Is it possible to freeze fried minced meat patties?

It is possible, but not practical, to freeze ready-made cutlets in the freezer. And at once for several reasons:

• Firstly, during storage they will significantly lose taste, and in order to get pleasure from food, and not just fill your stomach, you will have to experiment with sauces.
• Secondly, it takes the same time to fry raw, albeit frozen, cutlets as it does to heat it ready to eat, but it has been lying for a week or two at minus temperature.

That is, it makes sense to freeze only excess that the family cannot eat for any reason immediately after cooking or within 24 hours allocated for storage in the main chamber of the refrigerator. And in the long term, it is better to procure products from raw minced meat.

How to freeze cutlets at home?

The freezing process consists of three successive stages:

• Cooling down - cutlets are transferred from the pan to a plate or baking sheet and left on the table. They should be there until they are slightly warm when touched.
• Cooling - the container with cutlets is covered with cling film and put in the refrigerator for several hours. During this time, their temperature should approach 0 (from + 6 ° C to + 2 ° C).
• Freezing - cutlets are laid out in one layer at a small distance from each other and left in the freezer. The freezing process at a temperature of -25 ° C will take from 2.5 to 3 hours. If there is a thermometer with a probe among the kitchen utensils, you can use it - as soon as the appliance begins to show that the temperature in the thickness of the meat product has dropped to -8 ° C, the freezing process can be considered completed.

You need to put cutlets in the freezer in specially designed packages for this with a zip lock fastener. They almost do not miss third-party odors and preserve the taste of food as much as possible. Cling film and disposable cellophane bags from the supermarket are not suitable for this purpose.

Storage time

The maximum shelf life of fried cutlets at a temperature of -18 ° C to -25 ° C is 1 month. Then the oxidation of fats and other structural changes that significantly affect the quality of the product will begin.

It is advisable to eat such meatballs during the first week after being placed in the freezer.

What cutlets should not be frozen?

The first thing you should pay attention to stuffing. If before turning into cutlets, it was frozen or prepared from frozen meat, then products from it should not be stored in the freezer, even after complete frying. This is associated with the risk of bacterial infections (as you know, when thawing protein products, microbes are activated and begin to multiply rapidly). The temperature inside the patty fried in a pan reaches + 80 ° C, but this is not enough to destroy the whole pathogenic microflora.

In addition, the structure of the meat from the freezer changes, which affects its taste. Repeated freezing exacerbates this problem.

It is also forbidden to freeze meat products that have been stored for a long time in the open air or in the main chamber of the refrigerator. Putrid processes in them have already begun, despite the fact that taste and smell are not yet suspect. Having placed such food in the freezer, it will not work to make it fresh, but you can poison it without much effort.

Tips

To make the cutlets really tasty and make you want to eat them yourself, rather than treat homeless cats, you should follow the advice of experienced chefs:

• If the meat products frozen raw, breading helps to maintain shape and not stick together during storage, then in the case of ready-made everything is the other way around - the presence of breadcrumbs spoils both the taste and appearance of the food that was in the freezer.
• You need to cook cutlets from minced meat, onions and spices, then after heating they will retain splendor and softness. The presence of bread in the recipe will make them slightly "rubber", and frozen garlic starts to smell bad.
• Frying is not in vegetable oil, but in fat. The fact is that it rancid more slowly, respectively, with prolonged storage, the taste will be more pleasant.
• Do not finish the heat treatment. In the process of warming up the cutlets will still reach readiness, however, thanks to this trick, their taste will be as close as possible to the taste of the product "in the heat of the heat."

Preparation for use

• Before serving the cutlets on the table, it is recommended to boil them for 5–10 minutes in tomato sauce or meat broth under a closed lid. This method is not suitable for breaded products, as it will peel off.
• You can also fry cutlets on a low fire. If you cover the pan, they will preserve the juiciness and aroma. Warm-up time is at least 10 minutes. For cutlets brought to a half-preparedness, it increases to 20 minutes.
• Another way to heat frozen patties is to put them in the microwave. Depending on the power, the whole process will take from 3 to 5 minutes, and half an hour is allotted for eating the product. For longer storage, cutlets need to be heated by boiling or roasting.

In general, there is nothing wrong with freezing not fried, but fried meatballs. However, it should be remembered that they will not be as tasty as fresh, and save time in this way also does not work.