There is a microwave oven in just about every household. It has become a precious commodity around the world. You can do so many things in a microwave, such as cooking and reheating food! You can even fix cooking mistakes with a microwave! It seriously is a multitasking machine of amazingness! One of the things that a microwave can also do is help you when you’ve forgotten to thaw your meat the night before. That’s right! If you ever forget to thaw out meat in time to cook it, you can have peace of mind knowing that your microwave can save the day! Microwaves are made with a defrost button. This defrost button was designed to do exactly what it says. It defrosts frozen items! You can defrost different kinds of foods, including different kinds of raw meat! Do you want to know how to defrost meat in microwave ovens? Just use the defrost button! It is very easy, but let’s learn about safe and unsafe defrost methods first.
Dangerous Ways to Defrost Your Meat
It is very important to know the proper ways to defrost meat and how some ways can be dangerous. First of all, meat can go into something called a “danger zone.” This is when the meat falls within a range of temperature that promotes bacterial growth. This bacterial growth can make the meat toxic and make you sick when you eat it. The key to proper defrosting is to avoid the meat going into the danger zone. Let’s learn what methods forces meat into the danger zone that makes it an unsafe method to defrost.
Don’t ever defrost your meat in hot water. It might sound like a great idea to thaw out your meat in a bowl of hot water to speed up the process; unfortunately, this is a foolproof method of making your meat toxic by putting it in a danger zone. The other unsafe method, that many people are tempted to do, is sitting your meat on your countertop at room temperature. If you need to cook the meat that evening, you might be tempted to sit it on top of your kitchen counter and let it slowly thaw out throughout the day. As easy and simple as this sounds, it too can put meat in the danger zone. You definitely don’t want to spoil your meat from unsafe defrost methods; so learn the many different safe ways that meat can be defrosted.
Safe Ways to Defrost Your Meat
There are several different ways to safely thaw out your meat without it going through the danger zone. It’s easy to keep your meat from encouraging bacterial growth, and one of those methods requires water. It is not using hot water though; because we’ve learned this method is dangerous. One of the ways you can thaw your meat using water is by placing it in a bowl of cold water. Hot water spikes the meat temperature into the danger zone, but cold water doesn’t. It keeps the meat in safe temperatures, while it also begins the thawing out process. It takes longer than hot water would, but that’s the point. It needs to slowly thaw to be safe. Make sure to never thaw your meat in hot water, but remember cold water is safe.
The other safe and very popular method of defrosting your meat is simply sitting it in the fridge overnight. You just take the meat out of the freezer and sit it in the fridge. This gives the meat time to thaw out slowly and in safe temperatures. It won’t put the meat through the danger zone, and it will be ready to be cooked the next day. You plan ahead what you’re going to cook so that you get the meat ready to thaw out in the fridge the night before. Life happens! I know that things happen, and you might forget to thaw the meat overnight. That’s okay! Because the other popular method of thawing out meat is using that amazing little defrost button on your microwave.
How Does Microwave Defrost Work and How to Use It
The microwave defrost setting is a very popular way of defrosting your meat. You might be wondering how to defrost meat in microwave ovens without cooking the meat on the outside? Well, the way it works is that the defrost setting puts the microwave at a lower power. It is usually around 30%-50% of the full power. The lower power setting helps to start thawing out the center of the meat without cooking the outside. The microwave defrosts it for as many minutes as the meat’s weight; which is why it usually requests for you to input the weight of the meat when you go to defrost.
If you want to thaw out meat in the microwave, you simply place the meat on a microwave-safe plate, sit it in the microwave, push the defrost button, input the weight of the meat, and hit start. Easy peasy! It’ll be thawed out and ready to cook with a few minutes. If you have an older microwave, and it doesn’t have a defrost button; you can still thaw out your meat in it. All you need to do is set the power setting of your microwave between 30% and 50%. Then microwave it for 8-10 minutes for each pound of meat you have. That is it! Microwaving meat to defrost is super easy! The only contingency to defrosting your meat in the microwave is that you have to cook it immediately!
No More Stressing About Frozen Meat
Now that you know how to defrost meat in microwave ovens, you no longer have to stress about your meat still being frozen when you go to cook it. Having to cook all the time, serve yourself and/or your family, washing dishes, and cleaning up is enough to worry about. Who can remember every single thing that needs to be done in a day anyway? If you don’t want to thaw your meat in the fridge overnight or if you forget to, you can just pop it in the microwave to defrost it. Microwaves continue to be essential in the family. You can reheat and cook in them, and now you know that you can defrost frozen meat in them as well! There are endless possibilities for microwaves these days. They’ve even started making microwaves that work like convection ovens as well. It is amazing! The next time you need to make you and your family a meal, remember that your microwave is indeed your friend.
