Standing rib defrosting advice

[Taboni]

Due to family emergency health issues on Christmas Day, I had to freeze a 4 bone 9 lb USDA Prime standing rib. I never freeze meat....ever. I live 3 blocks from my butcher and if I want to cook something I buy it the day I want to make it. I am planning on cooking the roast this weekend as everyone (Mom and Dad) are now both out of the hospital. Any advice on how to best defrost this hunk of beef? How far in advance should I take it out of the freezer? Do I have to defrost in the refrigerator? I take a common sense approach to food safety and am not married to the fact that it has to be defrosted in the fridge, but if I have enough advance time, then why not. It killed me to freeze this roast but I really didn't have any choice.

[jackal10]

Cook low and slow and don't bother to defrost, but use a thermometer and cook to a defined end temperature.

[annecros]

Due to family emergency health issues on Christmas Day, I had to freeze a 4 bone 9 lb USDA Prime standing rib. I never freeze meat....ever. I live 3 blocks from my butcher and if I want to cook something I buy it the day I want to make it. I am planning on cooking the roast this weekend as everyone (Mom and Dad) are now both out of the hospital. Any advice on how to best defrost this hunk of beef? How far in advance should I take it out of the freezer? Do I have to defrost in the refrigerator? I take a common sense approach to food safety and am not married to the fact that it has to be defrosted in the fridge, but if I have enough advance time, then why not.  It killed me to freeze this roast but I really didn't have any choice.

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Hey, better to freeze than waste that great cut.

I would stick it in the fridge now. Beef usually has a 30 day shelf life from the slaughterhouse, and you will probably still have ice crystals 72 hours later as long as the fridge is cold and relatively undisturbed.

Glad your parents are better. I spent a holiday with Mom in MICU and Dad in CICU about 10 years ago. Best wishes to you and your family.

Edit: I better qualify that shelf life. Beef has a 30 day shelf life from slaughter if it is stored and handled properly (cryovacced with an unbroken seal). It sounds like your meat market is fairly responsible in regards to fresh meat handling.

Edited January 4, 2007 by annecros (log)

[Taboni]

Thanks for the advice and well wishes. I will stick it in the fridge this morning and since I am doing the slow method with heat blast at the end, it should turn out ok even if it doesn't totally defrost.

Cheers.

[toni]

I froze my 3 bone 7 lb. prime rib and then put it in the refrig. on Thurs. for Mon.'s Christmas cooking. It was great. Enjoy it. After our dinner, my husband proclaimed with a huge smile on his face that he would like prime rib 4 times a year!

[Marlene]

I tend to just defrost mine on the counter. Oops.

[markk]

I wouldn't cook it frozen. And I'd say that you'll get better results if you let it defrost in the fridge for a few days.

I'm glad I read your post all the way through, because I started to get horrified at the beginning - I hate frozen meat too. My mother lived down the street from a butcher, and still shopped once a month for meat (no, she didn't work or anything like that), and she'd buy a month's worth of meat, freeze it, and then, just like Gifted Gourmet's mom, drop the frozen steaks into boiling water when the dinner hour neared.

Anyway, there are reasons for not cooking frozen meat (can't remember them now), and reasons for defrosting large cuts of meat in the fridge (can't remember those either now). Glad to hear that everybody's okay, and good luck!

[Marlene]

I freeze meat all the time, but I do vaccumn seal it. Because I don't live near my preferred butcher, I pretty much have to, since I don't want to make endless trips into the city. I think cooking from frozen adds too much water content and in effect, you'll end up steaming the meat. Definately thaw it however, then roast.

Edited January 5, 2007 by Marlene (log)

[jayt90]

Cook low and slow and don't bother to defrost, but use a thermometer and cook to a defined end temperature.

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Fridge thawing is safer. If the frozen roast goes into a slow oven for several hours, some parts of the interior will thaw and spend a long time in the danger zone above 40F. If someone got sick (unlikely) this would be an obvious source.

I use a microwave to get a roast to an 'almost thawed' state, when there is no time for a fridge defrost.