Best Ways to Thaw Ground Beef

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Ground beefiness is a versatile ingredient that you can use to make burgers, taco meat, spaghetti sauce, and so much more. If you have beef in your fridge and you're not certain if it's still expert to utilize, y'all can check in a few easy ways to meet if it'southward spoiled. Just think never to eat meat that'southward gone bad!

Signs That Basis Beefiness is Bad

1. 1

   Check to see if it has turned a dull brown or grey. ^[1] Fresh beef will be bright red in color, only it may have a few brown spots in the middle since ground beef is taken from unlike parts of the cow. Your ground beef will turn more than grey the longer you lot proceed it. If all of your beef is grey rather than ruby-red or brownish, it's all-time to throw information technology away.^[2]

   • Prepackaged ground beef develops a brownish color on the inside because oxygen is not able to attain the center.^[3]

2. 2

   Smell the beef to encounter if yous notice a sour smell. ^[4] Fresh beefiness will accept a slight smell, but beef starting to go bad will smell rotten or sour. The odor is produced from gases fabricated past some of the bacteria on your beef. If there is a strong smell, avoid eating it.^[5]

   • Many bacteria that cause food-borne illnesses like salmonella cannot be smelled and can exist found on fresh beef. Always cook the beefiness thoroughly to impale bacteria. If you don't feel comfortable eating the beef, throw it away.

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3. 3

   Touch the meat to see if it feels slimy. Squeeze the meat in your fingers to experience its consistency. Fresh meat should break apart in your hands easily and separate into chunks. If the meat is sticky or has a slimy texture, it has well-nigh likely gone bad.^[half-dozen]

   • Ever wash your easily earlier and after y'all handle raw beef so you don't spread bacteria or contaminate surfaces.

4. 4

   Check the sell-past date on the packaging. Raw basis beef is condom to use only 1 or ii days after the recommended sell-past engagement. Check the calendar to make up one's mind how many days have passed since you lot bought it and throw it away if it'south old.^[vii]

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1. 1

   Shop uncooked footing beef in the refrigerator at or below 40 °F (4 °C). If you plan to cook the beef presently, store information technology in your refrigerator. Beef left out at room temperature will outset to harbor harmful bacteria colonies within 2 hours. Never leave meat out for longer than 2 hours at room temperature, or for more than than 1 hour if it is above xc °F (32 °C).

   • If y'all don't plan to melt your beefiness right abroad, freeze information technology.

2. 2

   Cook the beef inside two days of the sell-past engagement. If the beef has been in a refrigerator the whole time, it will stay fresh and prophylactic to apply upwardly to 2 days later the date listed on the packaging. Make sure you apply the beefiness shortly afterwards yous buy it and then it doesn't go to waste.^[8]

3. 3

   Continue raw beef in the freezer for upward to 4 months. Keep the beef in freezer-safe plastic bags and label them with the sell-past date listed on the packaging. Squeeze all the air out of the pocketbook before sealing it to conserve freezer space.^[9]

   • You may start to discover white freezer spots on the beefiness subsequently a few months. These areas tin can be cutting off if there are only a few. Otherwise, throw the meat abroad.

4. four

   Thaw the beef in the fridge or in a sink filled with cold h2o. Transfer the frozen beef to the fridge i to 2 days before y'all plan to employ it so it has time to completely thaw. If you desire to thaw the meat in the sink, fill your sink with cold water and submerge the beefiness. Change the water every 30 minutes until it'due south completely thawed.^[ten]

   • Beef thawed with water needs to be cooked right abroad.
   • Never leave the meat to thaw at room temperature.
   • Beef can be thawed in the microwave only it needs to be cooked right afterwards it's finished thawing to avoid any contamination.

5. 5

   Melt ground beef to 160 °F (71 °C) before storing or eating it. The only manner to impale the natural bacteria in your beef is to cook information technology entirely. Use a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature of the meat while you lot're cooking it.^[11]

6. 6

   Shop cooked basis beef in the fridge or freezer. Cooked footing beefiness can be safely stored in the fridge for 7 days before it starts to spoil. Information technology tin also be stored for up to 8 months in the freezer. Be sure to store information technology in an air-tight container!

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Add New Question

• Question

  Froze 2lbs of ground beefiness on 3rd twenty-four hour period of refrigeration. It turned dark chocolate-brown when thawed in fridge. Is it bad?

  

  This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Answer

  Check the smell and texture of your basis beef. It does change color equally it gets older, merely if it doesn't olfactory property or feel slimy, it should withal be okay.

• Question

  Can I cook ground beef that sabbatum in the fridge for an unknown corporeality of fourth dimension?

  

  This reply was written by i of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Answer

  Throw information technology away if you aren't sure when the sell-by date was. It may accept gone bad.

• Question

  Is my ground beef safe to eat the next day if I defrosted it in the package in h2o all 24-hour interval and put it in the refrigerator for overnight?

  

  This answer was written by ane of our trained team of researchers who validated information technology for accurateness and comprehensiveness.

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Reply

  Ground beef should be cooked immediately after yous thaw it in h2o. Otherwise, bacteria could form.

• Question

  I packed my hamburgers in separate freezer bags and left them on the counter for six hours in 74 caste conditions. Tin can I freeze them now?

  

  This answer was written by one of our trained squad of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Answer

  You lot shouldn't refreeze them since they probably developed leaner while they were thawing at room temperature. Always thaw your beef in the fridge or in a sink with cold water.

• Question

  What would crusade meat to sense of taste sour subsequently information technology has been frozen?

  

  This answer was written by i of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Answer

  The longer y'all proceed food in the freezer, the more than likely it is to develop freezer spots that could aspect to the flavor.

• Question

  Is information technology prophylactic to cook and eat beef that has turned brown? Information technology has been frozen and thawed.

  

  This reply was written past one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Answer

  Meat will turn brownish over time. Cheque to see if information technology smells or has a slimy texture.

• Question

  Can I boil my ground beef if I am not sure it is bad?

  

  This respond was written by ane of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accurateness and comprehensiveness.

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Answer

  When in doubt, throw the beef away. It is just adept to use up to ii days later on the sell-past date if it's been in your refrigerator.

• Question

  I bought v lbs. of hamburger at Grocery Outlet and froze it immediately. Sour tasting, strange clear colored juice came out when frying. What happened?

  

  DividedGuitarist

  Community Respond

  Your beef may have been freezer burned or information technology was expired when you bought it and you had never noticed it. The articulate colored juice may have been a watery mixture that leached out while cooking.

• Question

  If beef smells slightly off, will cooking information technology thoroughly save it?

  

  No, it will not. The issue with food poisoning is that whatever baddies are in the meat accept left backside toxins - that'south one reason it'southward called food poisoning and not food. If the beefiness has gone off, then yous can't cook it to save it, it must exist tending of.

• Question

  If I feed my domestic dog basis beefiness that was left out ii days, will information technology hurt him?

  

  Aye, it is likely to injure him, just as it would a human.

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• Keep common cold foods below forty °F (4 °C) and hot foods above 140 °F (lx °C). Anything in betwixt these ii ranges is in the "Danger Zone" and will commencement to develop bacteria.

• Launder your easily after handling raw beef so you don't contaminate other surfaces.

• Always cook beef to an internal temperature of 160 °F (71 °C).

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Article Summary X

If you're not sure whether your footing beef is still good, lean close and scent information technology. If the meat smells sour or unpleasant, it'due south probably bad and you should discard information technology. If it seems okay, use your fingers to test the texture. Meat that has turned bad will experience sticky, tacky, or slimy and should be thrown out. You can as well use the color of the meat as a guideline. Ground beefiness that is dark-brown or gray is still prophylactic to eat, but if it is turning green, you should throw it away. Read on for tips on storing ground beef to proceed it from spoiling!

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