Tuesday, March 2, 2010

How to Properly Store Leftover Hamburger Meat

Last week, I created a delicious, creamy and inventive hamburger using blue cheese dressing, bacon crumbles and onion soup mix. This recipe has been a hit amongst my readers. But I forgot to mention how to properly store the uncooked meat.

As I was molding the ingredients into another with my bare hands, really getting into the meat, I realized that I have all of this meat for only three people. So I was faced with the challenge of how to properly store the meat. My boyfriend, being so kind as to clean the work area and stow away the meat, stored it incorrectly. He gathered all of the leftover meat and catapulted (OK, he isn't as clumsy as to "catapult" anything, but I decided to use the word for dramatic effect) it into a plastic bag. Yikes! I quickly tore it out of the freezer and changed direction.

In order to prevent freezer burn, the following steps should be followed:

1. Form meat in hands to create a hamburger shape
2. Place between two halves of a Ziploc bag (separate Ziploc bag with scissors to create two plastic sheets)
3. Press down slightly to flatten burger meat
4. Wrap extra plastic from halved bag around the meat
5. Place burger in Ziploc bag
6. Remove air by squeezing bag, making sure not to interrupt meat
7. Slide zipper to seal
8. Store in freezer
9. Repeat as necessary

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