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: Flat 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	500 g	10-12	5-20	Place the meat on a flat ceramic
beef				plate. Shield thinner edges with
				aluminium foil.
Pork	250 g	7-8		Turn over after half of defrosting
steaks				time!

Poultry
Chicken	500 g	12-14	15-40	First, put chicken pieces first
pieces	(2 pcs)			skin-side down, whole chicken
				first breast-side-down on a flat
Whole	1000 g	25-28		ceramic plate. Shield the thinner
chicken				parts like wings and ends with
				aluminium foil. Turn over after
				half of defrosting time!
Fish
Fish fillets	250 g	6-7	5-20	Put frozen fish in the middle of a
	(2 pcs)			flat ceramic plate.
	400 g	11-13		Arrange the thinner parts under
	(4 pcs)			the thicker parts.
				Shield narrow ends with
				aluminium foil. Turn over after
				half of defrosting time!

Fruits
Berries	250 g	6-7	5-10	Distribute fruits on a flat, round
				glass dish (with a large
				diameter).
Bread
Bread rolls	2 pcs	1½-2	5-10	Arrange rolls in a circle or bread
(each ca.	4 pcs	3-4		horizontally on kitchen paper in
50 g)				the middle of turntable.
Toast/	250 g	4-5		Turn over after half of defrosting
Sandwich				time!
German	500 g	8-10
bread
(wheat +
rye flour)