Is it possible to store minced meat with onions in the freezer: shelf life of minced meat in the refrigerator

Terms and conditions of storage

Minced meat is minced meat or fish fillet . It is used to make cutlets, dumplings, manti, meatballs, and is also used as a filling for baked goods. To protect the product from spoilage, it is important to know how to store it correctly.

Storage containers

Store twisted meat in clean, dry food-grade plastic containers , tightly closing them with a lid or wrapping them in cling film. The containers are placed in the refrigerator or freezer.

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It is convenient to store chopped meat in polymer trays , tightly wrapping them with cling film. This packaging will withstand freezing down to -40°C and will not take up much space in the refrigerator and freezer.

Instead of a container or tray, clean plastic bags are also used : a flat briquette is formed from the mass, excess air is removed from the packaging and tied tightly. In this form, the briquette will cool faster and take up less space.

Attention . Different types of minced meat are stored in different containers. The shelf life of chicken meat, for example, is shorter than that of pork and beef.

Mix different types of meat immediately before preparing any dish . In order not to confuse semi-finished products, we recommend that you sign each package, indicating the date of packaging and the type of meat.

Shelf life of minced meat

The duration of storage in the refrigerator and freezer depends on the degree of cooling and the freshness of the original product. The fresher the meat and the lower the temperature, the longer the semi-finished product is stored.

How long can minced meat be stored in the refrigerator without freezing? At the optimal temperature - from +2 to +6°C, minced beef and pork remain fresh for no more than 12 hours . Twisted poultry meat will lie in such conditions for 3 to 5 hours. Fish - no more than 6 hours.

Important. The shelf life is indicated for semi-finished products that contain nothing else except meat or fish. Any additive reduces shelf life.

If you plan to freeze minced meat, do so immediately after preparing or purchasing it . It is not recommended to freeze a semi-finished product that has been in the refrigerator for several hours - bacteria have already begun to develop in it.

If minced meat is made from fresh meat without additives, it will last in the freezer for 3 months at -18°C and a month at -12°C. Thawed semi-finished products cannot be stored.

How long to defrost minced meat: in the refrigerator, in water, in the microwave, in the oven

The thawing time of a meat product directly depends on the total mass of the piece, as well as its shape. That is, the more the frozen food weighs, the longer it will take to defrost. The approximate defrosting time in the refrigerator is:

small, thin pieces of pork and beef will take about 12 hours;
a kilogram briquette will be ready for cooking in 24 hours;
a piece weighing a total of two kilograms requires at least 48 hours.

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Things will go a little faster if you put the minced meat in water, and for safety they put it in two plastic bags at once. In this case, you can start cooking after five hours. But as it thaws, you should cut the piece into smaller portions to reduce the duration of thawing.

The microwave is the fastest way to defrost semi-finished products. Usually the whole process takes no more than twenty minutes, provided that the piece is large. It takes a little longer for the product to thaw in the oven; on average, it takes a little more than 40 minutes. If you remove the thawed top layers during the process, this will significantly reduce the duration of the heat treatment.

Which minced meat is best to freeze?

For freezing, it is better to use minced meat that does not contain eggs, onions, milk, or spices. You shouldn’t even salt it before freezing.

Any additive reduces the shelf life of the semi-finished product by 2-3 times , especially if it is chicken or fish. Spices, onions, eggs, milk and other ingredients are added immediately before cooking.

Freeze the minced meat in small portions so you can use it all at once . Re-frozen semi-finished product will cause poisoning.

How exactly to fry frozen cutlets?

First of all, we must definitely heat the oil in a frying pan. We wait until light smoke comes from the oil (important!). There is even a certain classification of oils that are better suited to this or that type of cutlet.

Rendered lard - suitable for lamb and pork cutlets.
Sunflower, olive oil – fish cutlets, chicken. This particular oil can perfectly kill all harmful parasites, if any.
There is only one exception - chicken Kiev. They just need to be cooked in butter, and preferably deep-fried. But you can also cook it in a frying pan.

Next, we need to place our cutlets on a hot frying pan and start frying. Fry on each side for about 10 minutes until a crust forms.

By the way, a very important point. The bottom of the pan should be thick enough.

This is necessary to ensure that your cutlets do not burn. During frying, do not add spices or salt (important!).

As for the cooking time for semi-finished products, the maximum frying time is 20 minutes. And then, this only applies to pork cutlets. Chicken cutlets. The fish are fried in 10 - 12 minutes. It's time to move on to the most important thing, how to specifically cook cutlets. What recipes are there?

Storing minced meat with onions in the freezer

Minced meat mixed with onions, milk and other ingredients is stored in the freezer . At a temperature of -12°C the product will last only 2 weeks, at -18°C and below - a month.

If you plan to freeze a semi-finished product with additives, then do it immediately after purchase or preparation. You cannot store it in the refrigerator first and then freeze it.

It is better to freeze minced meat and onions in such portions that you can use each portion completely when cooking. Don’t forget to label the containers so you don’t get confused with product types and expiration dates.

Defrosting various types of minced meat - chicken, beef, cutlets, pork, fish, meat

When choosing a defrosting technology, it is necessary to take into account the type of meat that was used to prepare the minced meat. This is due to the fact that each product requires a different amount of time to defrost. Fish preparation requires less time, but freezing chicken takes the longest.

Beef, turkey pork

In an emergency, the fastest way to handle these products is to use a microwave, especially if the device has an appropriate mode.

But it is worth considering the disadvantages of this method, which include:

when defrosting a large amount of minced meat or a large briquette, you have to be constantly on guard; you need to turn the product over every three minutes to eliminate the risk of uneven thawing;
when processing small pieces, there is a high probability that they will overheat and cook, especially around the edges;
minced meat loses its juiciness in a short time, this is due to loss of moisture; the finished dish may end up being dry and unappetizing.

You can also use other methods. Among them, the following options are considered the safest and most convenient:

The pressure of ordinary tap water will not defrost the minced meat so quickly, but will preserve its quality and taste. Continuous circulation of liquid will not allow bacteria to multiply, which means it can be consumed without fear. If you just use a saucepan and water, then it needs to be changed periodically, this should be done every 30 minutes.
Using salt, to do this you need to chop the minced meat as finely as possible, then sprinkle the pieces with the component, and leave in this state until completely thawed. This option is good because, due to the salt, much less time is spent on the process; usually even a large briquette thaws within 2 hours.
The refrigerator shelf is considered the safest way to defrost, since the product does not lose its beneficial qualities, the taste and juiciness of the meat are preserved. The only drawback of this option is the duration; the procedure can last a day, it all depends on the weight of the minced meat.

Important! If defrosting is done with salt, then it is worth knowing that during the thawing process, the component absorbs it. This factor must be taken into account when preparing a dish, otherwise you can hopelessly oversalt it.

Rabbit, chicken

If chicken and rabbit meat are defrosted improperly, the taste characteristics and beneficial properties are lost. Some expert recommendations will help you avoid this:

It is best to divide the carcasses into small pieces at the freezing stage and place them in separate bags;
It is better to defrost a whole carcass in the refrigerator; to do this, you need to take out the meat a day before cooking, remove the packaging, put it in a container and place it on the vegetable shelf of the refrigerator;
if the situation is urgent and the dish needs to be prepared urgently, then defrosting in the microwave on the appropriate mode is allowed;
the carcass intended for cooking broth is defrosted in a pan of water; there is no need to wait for complete thawing; the meat can be cooked in a slightly frozen state.

Rabbit and chicken meat have a more delicate structure, so you should avoid accelerated defrosting methods. The product becomes tough and tasteless. Technologies should only be used in exceptional cases.

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Recipe for cooking frozen cutlets

You can prepare semi-finished products in various ways, it all depends on what kind of cutlets you have and how you want them to end up. You can generally cook them in the microwave, in a double boiler, oven, or frying pan.

We will look at the process of frying in a pan. Let's also take a look at the recipes.

Classic recipe for frozen cutlets

Of course, for cooking you will need:

the cutlets themselves;
butter, butter or sunflower

1 step. First of all, we must heat our frying pan thoroughly and then pour the oil into it. We wait until the oil gets very hot so that a light smoke comes out of it.

Step 2. As soon as you see that the smoke is coming out, we start laying out the cutlets. You shouldn’t dump everything at once (important!). It is best to take each separately and carefully place it on the oil. Be careful not to let the oil splash on you! Also place the cutlets so that there is a small distance between them so that they do not stick to each other.

Step 3. As soon as they are laid out, we turn the heat down and fry on each side. Until a golden crust forms. Also make sure that the cutlets do not burn.

Step 4 We see that the cutlets are covered with a crust, now you can put them on low heat, cover with a lid and leave them to cook for another 7 minutes.

If the cutlets are very large, you can leave them for 10 minutes. Don't forget to turn over so the cutlets cook evenly. That's it, you can serve it to the table!

Dumplings with duck meat

Frozen dumplings are made with any minced meat. To prepare duck dumplings you will need:

minced duck fillet - half a kilogram;
1 medium sized onion;
salt.

To give the minced meat a piquant taste, it is recommended to add grated nutmeg.

To prepare the dish, make regular dumpling dough. It includes:

3 eggs;
500 g premium white wheat flour;
salt;
half a glass of water.

Combine flour and other ingredients and knead into a tight dough. Modeling begins after half an hour so that the mass becomes plastic. The dumplings are placed on a tray and placed in the refrigerator.

Semi-finished minced meat products for freezing are prepared with your own hands according to different recipes from one or several types of meat. For the additive, choose products that also do not lose their quality at sub-zero temperatures. For future use, you can prepare cutlets, meatballs, stuffed peppers and pancakes, meatballs, and meat gravy. It is recommended to freeze these dishes at a temperature of -18 to -30 °C.

You always want to eat! But sometimes there is no time or desire to cook. Then dumplings from the freezer come to the rescue. But the range of homemade semi-finished products can be much more diverse. In this article, you'll learn how to make and freeze taquitos, meatballs, and other delicious options for quick breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

You can freeze not only dumplings and cutlets, but also pies, stuffed pancakes and even broths for soups. Below you will find 10 original dishes suitable for freezing. But before moving on to the recipes, a little theory.

In the freezer -18 ºС. At this temperature, the action of microorganisms stops - frozen food is stored for a long time without losing its taste. How much exactly? Considering that we constantly look into the freezer, that is, temperature changes occur, food slightly thaws and freezes again, no more than two months .

Some foods are not suitable for freezing. For example, zucchini, cucumbers and other watery vegetables. After defrosting, almost all the flavor leaves them along with the moisture. Lettuce leaves lose their texture, and raw potatoes take on an unpleasant aftertaste.

You need to know how to freeze and defrost food. The colder the dish is before going into the freezer, the better. If foods have been heat-treated, it is recommended to first cool them at room temperature, then keep them in the refrigerator and only then freeze them.

Thawing should be done in the reverse order: take the dish out of the freezer, place it on a tray and put it in the refrigerator for 10–12 hours. Slow thawing allows food to absorb moisture lost during freezing. This way the taste is preserved as much as possible. But, if you don’t have time, you can use the defrosting function in the microwave.

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Vacuum bags, plastic and glass trays are used to store food in the freezer. Bags with zip locks are convenient when it is not necessary to maintain the shape of the dish: they significantly save space in the freezer. Plastic containers can be taken with you to work, they are convenient for heating lunch in the microwave, and glass trays are ideal for cooking in the oven, since there is no need to transfer the dish from dish to dish.

Hearty muffins for breakfast

Muffins are a sweet pastry, but if you use ham and cheese as a filling instead of chocolate and fruit, you can get hearty mini-buns for breakfast. They take little time to prepare, and after freezing and reheating, they are just as delicious as piping hot.

Ingredients:

3–4 pieces of bread;
3-4 slices of ham;
100 g cheddar or other hard cheese;
8 eggs;
1 glass of milk;
2 teaspoons mustard powder;
1 teaspoon ground pepper;
dried parsley and other spices to taste.

Preparation

Cut the bread and ham into thin strips. Grate the cheese on a coarse grater. Fill the muffin tins about two-thirds full with this filling.

In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, milk, mustard powder and pepper. Pour the resulting mixture into the mold. But not to the edges, otherwise the muffins will run away during baking. Sprinkle the top of each cell of the mold with dried parsley and other seasonings to your taste.

Preheat the oven to 200 ºС. Bake the muffins for 15–20 minutes. Let them cool, then put them in a plastic container and put them in the freezer.

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In the morning you can get the required number of buns, heat them in the microwave and get a quick, satisfying, and most importantly, tasty breakfast.

Oatmeal cups for healthy breakfasts

Oatmeal is ideal for breakfast, nutritious and healthy. It provides about 20% of the daily value of fiber and protein, contains a lot of essential nutrients and helps control appetite. If you are too lazy to bother with preparing porridge in the morning, there is a solution - frozen oatmeal cups with various fillings (fruits, nuts, dried fruits, etc.).

Ingredients:

2 cups oatmeal;
3 glasses of milk or water (optional);
1 tablespoon honey;
30 g butter;
a pinch of salt;
fruits, berries, chocolate, nuts, dried fruits and other fillings.

Preparation

In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil. Add oatmeal and mix thoroughly. Reduce heat to low and simmer porridge for 5–7 minutes until thickened. Stir constantly. Remove the oatmeal from the heat, add a knob of butter and a spoonful of honey, mix well. Let cool slightly.

Grease a muffin tin with vegetable oil and place the porridge among the cells. Sprinkle some filling on top of each serving. This could be diced bananas, raspberries, raisins, flaked coconut - whatever you like to eat your oatmeal with.

Wrap the pan in cling film and freeze. When the cups are well set, remove them from the mold and wrap them individually in film. This will significantly save space in the freezer.

Remove the required number of cups from the freezer the night before to easily have a healthy and delicious breakfast in the morning. Just heat the porridge in the microwave. Add milk if necessary.

Stuffed peppers

Frozen stuffed peppers work almost as well as dumplings or dumplings. If you know you have a busy day ahead and won't have time to cook, take the peppers out of the freezer the day before. They will thaw overnight in the refrigerator, all you have to do is put them in the oven.

Ingredients:

8 bell peppers;
700 g minced beef;
250 g rice;
250 g tomato sauce;
1 onion;
2 cloves of garlic;
hard cheddar cheese;
salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation

Wash the peppers, cut off the tops to make “cups”, clean the inner cavity of the seeds. The cut caps can be crumbled and used in the filling.

Peel the onion and garlic and chop finely. Combine ground beef (you can use ground turkey instead of ground beef), rice, peppers, onion, garlic and tomato sauce. Salt and pepper to taste. Stuff the peppers with this. Sprinkle grated cheese on top.

In this form, the peppers can already be frozen. When you need to cook them, defrost and bake in the oven at 180 ºС for 30–40 minutes.

Country-style potatoes with omelette and cheese

What to take for lunch to the office or to school? For many, this is a daily headache. This recipe will help diversify the contents of your lunchbox. The ingredients are simple, the preparation is easy.

Ingredients:

1.5 kg of potatoes;
500 g salsa sauce;
500 g hard cheese (for example, cheddar);
50 g butter;
9 eggs;
1 tablespoon olive oil;
1 teaspoon paprika;
½ teaspoon garlic powder;
½ teaspoon salt;
ground black pepper to taste.

Preparation

Wash the potatoes and cut into cubes. If it is young, you don’t even have to peel it. Add paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper to the bowl with the potato cubes and add olive oil. Mix everything thoroughly. Place the potatoes in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and place in the oven preheated to 200 ºC for 45–60 minutes. Stir the potatoes about halfway through cooking.

While it's cooking, make the omelette. To do this, break the eggs into a bowl and lightly beat them with a whisk. Melt the butter in a frying pan and carefully pour in the eggs. Remove the omelette from the heat a couple of minutes before it’s ready; the eggs should still be a little runny.

Divide the potatoes into containers. Add 2-3 tablespoons of salsa or any other sauce of your choice to each of them. Divide the omelette into portions and sprinkle with grated cheese.

budgetbytes.com

With this amount of ingredients you will get six office lunches. Store them in the freezer, and when necessary, take a container with you, heat them in the microwave and enjoy excellent country-style potatoes.

Pasta casserole with minced meat

Short pasta in the form of corrugated tubes with diagonally cut edges is called penne. You can use them and ground beef to make a delicious casserole, which will help out if you don't have time for dinner. You can take it to work for lunch.

Ingredients:

1 kg minced beef;
800 g of tomatoes in their own juice;
500 g penne pasta;
400 g marinara sauce;
400 g ricotta;
400 g mozzarella;
1 large onion;
1 egg;
3 cloves of garlic;
2 tablespoons olive oil;
2 teaspoons of Italian herb mixture;
½ teaspoon coarsely ground red pepper (flakes);
salt and black pepper to taste.

Preparation

Peel and finely chop the onion and garlic. Fry them in olive oil. Then add ground beef to them. Fry it, stirring constantly, until excess moisture evaporates. When the minced meat is browned, pour the tomatoes in their own juice and marinara sauce into the pan (if you don’t have it on hand, you can use any other tomato sauce). Add spices: Italian mixture, red and black pepper, salt. Simmer for half an hour. After 30 minutes, transfer a third of the sauce from the pan to a separate bowl. Cool.

Also, in a separate bowl, combine the ricotta, grated mozzarella (save some cheese for sprinkling) and eggs. Season with salt, pepper, and whisk until smooth.

Boil the pasta. Rinse them under cold running water. Mix with minced meat and cheese. Place everything in a glass container. Pour in the remaining tomato-meat sauce and sprinkle with grated cheese.

Thrivinghomeblog.com

You must use a glass container so that when you take the casserole out of the freezer, you can immediately put it in the oven. Bake at a temperature of 190 ºС. Moreover, if you put the casserole in the oven straight from the freezer, the cooking time will be 2–2.5 hours. Therefore, it is better to first defrost the dish in the microwave or naturally, on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator.

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Taquitos with chicken and cheese

Taquitos are a Mexican dish consisting of stuffed corn tortillas. This recipe is a salvation for those times when everyone is hungry, but there is no time to cook and nothing to cook with. In just 15 minutes you will have dinner on your table no worse than a restaurant one.

Ingredients:

15 corn tortillas;
500 g chicken breast;
250 g cream cheese;
170 g salsa verde sauce;
4 tablespoons chopped cilantro;
2 tablespoons lime juice;
1 teaspoon onion powder;
¼ teaspoon garlic powder;
1 ½ teaspoons chili powder;
¾ teaspoon cumin;
vegetable oil for frying and greasing.

Preparation

Cut the chicken breast into strips and fry in vegetable oil until golden brown. Mix cream cheese with cilantro, lime juice and spices (cumin, onion, garlic powder and chili powder). Since the dish is Mexican, Pepper Jack cheese goes well with taquitos. It has a creamy taste with slightly tart notes. But you can use other semi-soft varieties.

You can make your own tortillas or buy them ready-made. In the latter case, first microwave the tortillas for 1-2 minutes so that they are soft and do not break when folded.

Place chicken and cheese mixture on tortillas. Add some salsa verde. Read about how to prepare it at home here. Roll the tortillas into a log.

Preheat the oven to 220 ºС. Cover a baking sheet with foil and spray with vegetable oil. Place the rolls on it so that the edges are down and they do not touch each other. Bake for 15–20 minutes.

Happymoneysaver.com

Once the taquitos are baked and cool, place them in a zip-lock freezer bag and place them in the freezer. In a situation where “everyone is hungry, but there is no time to cook and nothing to cook with,” place the rolls again on a baking sheet, lightly sprinkle with vegetable oil and reheat in the oven for 10–15 minutes.

Homemade chicken nuggets

Nuggets are usually associated with fast food, but they can be the basis for a second one for lunch or dinner. When you don't have time to fry the cutlets, remove them from the freezer and reheat the nuggets. As a side dish, you can boil pasta or make mashed potatoes.

Ingredients:

1 ½ kg chicken fillet;
200 g flour;
200 g corn flakes;
5 eggs;
1 tablespoon paprika.

Preparation

Rinse the meat, dry it and cut it into small pieces about 3–5 cm long. Grind the corn flakes in a blender. Mix flour and paprika in a separate bowl. Also whisk the eggs separately.

Dip each piece of chicken first in flour, then in eggs and finally in cereal. Do this carefully if you want the nuggets to have a real crunch. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the breaded chicken pieces on it. Bake the nuggets in the oven at 180 ºC for 15–20 minutes.

Once the nuggets have cooled, place them in a sealed plastic bag and place it in the freezer. It is useful to label frozen food packages. Indicate the name of the dish and the date of preparation.

Delicious meatballs

Meatballs are an Italian dish made from minced meat balls. They are similar to meatballs and meatballs, but neither. Meatballs are usually stewed, meatballs are boiled in broth, and meatballs are baked in the oven (Italian version) or deep-fried (American version). Meatballs are a great solution for those who don’t have the time or desire to stand at the stove. It's tasty and satisfying. Meatballs can be eaten as a separate dish or served with a side dish.

Ingredients:

1 kg minced beef;
200 g breadcrumbs;
200 g ricotta;
2 eggs;
5 tablespoons of olive oil;
parsley, salt, pepper and other spices to taste.

Preparation

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Ricotta can be replaced with thick sour cream, but it is better to use minced beef: pork is too fatty for this dish.

Form the resulting minced meat into balls about 5 cm in diameter. Place them in a container, wrap it in foil and freeze. Meatballs should be baked at 180 ºС for 20–30 minutes.

Stew with chicken and vegetables - preparation for a slow cooker

A multicooker greatly simplifies life: put in some food, press a button and go about your business. And if, in addition, you freeze the preparation, where all the ingredients have already been washed and chopped, then the time savings becomes even more noticeable.

Ingredients:

1 kg chicken fillet;
2 bell peppers;
1 onion;
2 cloves of garlic;
1 tablespoon honey;
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar;
1 tablespoon chili powder;
2 teaspoons cumin;
1 teaspoon paprika.

Preparation

Wash the chicken and cut into strips. Also wash the pepper, remove seeds and chop. Peel and chop the onion and garlic.

Take a ziplock bag and add all the ingredients, including honey and apple cider vinegar. Release as much air as possible from the bag. Freeze. When needed, defrost the bag, pour its contents into the slow cooker and simmer the stew for 3-6 hours. You can do all the manipulations in the morning so that in the evening, when you come home from work, you can enjoy a delicious dinner.

Homemade pizza in a hurry

Guests are on the doorstep, and there’s a ball rolling in the refrigerator? For such a case, it’s a good idea to have a pizza preparation. Remove the foil and cling film, and after 15 minutes a delicious treat is on your table. Pizza dough, of course, can be bought at the store. But homemade tastes better.

Ingredients

200 ml hot water;
2–3 cups flour;
2 tablespoons olive oil;
1 tablespoon honey;
1 ½ teaspoons dry yeast;
½ teaspoon salt;
1 teaspoon each of a mixture of Italian herbs and garlic powder (optional).