For example, did you know that meat from a grocery store can be frozen and thawed up to seven times? Or, did you know hamburger meat is specifically sprayed with food coloring to keep it looking red and fresh? In reality, any meat which is left open to air will look brown. This is totally and completely natural.
When purchasing any kind of beef from a grocery store, consumers often go in blind and unaware of clever marketing tactics employed to keep the truth about their meat products from you.
This blog post will focus on the Designer Beef difference, and how you as our valued customer can keep it as fresh as possible before serving on the dinner table.
Enjoy preservative-free meat!
We at Designer Beef don’t put any additives into the meat. It is, without a doubt, 100% pure, American-raised beef. Common practices found in large corporations which specialize in the mass-production of meat will use preservatives, which will allow the meat to sit out for long periods of time without even appearing to turn rotten.
However, beef from our farm is so fresh that it can stay thawed in the fridge for up to two weeks. Here’s how we do it.
To start, we first vacuum seal our dry-aged meat with 4-5ml sealed bags. This kind of packaging is expensive, and due to the fresh, additive-free quality of the meat, the beef can actually last for 1½ years without freezer burn. (Please note that different freezers are set at different temperatures. This is an average estimate of time.)
What you can expect to see afterwards
Small air pockets may be visible in the packaged meat. You might also see brown or red tinting. This is from the freezing of the meat. As beef cools, the color changes with the temperature. This is NOT freezer burn! The beef will return to its regular color after thawing.
Freezing your own meat
We’re also here to help you learn how to freeze and store your own beef! It’s incredibly easy to avoid freezer burn, so making the choice to buy meat in bulk is easy.
Like us here at Designer Beef, you’re going to need a high industrial grade vacuum sealer. This will put the meat you’re storing under pressure by sucking out all of its moisture. The bags you’ll be storing the meat in will need to be high ML bags which reduce the amount of moisture-loss as much as possible.
We at Designer Beef have both, because dry-aged beef contains much less moisture than regular meat. Please be careful, though. This type of meat cooks at a ⅓ faster rate than normal meat.
To give you the best quality of beef, we’ve invested in the highest-rated vacuum sealer in the industry, as well as the highest quality of bags to ensure your product is protected.
You really can’t get better attention to quality out there. We care about your experience as consumers, and because we want you to get the most out of the beef you purchase.
Thawing
One thing to note is, due to our high-quality vacuum sealer, the meat you purchase from Designer Beef will taste amazing because it will have retained all of its moisture! This is the goal for all of our meat products.
With that said, here are our thawing recommendations:
For best results:
- After taking the meat out, place it in your fridge for 3-4 days prior to cooking so it can thoroughly thaw. Since freezers operate at below 0 degrees, the meat can slowly thaw in a fridge, where the degrees usually oscillate between 34-37 degrees.
An alternative method:
- Put the meat on a countertop after removing it from the freezer. Flip over periodically 4-6 hours before placing in the fridge, where it will finish thawing out.
Our “quick and dirty” method:
- Take the frozen meat from the freezer. Place the meat in a bowl of cold water and keep it mostly submerged. Do NOT use warm or hot water. This will increase the bacteria count in the meat. Wait until it’s thawed.
Extra cooking tip
Anytime before you cook the meat, bring it to room temperature so that it cooks evenly. This will properly distribute the heat throughout the beef.
Additionally, if you season the meat, salt it for more than one hour before you cook it. Or, salt the meat less than five minutes before grilling. If you go without doing this, the salt will suck the moisture out of the meat, and won’t allow it to re-absorb. Then, you’ll end up with a dry steak or burger!
These are just a few of the suggestions we have when buying fresh, high-quality meat from Designer Beef. Our beef is pure, and ideal for your dinner table, guaranteed!
