They’re convenient, tasty, and super easy to cook. Who doesn’t love hot dogs?
Whether you’re tired after a long day and need a quick dinner, or you’re looking for an easy snack to make for a small get-together with friends. Hot dogs are the answer. You’ll reach out to that pack in your freezer, defrost it, and enjoy some tasty hot dog sandwiches.
What do you do with leftovers? Do you refreeze them, or are they lost for life?
Can you refreeze hot dogs? The short answer is yes, but only once and within a limited thaw period.
Let’s see how.
The “You Can’t Refreeze Food” Myth Busted!
We’ve all heard it, “Don’t refreeze thawed food,” and we’ve strictly followed this rule without knowing the reasoning behind it.
In fact, according to the USDA, it’s safe to refreeze thawed food as long as it’s thawed in the refrigerator. It will lose some of its quality because of moisture lost during thawing, but it’s nothing that you should be worried about. We’re talking about raw food here.
Yet, you’re allowed to do this only once. Meaning, you can refreeze thawed raw food -that’s been in the refrigerator- one time. After that, you can’t refreeze it unless you cook it.
The cooking part is interesting because it’s your way out. If we’re talking about meat, for example, you can get your raw meat out of the freezer, let it thaw in the refrigerator, take the portion you want to cook, and refreeze the remaining part.
However, you can’t do that again to that remaining part unless you cook it. Meaning, you can refreeze the leftovers from your cooked meat as long as they’re, you know, already cooked.
If you’re asking about cooked food, then it’s perfectly safe to refreeze it. You can refreeze the leftovers of your cooked food.
In all cases, we’re talking about food leftovers that have been in the refrigerator for a maximum of three days. For food that’s left to thaw at room temperature, you have a maximum of two hours to save it, or it’s beyond repair. It’s all about the way you thaw raw food. Do not thaw frozen food at room temperature. Just don’t!
What About Refreezing Hot Dogs?
Now that we’ve covered the basics of refreezing let’s apply them to your lovely pack of hotdogs. Hotdogs aren’t cooked or raw. They’re semi-cooked, so what rule applies here?
Well, you won’t be put in a situation where you need to refreeze cooked hot dogs, will you?
The common situation is that you take your pack of hotdogs out of the freezer, let it thaw in the refrigerator, take some out to cook, and you’re left with some in the pack. As for these, you can refreeze them as long as you’ve not left them to thaw at room temperature on the counter. Yet, you can do this only once because otherwise, you’re leaving them prone to mold and bacteria forming on them. You don’t want to eat that!
If the refreezing only once policy doesn’t match your consumption, you can empty the hot dog packs into small refrigerator boxes (zip locks) when you get them from the supermarket. This way, you can divide the packs according to your consumption, so you’re making sure that whenever you take a ziplock out, you won’t be refreezing it back.
The Solution – Best Way to Store Hot Dogs
To avoid the refreezing dilemma altogether, you should learn the best practices to store your hot dogs in the first place.
You can store each two to three hotdogs, which is roughly the portion per single person, in a sealable freezer-safe bag. Some recommend you roll them in wax paper as an extra layer of protection. Then, you get them about depending on the number of people. This way, you’d be avoiding refreezing the hot dogs in the first place.
Thawing Is Essential
The second aspect you need to pay attention to when storing hot dogs is their thawing process.
As we said before, you need to thaw them in the refrigerator to protect them from harmful bacteria and mold. Besides, thawing and refreezing multiple times ruins the texture of hot dogs and meat, so we want to steer away from that too.
The best way to thaw hot dogs is to put them in the refrigerator. You place them in a shallow dish so that any run-offs won’t contaminate your refrigerator, and then you should line them. Don’t stack them. It won’t help in the defrosting. It’d be better to cover the dish, again to prevent contamination. You should leave them for 12 to 24 hours in the fridge to defrost. It’s a lot of time, we know, but this is the ideal way. To cut it short, you should defrost your hot dogs one day before you eat them.
We know that this isn’t the most practical way, given that we usually go for hotdogs as an easy and fast option. In this case, your microwave is your best friend. Line up your hot dogs in a microwave-friendly dish. Again, don’t stack them, then cover them with a paper towel to soak up the liquids draping from them.
Use the defrosting setting in your microwave, and if you don’t have it, use 30% of its working power to let it defrost over a reasonable period. Check them every 30 to 60 seconds to check their progress. They’ll take more than that. You just need to make sure they don’t cook inside the microwave.
Lastly, you can put your hot dogs in a bowl of cool water to thaw them quickly. You need to make sure that they’re well covered in their packages and that there’s no direct contact between the hot dogs and the water. This process shall take 30 minutes, and then you can cook your hot dogs.
Wrap Up
There you have it, the best practices to refreezing hot dogs and the best practices to store and defrost them so that you avoid the refreezing dilemma.