allows the minced meat for cutlets, meatballs or meatballs to quickly thaw. In just half an hour you can form cutlets or meatballs, or cook any other dish in a slow cooker or oven.

Making frozen meatballs from homemade minced meat

In order to cook meatballs, I add a little raw onion and grated carrots to the minced meat. If you like, you can add a raw egg. Next, I immediately form meatballs for soup or borscht. I put it on a board and then put it in the freezer. When semi-finished minced meat products are frozen, they can be easily removed and placed in a bag. It is advisable to write the date (it is convenient to use special zip-lock bags for storing food in the freezer for this purpose) and store for no longer than 6 months. Freezing this way will prevent the meatballs from freezing together.

How to cook frozen cutlets from homemade minced meat

For cutlets, immediately add all the ingredients to the minced meat: onion, egg, spices and salt. Then form the cutlets, place them on a board and put them in the freezer. Then these cutlets just need to be sent frozen to a hot frying pan with oil and fried. Neither the meatballs nor the meatballs need to be defrosted first.

Here are a couple of tips on how to make the cutlets different even at the freezing stage:

• Roll the finished cutlets in a raw egg, then in breadcrumbs and only then freeze.
• When forming cutlets, you can hide a little cheese, grated or just a block, in the middle. This is how you get cutlets with cheese filling.
• You can add finely chopped red bell pepper to the minced meat, the aroma and taste of such a minced meat dish will be simply indescribable!

Making cutlets for children from homemade minced meat

When I take out a bag of minced meat and prepare steamed or baked baby cutlets, I cheat. In addition to a piece of bread, I add a spoonful of sour cream, an egg and vegetables (cabbage, onions and carrots, zucchini or something else according to the season) to the minced meat.

Frozen dumplings

Well, we prepare homemade dumplings, no matter whether they are hand-made or lazy. Still, they are much tastier and healthier than store-bought counterparts.

Homemade sausage

There are many of my episodes about cooking with step-by-step photographs, they are very easy to find by searching in the upper right corner or by opening a separate section about sausages in the right column. Check it out if you're interested.

Prepare minced meat and dishes from it yourself and feed your loved ones homemade food!

Sincerely, Anyuta and the site Notebook with recipes.

You don't always want to bother with dinner.

You come home tired and hungry.
We need to quickly make something and eat.
I offer a good option for a not too troublesome dinner (or lunch) of ground beef with vegetables.

Ingredients:
Vegetable mixture -400 gr
Eggplant - 1 piece
Minced beef - 250-300 g
White wine - 1/2 cup
Garlic - 1 clove
Pepper, salt - to taste
Dill - to taste
Tomato paste – 2 tablespoons
Balsamic vinegar -1-2 tsp.
Sugar-2 tsp.
Bell pepper for decoration - 1\2 pcs
Butter for frying minced meat

1. Fry the ground beef in butter over high heat. Pepper and lightly salt. Pour half a glass of white wine. We wait until the wine evaporates.

2. Cut the eggplant into arbitrary pieces. I had frozen pre-grilled eggplant.
I defrosted it and cut it. You can easily use fresh eggplant. Fry with minced meat.

3. Take a store-bought vegetable mixture. It is advisable to defrost it first. Just toss the bag from the freezer into the refrigerator overnight.

4. This is the composition of the mixture to give you a guide. In principle, the composition can be anything.

5. Pour our mixture into a frying pan and reduce the heat. Stir and simmer until cooked for about 20 minutes. Pour in balsamic vinegar and sugar. I suddenly fell in love with balsamic vinegar. It perfectly refreshes the taste of dishes.


6. At the end of the stew, add herbs and favorite spices. If necessary, add more salt. Add a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste. Mix. Simmer covered for about 10 minutes. Garlic would be quite appropriate in this dish. You can add 3 chopped cloves at the end of the stew.


7. Our simple but tasty dish is ready. Decorate it with bell pepper and serve.


Pigney chased the ball away

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