The Meat Defrosting Hack That Will Save You Serious Time

Before leaving for work in the morning, your parents gave you a single task to accomplish before they came home –- take the meat out of the freezer so it could defrost. Cut to later that afternoon. In a panic, you realize that you have again neglected your duties, and dinner is still frozen. Your family can't eat a frozen hunk of pot roast for dinner. Is there any way you can get your meat oven ready in time for your parent's return?

There are a number of ways to defrost meat. Arguably the best way to properly defrost your dinner is to transfer it from the freezer to the fridge, though that takes a considerable amount of time. Alternatively, you could opt for the much faster method of thawing your still-packaged meat in cold water, periodically changing the water as the meat lowers its temperature (per Food Network). However, there is another hack that exists which is sure to speed up the defrosting process. All you'll need is a common household kitchen item.

According to Better Homes and Garden's culinary school Head Tutor Cher Loh, the best way to quickly defrost your meat is to place it on a backing sheet. Additionally, Loh suggests that prior to freezing meat, you should try to make sure it's packaged as flat as possible, which you can achieve by removing air from the package, then smoothing it out on a flat surface. This will ensure that your meat makes the most possible contact with the aluminum tray. On his YouTube channel, J. Kenji López-Alt tested this hack and confirmed that meat placed on an aluminum tray thawed almost twice as fast as the same cut left out on a stoneware plate. 

This shortcut certainly stands up from a scientific standpoint. Per Thermtest, "Aluminum has a very high thermal conductivity of 205 W/(m/K), which explains its ability to heat up quickly and cook food evenly." Aluminum's abilities as a conductor are what make your meat thaw at a faster rate. This is a better alternative since the USDA advises against meat being left a room temperature for longer than two hours.

Though the process of defrosting your meat may be arduous, there's good reason for you to freeze it in the first place. According to a USDA freezing and food safety article, "Freezing keeps food safe by slowing the movement of molecules, causing microbes to enter a dormant stage." They go on to say that properly frozen food will essentially remain unspoiled in perpetuity, though its quality will degrade over time. Your meat remains unspoiled for considerably longer in the freezer than it would in the refrigerator.

Though the aluminum baking tray hack may save you time, it's important to note that leaving your meat to thaw at room temperature is not recommended by health experts. The USDA warns us that the outer layer of thawing meat could be in a dangerous temperature zone (between 40 and 140 °F) where bacteria thrive, even if the center is still frozen.