Can You Put Frozen Meat On A Grill

With it being summer most of us are looking to get out into the backyard and grill. You’re probably wondering if you can grab the frozen steaks you got during the meat sale out of the freezer and just throw them on the grill without thawing.

Yes, you can cook frozen meat on your grill. But it’s not advisable. The meat is going to cook at different temperatures. Also, there’s going to be a loss of the nutrients in it. All meat should be thawed before grilling.

Barbecue and grilling are part of every western culture or American life. It is ingrained in the culture and DNA. Outdoor barbeques bring communities together. You do life over family gatherings, catching up with childhood friends and over birthday parties for your children and their friends.

With the supply of ingredients abounding in these places, it is no surprise that grilling is one of the better and more convenient options. It is easy to drive down to Target or Coles a few miles away and pick up the readily packed frozen meat alongside all your groceries and amenities for the week.

It is a normal habit especially for white-collar workers with a family to stock up all the necessities and food supply for the week during the weekend. Especially when you are planning for a gathering, you plan to keep all these ready-packed meat in the freezer and take them out and when needed days later.

To keep the meat fresh and from spoiling, most would have put it in the freezer. However, not everyone will do the necessary prep work to thaw the meat when they take it out. Some may just put it straight on the piping hot grill.

Even so with thawing, the meat may not taste as good as it should. Here are some reasons why fresh meat is better than frozen meat for grilling.

5 Reasons Why Frozen Meat Is Worse Than Fresh Meat

1. Difficult cooking process

While not thawing is not going to hurt you much in terms of food hygiene, it will definitely affect the quality, flavor and cooking process of the food.

Throwing the frozen steak on the grill definitely cooks it and kills all the bacteria. However, you can expect to get a less flavorful and blander version than your desired result.

While meat tends to require a particular internal temperature range before cooking them under the fire, you can expect your frozen meat to take longer to heat up the internal temperature.

On the external, the meat can appear to be well done with its crispy brown skin and nice roast texture.

Internally, if you slice it up, you will realize the meat is often uncooked on the inside. You will realize that having to wait for your internal meat to be cooked; the external would have been charred and burnt by then.

Not only does it look aesthetically unappealing, but the meat on the outside may also have become overcooked and taste too tough. This applies very well to beef or lamb steaks.

You do not want an overcooked steak and you could not enjoy your steak in the process. Most people prefer the medium standard of cooking. If unthawed, you can expect the meat texture to be too tough on the outside or uncooked and cold on the inside.

2. Tedious thawing process

Thawing takes time. Some may put the entire packaging in tap water and let it sit there at room temperature while some may try to microwave the entire frozen meat with the thaw settings.

Microwaves or slow cookers are highly discouraged due to the heat and low temperatures that allow for bacteria to thrive and grow. It may lead to higher risks of food poisoning.

Hence, thawing at room temperature is the best method. Thawing would have been quick for thin slices of meat products. However, if you are looking at thawing thick chunks of meat or steak, it will take a far longer time.

Thawing a roast is the longest and most challenging out of all the meat variations. Even with thawing, you cannot assure that the meat will be evenly thawed across the entire portion.

With the thawing process, you can expect an additional 30 mins to 2-3 hours more in your preparation. Generally, thawing increases your cooking time by 50%. Therefore, I strongly recommend purchasing fresh meat from the butcher in your neighborhood. A trip down to the butchery will not be as long as the thawing process. It might be faster and more efficient to prepare with fresh meat than with frozen ones.

If you’re dealing with something like frozen burger patties it might be easier to thaw them on your grill using indirect heat. This way you’re not waiting as long and the burgers are already on the grill. If you like to read more about cooking frozen burger patties on the grill you can click here. If your more of a chicken person your going to want to click here and read my article in cooking frozen chicken thighs.

3. Loss of flavor

Applicable to all fresh produce, from fruits to poultry, the freshness starts to fade right after it was harvested.

The flavor is a huge loss with frozen meat. Most frozen meats are harvested weeks in advance before having to preserve and vacuum seal these packages and freezing them. After this, these meat products are moved from the chambers and shipped onto delivery trucks to deliver to supermarkets all around.

By the time these frozen products hit the market, they may have been sitting there for a substantial period. While it is readily available, it is never going to taste as fantastic.

Recall the frozen fish fillets you purchase from the frozen good racks; you will never expect to taste the sweetness of the fish or the freshwater taste with the frozen fillets. Regardless of how excellent your culinary skills are or how well you compliment your dish with top-grade spices and herbs, the overall taste will still suffer.

The longer your meats are frozen, the saltier your meat will taste. There will always be a significant gap between fresh produce and frozen products. For optimal flavor and tasting, we strongly recommend using fresh ingredients off the market. They may be pricier, but they are worth the quality of comfort food after a good grill.

4. Poor quality of meat

There are different factors involved in grading quality steak. Apart from the natural environment, quality of the food fed and the age of the cow, you do look at the marbling, amount of fat content available, tenderness of the meat and the different body parts.

All these criteria are normally used on fresh produce and not on months old frozen meat. For most frozen meat, they lose moisture during the freezing process. This can result in really dry and tough meat after long periods of freezing.

In addition, the defrosting and refreezing process further damages the meat’s texture. From the moment you take out the frozen meat from the refrigerator of supermarkets, it starts to defrost.

During hot summers drive home or running other errands, the meat starts to defrost a little more as it absorbs the surrounding heat. You may have the intention of keeping it and not cooking it immediately. Thus, the ice crystals, previously formed during freezing, rupture the fibers of the meat when it melts.

This causes the meat to bleed. Having to refreeze the meat and thaw it repeatedly only damages the quality of the meat. If the meat isn’t sealed well upon freezing, the meat can experience freezer burn; drying out substantially in the process.

By the time, you take it out for grilling, you will realize that the meat has lost most of its good qualities. Hence, you should only buy fresh meat when needed for the day’s cooking to maximize the benefits of well-grilled meat.

5. Loss of nutrients

Meat contains invaluable nutrients that cannot be found in other natural products. Meat contains Vitamin B12 that prevents psychiatric and neurological disorders and relations to Alzheimer’s disease.

Creatine is another source that provides the energy reserve for the muscle that boosts the brain functions and physical performance. Vitamin D prevents cardiovascular diseases, depression, osteoporosis, and muscle wasting.

While Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) contains the omega 3 fats that support brain development and mental resilience. Finally, Heme iron can only be found in red meat like beef and lamb. Heme iron is more easily absorbed into our bloodstream and the best natural medicine to deal with iron deficiency in the blood.

The moment the product is shipped from the farms to the supermarket, the nutrients in the products are rapidly lost. While the meat suppliers try to flash freeze it and retain most of the nutrients and preserve the quality of the meat at its optimal level, it is inevitable that some iron and protein are lost during the process. Upon cooking, the heat from the grill itself can further break down the nutrients like the heme iron, vitamin B12, and creatine.

Frozen meats that are not thawed and thrown onto the grill can cause the meat to be undercooked and require a longer time on the grill. By the time it is fully cooked, the exterior and surrounding meat would have been overcooked; further destroying the remaining nutrients available.

In general, frozen raw meat does not carry additives unless it is marinated in sauces, particularly if they are readymade for the barbeque. Albeit the convenience you are given for the marinated meats, it does not have the best nutritional value as the fresh meats being hand marinated. A little more work contributes to your health in the long run.

Conclusion

We hope that this article gives you insights into a clear comparison between frozen meats and fresh meats. With the recent trends on a healthy lifestyle and increasing awareness in being more health-conscious, fresh meats bread from organic farms are the preferred choice.

With repercussions in health stemming from artificial additives and methods, we advocate for more consumption of fresh meats as the healthier option. Fresh meats provide better nutritional value, more authentic flavors, higher grade of fatty content and tenderness and no need for thawing,

Fresh meat can be easily prepared and cooked on the grill with lesser time spent as compared to the frozen meats. The process is much more enjoyable with less time spent sweating and cooking at the heated grills.

As always happy grilling!