Health
Freezer Rule #3
Frozen dinners are too darn small.
Most frozen entrées seem designed to feed munchkins. A meal with less than 400 calories will likely leave your belly rumbling, says Pat Vasconcells, RD, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. That's no excuse to reach for an extra-larger pack, though, lest you, too, wind up that size. Vasconcells recommends supplementing a produce-poor main dish with a cup of frozen vegetables. "You can always doctor up frozen vege-tables by sautéing them in oil with onion or garlic," she says.
Freezer Rule #4
You can eat steak forever.
You're wheeling one of those oversize shopping carts through one of those oversize stores, and you pass the meat counter. Five pounds of sirloin on discount? Toss it in the cart, but be sure to grab some plastic wrap and freezer bags before you check out.
A water molecule inside a frozen steak or any other food is like a hound dog on a hot day—it will seek the coolest place so it can decrease its energy, says Wolke. The shrink-wrap or butcher paper your steak comes in creates air pockets that allow water molecules to escape in search of the coldest place in the freezer, which is on or near the coils in the inner walls. (That's why your freezer can look like the South Pole if it lacks a defroster.) If too many water molecules manage to exit the steak, it will become dry and shriveled—the dreaded freezer burn.
Prevent this by keeping water molecules trapped in place with airtight wrapping, Wolke says. Simply remove the meat from its package and wrap it snugly in plastic wrap, then slip it in a freezer bag, squeezing out as much air as possible before zipping it shut.
In theory, properly frozen meat can last a lifetime—or longer—without spoiling. Mammoth flesh preserved in ice discovered in Siberia kept for at least 15,000 years. Burgers made from that mammoth meat wouldn't kill you, although they probably wouldn't be too tasty. Even well-wrapped frozen meat eventually develops enough tissue damage to affect flavor. Here's how long the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommends that you store different types of meat.
Frankfurters and deli slices . . . . . 1-2 months
Ground meat . . . . . 3-4 months
Pork chops . . . . . 4-6 months
Fish . . . . . 6 months
Beef, Veal, and lamb steaks . . . . . 6-12 months
Poultry . . . . . 9 months
Freezer Rule #5
Defrosting is not rocket science.
Food-safety experts say the only way to defrost food that you purchased fresh and then stored in the freezer is to transfer it straight to the refrigerator. Experts say this ensures that it will thaw but not become warm enough to allow bacteria to reproduce. We say food-safety experts probably don't get invited to many parties.
Defrosting food in the refrigerator can take a day or two. And for most of us, that's not practical. If you just got home from work and want that sirloin tonight, take a cue from late-night television. One sleepless night, Wolke saw an ad for a miraculous "defrosting tray" allegedly made of a "space-age metal." Highly skeptical, he ordered one and analyzed the material. "Just what I thought," he says. "Aluminum."
Defrost faster: Place an unwrap-ped steak, chop, or boneless chicken breast on a heavy, unheated aluminum or stainless-steel pan (don't use a nonstick pan, though, since the surface coating can block some of the heat) and set it on your kitchen counter in the open air. Metal is one of the most efficient conductors of heat, so it absorbs warmth from the room air and delivers it to the meat, which will thaw in about an hour. That's too fast for bacteria to reproduce much, says Wolke. The flatter the food, the faster the thaw, since the food has more surface contact with the pan.
Freezer Rule #6
It pays to keep a full freezer.
Not that you need a financial incentive at this point, but keeping your freezer full lowers your electric bill. Chilling air requires more energy than chilling food, and the more food in your freezer, the less air.
» Health archive
Men's Health Philippines - January 2006 Issue
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