How to Cut Frozen Meat With a Meat Slicer – 3 Tips to Make It Easy

By Eric Mitchell •  Updated: Mar 23, 2022 •  4 min read

Frozen meat is tangibly rock-hard and does not tolerate the growth of disease-causing microorganisms. The physical nature of frozen meat makes it almost impossible for an ordinary knife or meat slicer to penetrate through. Only specially designed knives and meat slicers, which are configured for cutting frozen meat will get the work done smoothly and fast.

Cutting frozen meat is indisputably dangerous and unless you have the necessary skills, you will waste lots of time and still do a shoddy job. Do you want to know how to cut frozen meat with a high-grade meat slicer but don’t know where to start?

How to Cut Frozen Meat

Here are the three basic tips for getting started.

1. Defrost The Meat Using Water

We have all agreed that slicing frozen meat with a meat slicer is risky. It risks the blade getting damaged and the operator getting injured. While most meat slicers claim to safely cut through frozen meat, very few can do the job smoothly and fast.

Rather than putting yourself and the meat slicer at risk, it is recommended you dump the frozen meat in water to thaw it before you start slicing. This will make the cutting process easier and safer. Water will defrost the meat converting it from the rock-hard form into a soft piece that can be easily and safely cut with a meat slicer.

Once the meat is defrosted, slice it properly into your desired pieces. Make sure to remove all the bones before you start cutting as most meat slicers aren’t strong enough to penetrate through hard bones.

2. Put The Frozen Meat In A Microwave

Dumping frozen meat in water to thaw is the cheapest and easiest way to simplify the process of slicing frozen meat. However, it may not be suitable for commercial meat slicing as it’s time-consuming and not very reliable. If you are searching for the quickest and most efficient way to defrost frozen meat, then a microwave is all you need.

Using a microwave with an automatic defrost function is highly recommended as it gets the job done efficiently and accurately. In the event your microwave doesn’t have such a function, you shouldn’t worry though.

The best thing about microwaving frozen meat before slicing it with a meat slicer is that it’s really fast. It will take the meat not more than 5 minutes to be fully defrosted.

Experts recommend putting the unpacked frozen piece of meat in the middle of the microwave turntable and then turning on the defrost setting on. You don’t need to watch over the microwave as it does its magic. But you should monitor the defrosting process as the meat may end up being semi-cooked if you leave it for so long.

3. Thaw The Frozen Meat With A Metal Pot

If you are running out of time and would want to defrost meat in a matter of minutes, you should consider using a meat pot to thaw the frozen meat pot.

One notable thing with thawing meat this way before slicing it is that you don’t have to use a specially configured meat slicer as any meat slicer will work fine. Some meat slicers don’t have the power to slice meats into the smallest pieces possible.

To thaw your frozen meat this way, you need to place the frozen pieces of meat on a baking sheet while still on their sealed bags after which you will place them on a pot of water.

The metal pot should be filled with water. The temperature of the water should be kept at room temperature since cold water will make it hard for the meat to defrost while hot water will cook the meat up.

The metal pot should then be placed on steaks of meat in a way that the steaks and the baking sheet will be in a sandwich and the metal pot on top of them. Allow the frozen meat to thaw for about 5 minutes. Once thawed, use your meat slicer to cut it down to your preferred sizes.

Conclusion

Cutting frozen meat with a meat slicer isn’t a walk in the park. It isn’t an impossible task either. If you already have a meat slicer but don’t know how to use it to slice your frozen meat into cookable pieces, the outlined above are the key tips to doing the job done easily, quickly, and efficiently.

Having the wrong meat slicer can delay your cutting process and affect the quality of the results so take your time to find the right meat slicer. And remember always to clean the meat slicer afterwards.

Eric Mitchell

Eric is the owner, author, content director and founder of dehydratorlab.com. He is the lead architect and the main man in matters concerning dehydrators, their accessories, guides, reviews and all the accompaniments.Whenever he is not figuring out simple solutions (hacks) involving cookery and their eventual storage, you will find him testing out the different types of dehydrators, to bring us the juicy details regarding these devices.He is a foodie enthusiast, pasionate about making jerky has a knack for healthy and tasty food and won't hesitate to share out any ideas that might be of value around this subject.

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