Defrosting

Cooking Guide (continued)

Microwaves are an excellent way of defrosting frozen food. Microwaves gently defrost frozen food in a short period of time. This can be of great advantage, if unexpected guests suddenly show up.

Frozen poultry must be thoroughly thawed before cooking. Remove any metal ties and take it out of any wrapping to allow thawed liquid to drain away.

Put the frozen food on a dish without cover. Turn over half way, drain off any liquid and remove any giblets as soon as possible. Check the food occasionally to make sure that it does not feel warm.

If smaller and thinner parts of the frozen food start to warm up, they can be shield by wrapping very small strips of aluminium foil around them during defrosting.

Should poultry start to warm up on the outer surface, stop thawing and allow it to stand for 20 minutes before continuing.

Leave the fish, meat and poultry to stand in order to complete defrosting. The standing time for complete defrosting will vary depending on the quantity defrosted. Please refer to the table below.

Hint: lat food defrosts better than thick and smaller quantities need less time than bigger ones. Remember this hint while freezing and defrosting food.

For defrosting of frozen food with a temperature of about -18 to - 20°C, use the following table as a guide.

All frozen food should be defrosted using defrosting power level (180 W).

Food	Portion	Time	Standing	Instructions
		(min.)	Time (min.)
Meat
Minced beef	0.25kg	6-7	15-30	Place the meat on a flat ceramic
	0.5kg	10-12		plate. Shield thinner edges with
				aluminium foil. Turn over after
Pork steaks	0.25kg	7-8		half of defrosting time!

Poultry
Chicken pieces	0.5kg	12-14	15-60	First, put chicken pieces first
	(2pcs)			skin-side down, whole chicken
				first breast-side-down on a flat
Whole chicken	1.2kg	28-32		ceramic plate. Shield the thinner
				parts like wings and ends with
				aluminium foil. Turn over after
				half of defrosting time!
Fish
Fish fillets/	0.2kg	6-7	10-25	Put frozen fish in the middle of a
				flat ceramic plate. Arrange the
Whole fish	0.4kg	11-13		thinner parts under the thicker
				parts. Shield narrow ends with
				aluminium foil. Turn over after
				half of defrosting time!

Fruits
Berries	0.3kg	6-7	5-10	Spread fruit on a flat, round glass
				dish (with a large diameter).
Bread	2pcs	1-1½	5-20	Arrange rolls in a circle or bread
Bread rolls	2pcs	1-1½	5-20	Arrange rolls in a circle or bread
(each ca. 50 g)	4pcs	2½-3		vertically(like a tower) on kitchen
Toast/	0.25kg	4-4½		paper in the middle of turntable.
Sandwich				Turn over after half of defrosting
German bread	0.5kg	7-9		time!
(wheat + rye
flour)