Freezing Meats in a Marinade

With a little planning ahead and just a bit of work, you can thaw and marinate frozen meat — at the same time.

Buying meat in large quantities and storing it in the freezer is economical, but thawing the meat and marinating it can both be time-consuming. Instead of thawing the meat, then preparing the marinade, do the majority of the work ahead. Place the meat and marinade in freezer bags, seal and mark them, then freeze. Pull the bag out the night before you plan to cook it, put it in the refrigerator to thaw, and by the time it's thawed, it's marinated, too!

All types of meat benefit from freezing in the marinade or a dry rub. Many people are concerned about over marinating when doing this. Overmarinating is not an issue as the marinating process is completely halted by the freezing process. The meat will only start to marinate again during the thawing process. Only use this technique for recipes that have you marinate the meat overnight.

One poster noticed that poultry and pork work well for marinating, then freezing. For beef, a dry rub works better. Marinades always contain an acid. If you wet marinate beef then freeze, it'll lose a lot of its red color due to the pickling nature of the acid. You don't notice that much of a color change in chicken or pork since the meat is light in color.

Another poster said some spices do not freeze well and tend to become bitter during the freezing process. It may be better to exclude these ingredients from a dry rub before coating the meat and freezing it. Examples include pepper, cloves, garlic, etc. You could add these ingredients to the dry rub after the meat has defrosted.