# Best way to defrost and re freeze 10lbs of hanger steak at home



## Cashn (Sep 24, 2015)

I bought 10lbs of bison hanger steak online, and it came in one big block. This is just for me at home so obviously a frozen 10lb block isn't the most manageable to get 1-4 servings from when I want. My current plan is to thaw it in the fridge, portion into 1 or 2lb packs, seal it with the vacmaster, put it into ice bath to get it cold as possible and back into the freezer. Anyone have a better way to go about this?


----------



## Zwiefel (Sep 24, 2015)

I use my sansaire for speed thawing of things...just set the target temp to below room temp so the heating element isn't activated, and use the largest bath you can manage. very safe, very fast.


----------



## schanop (Sep 24, 2015)

Sansaire is a good idea. Now that I have a combi steam oven installed, one operating mode is thawing. The oven uses steam at low temperature to work its magic.


----------



## Cashn (Sep 24, 2015)

My main concern was just trying to save the integrity of the meat going from frozen to thawed and back to frozen. Thought someone might have some kind of trick. Probably just worrying about it too much. I'll probably be using the cold water bath to thaw it and save some time. Will def be using that method in the future as well, thank you.


----------



## pleue (Sep 24, 2015)

Set your sousvide controller if you have one at 39. Thaws quickly and safely.


----------



## chefcomesback (Sep 24, 2015)

I dont recommend any meats being thawed out and refrozen . Cut it from frozen stage with a serrated knife what you need and defrost that


----------



## Zwiefel (Sep 24, 2015)

schanop said:


> Sansaire is a good idea. Now that I have a combi steam oven installed, one operating mode is thawing. The oven uses steam at low temperature to work its magic.



How can steam be less than 212F?


----------



## schanop (Sep 25, 2015)

Zwiefel said:


> How can steam be less than 212F?



It is steam being injected into oven cavity and being controlled such that the average oven cavity temperature is still below boiling point.


----------



## Zwiefel (Sep 25, 2015)

schanop said:


> It is steam being injected into oven cavity and being controlled such that the average oven cavity temperature is still below boiling point.



I guess you could achieve an arbitrary temperature that way....but the lower the set temp, the lower the amount of water vapor in the cavity...seem like at some point it would be nearly equivalent to just thawing in room temperature air on a humid day....?


----------



## Adrian (Sep 25, 2015)

Take the frozen block to your friendly local butcher who has a band saw for carcass prep. They use these for everything (e.g. mine halved a bunch of pigs trotters for me today). They will saw you whatever blocks you want. Not a great idea to thaw and re-freeze.


----------



## ThEoRy (Sep 25, 2015)

Don't fully thaw it all. Only partially thaw it enough to pull apart sections that you can portion out and put back in the freezer what you don't need. Then the packages will be ready to fully thaw whenever needed. Easier said than done I suppose though.


----------



## Zwiefel (Sep 25, 2015)

Adrian said:


> Take the frozen block to your friendly local butcher who has a band saw for carcass prep. They use these for everything (e.g. mine halved a bunch of pigs trotters for me today). They will saw you whatever blocks you want. Not a great idea to thaw and re-freeze.



There's a clever idea.


----------



## schanop (Sep 25, 2015)

Zwiefel said:


> I guess you could achieve an arbitrary temperature that way....but the lower the set temp, the lower the amount of water vapor in the cavity...seem like at some point it would be nearly equivalent to just thawing in room temperature air on a humid day....?



You are right. Basically these steam combi oven when operated at a much lower temp than boiling point below 60*c for example, temperature control is not as good as at higher temperature. But being in the oven, there is a fan running and it is recommended to put meat on a middle rack with drip tray at the bottom rack. That way, fan help circulating warm moist air and drip tray catch excess liquid being meat juice or defrosted ice flakes. Because it is there for use, it is a convenience set up to defrost meat if you have combi oven or steam oven installed.


----------



## Zwiefel (Sep 26, 2015)

schanop said:


> You are right. Basically these steam combi oven when operated at a much lower temp than boiling point below 60*c for example, temperature control is not as good as at higher temperature. But being in the oven, there is a fan running and it is recommended to put meat on a middle rack with drip tray at the bottom rack. That way, fan help circulating warm moist air and drip tray catch excess liquid being meat juice or defrosted ice flakes. Because it is there for use, it is a convenience set up to defrost meat if you have combi oven or steam oven installed.



Cool. Was just trying to figure out if I misunderstood something.


----------

