Make Meal Prep Mess-Free By Defrosting Your Meat In A Casserole Dish
One of the most underappreciated appliances is the freezer, especially when it comes to meal prep. If you use it properly it's like setting the pause button on food before it goes bad. You can make recipes like casseroles ahead of time and freeze them for later, either as one large meal or in portions. You can also buy large, family-size packages of meat and save some money on the bulk price. Once you're ready to thaw some of that meat, all you have to do is take it out of the freezer and pop it in the fridge overnight. But don't just put the frozen meat on the shelf, instead put the package in a casserole dish so that it doesn't leak and make a mess of your refrigerator.
A casserole dish might sound strangely specific, but there's a method to the madness. When meat is thawed after being frozen, it will lose a significant amount of moisture, which will collect wherever you happen to place the package. If you use a casserole dish, which has a wide shape so that there's plenty of airflow but also has high sides to prevent spillage, you'll never have to worry about getting meat juice all over the refrigerator shelf.
Proper thawing
If you're using the freezer to save some money on bulk meat, it's important to always thaw your protein properly. You may have been told somewhere along the line that it's ok to simply leave frozen meat out on the counter to thaw, but the USDA says food should never be left to thaw on the counter. When meat thaws, it doesn't thaw all at once. The outside of the meat thaws first, because that's where the warm air touches first, while the inside of the meat thaws last. If you leave meat out on the counter, the outside of your chicken, pork, or other protein will thaw and then increase in temperature, which can encourage the growth of harmful, foodborne bacteria that will make you sick. If you thaw your turkey or tri tip out in the fridge, however, you'll always keep the meat below 40 degrees Fahrenheit until it's ready to cook, which keeps it out of the dreaded temperature danger zone.
The other thing you have to keep in mind is that frozen meat will create some liquid when it thaws, even though you didn't freeze it with any extra water or broth. This is because, according to the USDA, when the water that's naturally present in the meat freezes, the ice crystals pierce the cell walls in the meat. As the meat thaws, that liquid is slowly released.
A casserole dish is the perfect shape
Since you now know that your frozen meat is going to create some liquid as it thaws, you're going to need some sort of container to keep that meaty juice from contaminating your entire refrigerator. When your meat is in the refrigerator slowly thawing, it needs space around the package so that it can thaw faster. You also need something with edges or sides that can contain any wayward meat juice. Enter the casserole dish.
Casserole dishes are wide and flat so you can use them for thawing a variety of different-sized packages of meat and they'll have plenty of air space in the fridge for thawing, plus they've got the edges you need for keeping liquids in one place. You don't need to use a large, meal-sized casserole dish if you're short on space in the fridge, either. A small, 8x8-inch dish is perfect for thawing a few packs of ground beef for taco night, for example. Simply make a space for the dish in the fridge, pop your meat inside, and let everything come up to temperature overnight. Then, when you're ready to cook, take the meat out and dump any juice out in the trash or the sink and put the casserole dish right in the dishwasher. Your fridge will stay clean, nobody will get sick, and your meal prep is that much easier.