When you have a busy schedule and limited time, a slow cooker will be your best friend to make dinner easy. All you need is a slow cooker, ingredients and enough time. Put the ingredients in the slow cooker in the morning, and you can enjoy a sumptuous dinner when you get home in the evening. Since you can set it and forget about it, why do you have to spend hours working hard next to the stove?
However, although the slow cooker can help you complete all the cooking work, it does not mean that it can help you defrost the meat; since the slow cooker will take up to four hours to slowly heat the food, it is reasonable for you to think that the slow cooker can directly cook frozen meat; although this is a reasonable expectation, it actually involves many food safety factors that need to be paid attention to.
Melissa Koch, registered dietitian "I'm all for reducing unnecessary steps in the cooking process, but using frozen meat in a slow cooker is a no-no," said Koch. Raw meat can carry a variety of pathogens, including ones that can cause foodborne illness; in the freezer, those pathogens lie dormant; but in a slow cooker, those pathogens are in what food safety experts call the "danger temperature zone."
"The danger zone is the temperature range between 40 degrees Fahrenheit and 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Bacteria will multiply rapidly if they stay in this temperature range for two hours or more," Koch explained. It takes several hours for a slow cooker to exceed the upper limit of the danger temperature zone. Therefore, if you start cooking from frozen, it will further delay the slow cooker's process of reaching the upper limit of the danger temperature zone.
"Slow cookers heating food slowly, starting with frozen meat means the internal temperature will stay in the 'danger zone' for too long," points out chef and nutritionist Sharniquia White. "This gives bacteria like Salmonella or E. coli more opportunities to multiply before the food reaches safe cooking temperatures."
How to reduce the risk?Thaw frozen meat before placing it in the slow cooker.
The safest, simplest, and most hassle-free way to defrost frozen meat is to put it in the refrigerator; the low temperature of the refrigerator allows the meat to thaw slowly without causing the food to enter the dangerous temperature range; "It takes a little more effort, but in the long run, and for your safety, it is worth it," Koch said.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t have time, you can brew it in cold water or use a microwave to defrost the meat more quickly; however, thawing it in a microwave oven is likely to affect the taste of the meat. In addition, because these methods will expose the meat to dangerous temperature ranges, it is recommended to cook it as soon as possible after freezing; “After thawing, the meat should be put directly into the slow cooker,” White explains.