Defrosting raw meat

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JudyN
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Defrosting raw meat

Post by JudyN »

I've recently changed my raw food supplier. The previous supplier does excellent quality food but works out around twice the price of this one, and doesn't have much variety (& never has the minces I really want when I need to order them). The new supplier delivers chicken carcasses in a frozen 15kg block, which is 60+ carcasses. But I need to bag them up individually, or in pairs, before storing them so I can get out individual portions as I need them, and that means I have to defrost and then refreeze (normally a bad idea for human food but in itself not a problem for dogs).

The last order arrived in the middle of the day and wasn't sufficiently defrosted for me to separate the carcasses till the next morning, and even then they still needed prising apart. But the ones at the edges had thawed before the rest, and it seems the ones in contact with the floor thawed early too, as when I finally lifted up the plastic-lined cardboard box they were in there was a big pool of blood that had leaked out onto the garage floor!

Now, when I defrost these carcasses, I'm not sure they smell that fresh. Not so awful that I know they're off, just enough that I might think twice about eating them myself. Jasper has been fine on them, though. So I need to decide whether this should put me off this supplier - and if defrosting at room temperature overnight is a complete no-no, can anyone suggest any other way of defrosting a 15kg solid block of carcasses?
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
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Nettle
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Re: Defrosting raw meat

Post by Nettle »

Not sure if this helps in the slightest, but we take an axe to 'em while they are frozen. It results in a rough and ready division but the dogs don't seem to mind.
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JudyN
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Re: Defrosting raw meat

Post by JudyN »

Hmm, I guess you do that outside? Whenever I try the brute force approach to frozen dog food I splatter the whole garage with shards of raw meat, which isn't so pleasant once it's thawed out. Particularly if it's tripe.

If this gave OH an excuse to buy an axe (he's better than me when it comes to brute force), and Jasper was given tidying up duties, it could make the two of them very happy :lol:
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
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Nettle
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Re: Defrosting raw meat

Post by Nettle »

Oh yes - outside :lol: and on a wooden block.

The shards are tiny and lots of birds wait impatiently for us to go so that they can clean up. I daresay the invertebrates clean up too. The most difficult aspect is keeping the (live) chickens from 'helping'.

But sounds as if Jas and OH would make an excellent team.
A dog is never bad or naughty - it is simply being a dog

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Sanna
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Re: Defrosting raw meat

Post by Sanna »

What about one of those electric meat saw things.. :?:
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