Advice above is accurate, in my experience. After a couple days you can cut them, but it’s 3-4 days of thawing before you can reasonably expect to dry brine, etc.
This can be sped up with a cold water bath.
Always give more time than needed. Thawed meet *should* stay fresh in the fridge for a few days after thawing. So, like a thanksgiving turkey, you’ve got the better part of a week available from freezer to cook, if needed.
***this is anecdotal data; your mileage may vary***
Put them in a tub with cold water. Check them after a couple hours. When they are still really cold but not totally thawed toss them in the fridge. Should be thawed out in 24 hours.
Typically 2-3 days in the fridge will soften them up. Cold water thawing will definitely speed things up.
Thanks Jerod and friends,
I googled it. It said the cold water was the fasted but it also said it must be cooked immediately because the cold water degrades the meat. I thought that was interesting. Not really sure what it means by degrade.
The only thing I'm concerned about is that the original cryo pack is compromised. I noticed a leak when I got home. I resealed them in another HD vacuum bag. Because of this, I don't want to leave raw for longer than I have to.
I plan on chunking them, and removing the tubes and money muscle before smoking for maximum bark. I will also inject for maximum juice and flavor.
Best case - put in a deep bucket of cold water and put in the refrigerator, if yours has room. It'll guarantee to keep it below 40, but provide the heatsink capabilities of the water mass and the surface contact to promote quicker thaw. Win/win.
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I like to put cryovac meat in a garbage bag and into the bathtub w/ cold water overnight, or a cooler of cold water in the tub, to help speed the process up. But yeah that's a big hunk of frozen meat.
I know I'm late to the party, however, I read a thing (I think it was from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt) that you can speed up thawing by placing your frozen food item on an aluminum baking sheet/jelly roll pan. It does work and it saves water. Aluminum is an excellent thermal conductor and the mess is minimal. While not as fast as water it is a water saving technique and it really does accelerate thawing. I often put the aluminum tray on a small trivet/hot plate to elevate the aluminum so it has more air exposure.
Because of their size I would suggest 4-5 days and play it safe with 5 days.
Hello LA and friends,
You were certainly correct. It is two big butts cryo vacced together, double sealed in an additional HD cryo bag because the original cry pack was compromised. I moved it from my deep freeze to the bottom of my fridge on Tuesday morning. It's now Saturday morning and it is just beginning to soften up. It seems to have another couple days before it will be soft enough to trim and inject. I'm shooting for processing it on Monday and smoking on Tuesday.
A week probably would have been a better estimate. When I defrost a turkey for Thanksgiving I give it a week to be on the safe side. I am sure these meats will be fine in there fridge for a whole week after they are defrosted. The last thing we want is to have it still frozen on the day we plan to cook.
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