Thawing vacuum pack meat

[Cooter]

Howdy, just saw in one of the major outdoor mag publications that you should poke holes in vacuum packaged meat before you thaw it or you will lose all the moisture. Didn't make much sense to me but anyone hear of this?

[DEADhead]

no I just defrost selaed packages under cold running water.

[Tom Linderholm]

Cooter, thats a new one to me. I work with some frozen cryovacked meats.

Manufacturer specs say to run under cool water or allow to thaw in the cooler prior to service.

My question on that would be this, if its moist when it goes in, then sealed, froze, and thawed. Where would the moisture go?

[Ebiz]

Never heard of this before but it got me thinking. Could it be a pressure thing? Obviously the water/juices in the meat expand when intially frozen. When the meat thaws the water/juices will contract to their original volume. Because the package is completely sealed would the thawing create a vacuum that would draw more juice out of the meat?

Either way I've always just thrown them in a sinkful of cold water and never noticed a problem.

[BigWadeS]

I saw that same article....let them thaw in cold water or in the frig for a couple days, poking holes in them will drain out the juices and you will have dry meat....use to have a cook in the restaurant I ran think that was a short cut....terrible...

[matthothand]

I have tried the hole punching method on some pheasant, lake trout, and venison lately and for me it's worked a lot better than the beast that some of you seem to make it out to be. I just pull the package out of the freezer, put it on a plate, poke holes in the top, toss it into the fidge, and it's perfectly thawed in a day (depending on the size of package). It works great for me. Moisture is maintained by allowing pressure to equalize and the meat seems to thaw more evenly than without holes.