How To Properly Defrost Items In The Microwave?
Reliable Microwave ovens are some of the most sought-after home appliances in modern homes.
Whether you want to heat up your frozen pizza or defrost ground meat for your dinner, a microwave can often be your best friend when your short of time. This is particularly true when it comes to defrosting as it helps speed up the cooking in a safe way. Using a combination microwave can be a great choice for thawing a wide range of food items right from the freezer.
Microwaves these days are often highly intelligent machines that can defrost any food type at the push of a button. This is particularly true for Panasonics range of intelligent inverter microwaves however with some of the older more basic microwaves around the defrost function can often leave your meals unevenly defrosted and even slightly cooked while still being half frozen. Below we’ve provided a few tips on manually defrosting food when your microwaves defrost setting just doesn’t quite cut it.
Defrosting Food Items in the Microwave Oven
Firstly, when looking to defrost using a microwave make sure to use a microwave safe container. You should always make sure that you are heating food properly and safely in order to ensure warm healthy meals that are safe to eat.
If you are new to using the basic microwave oven, here are some expert tips on defrosting food items using the simple microwave oven in your kitchen.
● Place the food item in a microwave-friendly container: to ensuring the given plate or container is microwave-friendly, you can check its bottom for the safety labels. Runny or liquid-based food items should be placed in deeper containers or bowls in order to avoid spillage.
● Defrosting time is dependent on the size and the type of the food you are defrosting. Place the food item in the microwave oven and decrease the power to around 30-50% depending on what you are defrosting. User the lower 30%-35% settings for larger more dense food items such as large pieces of meat and the higher 45%-50% settings for smaller loose food that can be mixed throughout in order evenly distribute heat, foods like frozen vegetables.
*When you use low power settings, it allows the food to warm gradually and evenly throughout without cooking the outside.
● Once the food is in and the settings have been updated set a two-minute timer and hit start. As the food is defrosting make sure to keep an eye on it and regularly check the distribution of heat as food can often be warm on the outside but cold on the inside. It’s a good idea to keep going with one to two-minute time increments as various parts of the meal or food items defrost at different rates. With larger pieces of meat and more dense foods more time is needed therefore start with five to eight minutes and then go to two-minute increments checking occasionally.
● Lastly, for loose foods it’s a good idea to remove the parts that are defrosted and continue microwaving the parts that are still frozen. Removing these pieces speeds up the process by allowing the microwave to focus its energy on the leftover frozen pieces and ensures the pieces that are already defrosted don’t start to cook due to being left in the for too long.
● Once everything is defrosted make sure to cook everything properly and enjoy.
Safety Measures While Defrosting Items in a Microwave
If you want to ensure the best outcomes for defrosting frozen food in the microwave, it is essential to follow some basic safety rules.
● Use a thermometer for ensuring that you are defrosting the food items at the right temperature
● Once you have defrosted a packaged food item, cook the same within one day
● Avoid re-freezing any raw food item after defrosting the same
● Clean the microwave oven once you are done defrosting to get rid of any lingering bacteria
There you have it a quick guide on how to manually defrost food in a microwave. We hope you find it helpful, go forth and defrost safely.