I'll take a couple days food out of the freezer and the stuff I need to feed in the morning I"ll let sit out in the sink overnite, the other stuff goes into the fridge in the container for dogfood.

 

Depends on how flighty I am on thaw day. :biggrin:

Ideally, I would put frozen meat in the fridge a couple days before I need it. By the time I need to use it, it's thawed.

But MOST of the time, I don't realize how low the thawed meat supply has gotten until I have one meal left. Then I say to myself, "oh crap!" and pull something out of the freezer. By the next meal time, it's at least mostly (if not completely) thawed out.

But what I think you are asking is if it is okay to feed dogs meat that has maybe been sitting out a little too long. And the answer to that is YES! I've feed some pretty ripe stuff that I would NEVER eat myself with no problems. THe degree of ripeness that I'm talking about cannot be achieved by merely leaving meat out on the counter for any amount of time less than a week.:biggrin:

 

But MOST of the time, I don't realize how low the thawed meat supply has gotten until I have one meal left. Then I say to myself, "oh crap!" and pull something out of the freezer. By the next meal time, it's at least mostly (if not completely) thawed out.

Your post has me laughing! I know I will be guilty of this more than once! :biggrin:

 

Okay...that's what I did tonight, Robin! Thanks. :smile:

 

We are all guilty of it, even re, the dogs got canned tripe tonite and each a 1/2 pork rib because I forgot to take food out this morning, but it was my granddaughters 7th birthday party so I have an excuse.:smile:

 

Yeah, that is pretty much the scenario all the time with me. It's very a rare occasion when I actually plan ahead.


Uuummm... Sometimes I even forget to pull something out of the freezer when I use the last bit of thawed meat out. I may have undiagnosed ADD... So in these cases, the fastest (and safest) way to thaw out a frozen block of meat is to put it in cold running/moving water. Sounds weird to use the cold water, but it works. And Alton Brown tips haven't failed me yet!

 

Oh yeah, and when all else fails, canned fish!

 

Yeah the fish, but they just had fish and the fish farts!

 

So which are worse? Fish farts or egg farts?? Hehehe! :tongue:

 

Well, I left stuff out for a week once, because I didn't want to put it in the freezer and have to take it out and thaw it again, but didn't have the time to take care of it. It turned pretty rancid. Then, I put some of the liver (that was left out for a week) in the fridge to thaw out so the dogs could eat that, and ended up accidentally leaving the fridge open one day (it's a small fridge dedicated to the dogs), and it turned REALLY rancid, and I pulled it out the next day. It was so bad the blood was literally black, but I fed it anyways, even though I probably shouldn't have, but what doesn't kill them will only help them, right? So anyways, they did just fine. I, on the other hand, almost died at the smell.

 

A few times when I've completely forgotton to thaw stuff, I've just given my dog the food frozen. My reasoning, rightly or wrongly, is that I reckon a wolf would eat a frozen deer or whatever if they happened across one in the snow. Mine just gnaw's away on it til its gone. Don't know if its recommended or not, but it hasn't hurt her at all, at least not from what I can tell.

 

you guys are funny.....

alton brown is also my source for a quicker defrost....also, i take food out of the fridge to get it to room temp, so i can cook it....

cold food doesn't cook up as well as room temp food.

if i leave something in the sink defrosting...overnight.......and believe me, i have....i haven't yet been able to bring myself to feed the dogs or anyone else.....

i think i've done it twice now...both times i threw the food away.....yeah, yeah, starving dogs in appalachia...but, still....it's the doc in me....

i promise to try to get over it.

normally what i do is this.

i have two polycarbonate containers in the fridge...

defrosted proteins, usually three or four, are in one of them and the dogs eat off that for a week....except fish which is always frozen..

frozen food is in the other container....but some of that may be for honey and i....

so, here's the cycle....garage freezers to kitchen freezer to container to dogs.

 

Sara,

I have designated the bottom drawer of my fridge for raw meat. I found a plastic shoe box container that fits nicely and I can put it in and take it out. Another plus is it catches all of the meat dripping/juices. I have young children who are always in the kitchen so I probably wouldn't leave the meat out on the counter or in the sink. Like re I don't make meal bags I just choose a couple of meat protein and place it in the bottom drawer and use according what my dog needs "stool-wise".

Tami

 

So far, this is what is working for me currently. When I thawed out my first big order I divided it up into 2 days worth of food for that particular protein. I will probably do the same, in having a couple different proteins out at the same time.....so I can feed accordingly. Who knows...I may do things differently as I get further down the road...:biggrin:

Thanks everyone for your input!!!

 

When we make a big order from our meat distributor all the meat comes in huge frozen solid cases. This is what takes several days to thaw. We put these cases in HUGE (the biggest money can buy) rubbermaid containers to thaw out either in the spare bedroom or garage depending on the season. Then we slowly pull off the thawed meat and pack it into smaller 12 quart containers which hold 1-2 days of food for the girls (7-15 pounds depending on what it is). We then pull one of these containers out of the freezer and let it sit out for 12-24 hours to thaw.

We only make big orders like this 2-3 times per year, so it's not that much work at all.

 

Just FYI, thawing meat in a fridge is MESSY. If you choose to do this, I highly recommend using containers and not bags. Containers don't leak nearly as much as bags.

 

i learned THAT one first off, when i was thawing out forty pounds of chicken backs...

blech....i had to clean my entire fridge, just to get the smell out.....

it was EVERYWHERE...

costco sells these polycarbonate containers....i don't care for plastic....

i wish they had lids on them, but that's okay....

i have two different sizes...the dogs own the top shelf of my fridge and i get the rest....

they are NOT getting the veggie/fruit drawer LOL

 

Yup...I got both bags and a few containers to start with. I really had no idea how much the meat would turn out to be, how it would fit into my freezer, or exactly how much 2 days worth of food was size wise....I just couldn't visualize what 200 pounds of meat looked like....LOL....:tongue:

So I did pick up a plastic box (the size of a shoe box, maybe a bit bigger) to set meat to thaw in my fridge upstairs. Don't want any smelly meat juice to clean up! :biggrin:

 

Yup...I got both bags and a few containers to start with. I really had no idea how much the meat would turn out to be, how it would fit into my freezer, or exactly how much 2 days worth of food was size wise....I just couldn't visualize what 200 pounds of meat looked like....LOL....:tongue:

So I did pick up a plastic box (the size of a shoe box, maybe a bit bigger) to set meat to thaw in my fridge upstairs. Don't want any smells meat juice to clean up! :biggrin:

i think plastic shoeboxes are what danemama (natalie) uses....good idea...

 

The ones I use are a bit bigger than shoe boxes, but that would be a good size or two dogs to feed.

 

Just scored some raw meat from posting an add on craigslist wanting freezer burned meat! All you raw feeders should try this and see what meats pop up! :biggrin:

 

We've been doing that for years now LOL!!! We have probably scored a few thousand pounds in the last year...It's amazing how much would go to waste because every person says that it would have all just ended up in the trash!!!