On Tue, 27 Dec 2005 16:35:51 +1300, Peter Huebner
> wrote:

>Never had a microwave, until we were given one by a customer loyalty scheme a
>few months ago. So I am pretty inexperienced when it comes to anything beyond
>reheating a cup of coffee in that gadget.
>
>I've tried defrosting pork, sausages and ground beef a few times and my results
>are pretty abysmal. I used the built in defrosting program where you set the
>weight, then press start. Alas, I find that usually the meat is still part-
>frozen in the centre, yet already partly cooked on the outside by the time the
>cycle ends. This is hopeless; it ruins the food.
>
>Any tips? (think I'll go back to defrosting under the running cold tap in the
>meantime - but sometimes it would be convenient to do it more quickly).

For ground meat, do as ms. peacock suggests--effectively defrosting by
layers.

I tend to agree with Steve W. about the built-in defrost cycles. You
sometimes might want to wrap tips of whatever with foil to prevent
their receiving too much microwave energy.
Steve's 'nuke-wait'-repeat approach works well.

You'll also find the micro to be useful for melting butter (use low
power and short times, though) or just softening a cold cube of it.
Again, low power/short times. Good for frozen veggies like corn,
peas, baby limas, too.

--
-denny-
"Do your thoughts call ahead or do they just arrive at your mouth unannounced?"

"It's come as you are, baby."

-over the hedge