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).
>
> -P.

Realise that microwaves will cook fast, but not necessarily defrost
fast.

Microwaves cook food from the outside, contrary to popular myth. The
centre of food is heated mainly by conduction. Thus if you want to
/only/ defrost and not heat something, it will be slow, not fast as one
is accustomed to with nukes.

In short youre heating it with too much power. Try much less power for
much longer.


Microwaves give 3 short cuts to defrosting:

1. where it doesnt matter if you boil it, just nuke the crap out of it
and the centre quickly melts.

2. For foods that cant be heated at all during defrost stage, heat it
till the outside is just defrosted and no more. Defrost will still tak
a while, but a shorter while.

3. Some foods can be heated till the outside is hot but not boiling.
The hot outer warms the inner, and in the end the whole thing is just
thawed.

All these can be done at full power, theres no need to use low. Use low
when the item is going to take a while to defrost, and you want to
hurry it but not cook it. Best plan then is full power until the
outside is defrosted, then go to very low power.

Finally, things defrost better in nukes if you bag or cover them, as
the steam that comes off the outside heats the central food.

Really finally, ignore all the panel power level names. I prefer
mechanically controlled nukes, and the names they put on the dial are
almost meaningless.

Oh, and arrangement of food makes a big difference. If youre doing
sausages, put them in a ring shape.


NT