How to Defrost Ribs: 2 Best Ways to Thaw

1. Put Packaged Ribs on the Bottom Shelf of Your Refrigerator in the Vacuum Packaging

For this article, I thawed the baby back ribs below in the refrigerator and the process took 24 hours.

The USDA notes:

“Even small amounts of frozen food — such as a pound of ground meat or boneless chicken breasts — require a full day to thaw. When thawing foods in the refrigerator, there are variables to take into account.”

USDA.gov

Assuming most ribs weight 3-5 lbs – these claims are accurate.

Ribs that are thawed in the refrigerator will remain for 3-5 days until you’re ready to use.

If plans change, they can also be safely re-frozen, however thawing and re-freezing will lower quality.

This is because when meat is frozen, the water in the muscle cells freezes and turns into ice crystals. These ice crystals have the potential to disrupt cell walls. When thawed, these now disrupted cell walls will release moisture.

2. Thawing in Your Sink or in a Bowl of Cold Water

In most cases, ribs come in a vacuum sealed packaging – however if yours aren’t, place them in a Ziploc bag or similar leak-proof package.

Clean your sink, block the drain, and then place your frozen ribs in the sink.

Your goal is to minimize the interaction between the raw meat and the external environment. You also don’t want the raw meat to absorb water.

Place the packaged ribs in the cold water and completely submerge them.

Every 30 minutes, change the water so that it remains as cold as possible.

• Baby back ribs weight anywhere from 1.25 – 3 lbs.
• Spare ribs weigh anywhere from 3 – 5 lbs.

Using the USDA’s estimates based on weight tells us that small packages of about a pound thaw in an hour or less.

Larger packages of 3-to-4 pounds may take 2-3 hours.

So in terms of ribs, it’s roughly 1-3 hours to thaw in cold water.

Note: If thawing with the cold water method, the ribs should be cooked immediately.

Similarly, ribs thawed with the cold water method should not be refrozen.

Do You Need to Thaw the Ribs Before Smoking?

Technically, it’s possible to cook food from a frozen state.

The only downsides really are:

• Longer cook time.
• You don’t get to trim or remove membrane.
• Seasoning doesn’t stick to frozen meat.

Technically though, frozen meat will attract more smoke due to the moisture from thawing – this is the main reason most of the smoke flavor on food is during the first couple of hours.

You also have the added benefit of the increased smoke time – meaning more time interacting with the smoke.

I’ve personally never smoked ribs from a frozen-state but I know some old-heads in the Barbecue world do rave about it.