My MW has a plastic pedestal that elevates the food (plate).. You might try
elevating it slightly (inverted cup, etc) then on a plate. Seems to help
with those cooked edges.Any ground meat will "cook" very easily while
defrosting in a MW.
My auto-defrost is #3 on the touch pad. I usually set it at #2 for 1/2 the
time it calls for.
JMT-C.

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"Stan Horwitz" > wrote in message
...
> In article > ,
> 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).
>
> Try moving the meat every other minute or two by turning it over.