Few foods are as rich and mouthwatering as a good home-cooked steak. We’ve got good news: steak freezes extremely well. This is especially useful if you won’t be eating meat for a few days after purchasing it or if you stocked up during a sale. Heres a complete guide to freezing steak.
What are the Benefits of Freezing Beef Tenderloin?
The first benefit of freezing beef tenderloin is that it prevents deterioration, allowing you to keep your meat for a lot longer. The meat will be more tender when thawed, which is the second advantage of freezing beef tenderloin.
In order to avoid spoilage, freezing beef tenderloin is the most popular choice. Most meat spoils within 3-5 days of being stored in the refrigerator, making it one of the leading causes of foodborne illness worldwide. If they know they won’t be preparing the meat within the next week, many people will freeze it to avoid this.
By freezing meat, you can prevent the growth of bacteria and yeast on the food. This is what helps to prevent spoilage. The meat should ideally be sealed in an airtight freezer bag to help prevent oxygen from contacting the meat. This will also help the meat stay fresh because one of the main causes of food spoilage is oxygen.
Another benefit to freezing beef tenderloin that not a lot of people know about is that freezing beef tenderloin makes the meat more tender. Kansas State University conducted a study where they discovered that freezing meat increased the meat’s tenderness by an average of 10%.
Although there was a small amount of moisture loss, the meat’s tenderness when it was taken out of the freezer more than made up for it. Meats should be packaged properly before freezing to minimize moisture loss.
Overall, freezing your beef tenderloin has several benefits. It enables you to preserve a succulent piece of meat without it going bad for up to a year. When the meat is finally removed from the freezer, it is more juicy due to its assistance in tenderizing the meat.
How Long Does Beef Tenderloin Last In Freezer?
A beef tenderloin can typically be kept in the freezer for up to 12 months before being discarded. The meat should stay completely frozen during this time to prevent the growth of bacteria or yeast.
Although beef tenderloin can be stored in the freezer for up to a year without going bad, there are a few signs you should watch out for.
The first indication to watch for is alterations in the meat’s color. The meat has likely been freezer burned if it has any grayish spots. This does not technically make the food unsafe. You probably shouldn’t eat it because the texture and flavor will change to such an extent.
A change in the smell of your meat after it has been thawed is another indication that it has gone bad. You should discard any meat that simply doesn’t smell right to avoid contracting food poisoning.
The last sign that your meat has gone bad in the freezer is if it’s sitting in a puddle of ice. This is a sign that at some point the meat thawed and was refrozen. This also applies if there are any chunks of ice frozen to the meat.
Click here to find out more about how long meat lasts in the freezer.
How Do You Freeze Raw Beef Tenderloin?
There are several different methods for freezing raw beef tenderloin. Vacuum sealing, plastic wrap, and flash freezing are some of the most well-liked techniques for freezing meat.
To get the best results with your beef tenderloin, it’s crucial to follow each of these instructions precisely.
Vacuum sealing raw meats is one of the most widely used techniques for freezing them. With this technique, all the extra air is removed from the freezer-safe bags using a vacuum. By doing this, less oxygen comes into contact with the meats. As a result, bacterial growth is inhibited, the meat doesn’t lose moisture, and freezer burn is avoided.
You will need to take the following actions to vacuum seal your meat:
- Remove meat from the original packaging
- Transfer meat to the cutting board
- Season meat or leave meat plain, personal preference
- Place the meat in vacuum-sealed bags and make sure it is flat inside. Choose a bag that is just a little bit bigger than the meat.
- Purge the bag of air using the vacuum sealer.
- Seal bag
- Place in freezer
Meat that is vacuum sealed and frozen will remain fresh for at least a year. It won’t experience the same problems with freezer burn that other techniques frequently do.
To package your meats without spending money on a vacuum sealer, use plastic wrap. If you want to package your meat with items you already have lying around your house, plastic wrap is a great choice. It has many of the same benefits as vacuum sealing. It shields your meat from freezer burn and keeps it moist while it’s frozen.
Steps to using plastic wrap:
- Remove the meat from the packaging
- Pat the meat dry to remove excess liquid
- Tightly wrap the meat in plastic wrap
- Place plastic wrapped meat in a freezer bag
- Squeeze the air out of a bag and seal
- Place meat in the freezer
Squeezing out all of the air in the plastic wrap before freezing is crucial when using it to wrap your beef tenderloin steaks. By doing this, the meat is prevented from drying out or getting freezer burn. Although freezer burn is not harmful, it can harm the flavor and texture of the meat.
Your raw beef tenderloin can also be flash frozen as a final option for freezing. You will need an extremely cold freezer to flash freeze meat. Meat is flash frozen in the hopes that the quick freezing will seal in the moisture and flavor, eliminating the need for additional packaging. This technique is used to eradicate parasites in sushi fish.
Steps to flash freezing:
- Have freezer at 0 degrees Fahrenheit
- Place raw beef tenderloin directly on an empty freezer shelf
- Leave meat until it is frozen solid
- Move meat to a freezer with other flash frozen meat
Once the meat has been frozen, it will stay solidly frozen until you are ready to prepare it at which point it should be thawed normally. One rule with flash freezing is that you should make sure to store it in a freezer that is no more than 85% full. This helps to keep the air circulating between the meat and keep everything frozen. The temperature should also be kept at no more than 0 degrees Fahrenheit.
The most frequently asked questions about freezing beef tenderloin are addressed in this section.
Does beef tenderloin spoil in the freezer?
Beef tenderloin won’t go bad in the freezer as long as it’s kept frozen solid. When meat is frozen, bacteria and yeast can start to grow, spoiling the meat if it thaws at any point.
When storing beef tenderloin in the freezer, the main problem is that it will get freezer burned. When the meat’s surface is exposed to extremely chilly, dry air, freezer burn occurs. When the meat is thawed, the dehydrated outer layers become tough and flavorless.
You will notice grayish patches along the meat’s edges if the meat becomes freezer burned. You should be able to cut off the affected areas and cook the meat normally if the discoloration is minimal. You should throw the meat away if the majority of it has freezer burn because the flavor will be compromised.
What are the disadvantages of freezing meat?
The main drawbacks of freezing meat are that it can freezer burn and dry out the meat. When meat becomes freezer burned it loses flavor and texture.
Freezer burn causes the meat to lose moisture and damages the meat’s outer layers. As a result, the meat has no flavor and has a tougher texture than usual.
Due to the air’s lower moisture content than the meat, frozen meat can also become very dry.
How do you defrost beef tenderloin?
The best way to defrost beef tenderloin is to put it in the fridge and let it thaw out gradually over the following one to two days. By doing this, you can stop bacteria from growing when thawing meat at room temperature.
Put the meat flat on a shelf in its original packaging in the refrigerator to thaw it out. Over the next 1-2 days the meat will thaw. Once it has fully defrosted, you can cook the meat as usual.
The meat can be kept fresh for a long time without losing flavor or moisture by freezing beef tenderloin. It makes it possible to store the meat safely for up to a year.
Place the beef tenderloin in a plastic freezer bag and squish out as much air as you can before freezing it. After that, you’ll put the meat in the freezer and keep it there until you’re ready to cook it.
As an alternative, you can flash freeze the meat to freeze it without using additional packaging.
Prepping whole beef tenderloin for the freezer
FAQ
Can I freeze an uncooked beef tenderloin?
Information. Frozen beef will be safe indefinitely. Use raw steaks, roasts, or chops within four to twelve months, raw ground beef within four months, and cooked beef within two to three months for best quality.
How do you freeze tenderloins?
Before freezing, make sure to thoroughly wrap steak (and all other meats). Wrap in a freezer bag with at least two layers, such as plastic wrap and then aluminum foil or parchment paper. Since air exposure can result in freezer burn, tightly wrap the meat and squeeze as much air out of the packaging as you can.
How do you store raw beef tenderloin?
In the bottom of the fridge, raw beef ought to be kept in a bowl or on a platter. Your refrigerator temperature should be at 40 °F or less. Whole-muscle fresh beef cuts can be kept in the fridge for three to five days.
How long to freeze beef tenderloin?
Steaks, lamb, and beef roasts should be kept for six months for maximum flavor, though they can be kept for up to a year. 3 to 4 months for hamburger, steakburgers, and strips and tips of tenderloin.