What is your preferred method of defrosting frozen food?

Supposedly in the refrigerator is the safe way, but I keep mine quite cold. Duff doesn’t defrost in there.
Size matters in the way I choose.

H07 w473r 1n th3 51nk.

I just skip to cook in the oven or stove top.

#3. time. zapping it is not classy

Hot water = waste of energy heating the water

#3 or #1.

So noone else likes using the microwave to thaw their food?

Never hot water in the sink. I usually just sit it in a pot or skillet that has a thick aluminum bottom. Cover. Every 30 minutes or so turn it over. It will quickly thaw because of the aluminum. I always thaw steaks, chops, and beef roasts this way. For big thick pork loin I leave in packaging and sit on the counter in the morning. After a few hours I put it in the frig. I usually cook these in a crock pot and don’t worry if the middle is frozen when I put it on to cook. For ground round I take a package out about two hours before I’m going to cook. I just leave it on the counter. When time to cook I pull off that part that has thawed and use a fork to chunk up the rest.

Oh ben maree.

@Dutchess_III I only like the microwave for reheating vegetables and coffee every so often. I do sometimes cook frozen vegetables in the microwave. It messes with the molecules and that freaks me a little. I tried boiling water in the microwave to make hot tea and it was awful. One time only.

I heat soups up in the microwave. I also microwave my home made burritos.

@Dutchess I hate the microwave. Leftovers only.

I hope you are not eating those sodium full, nasty frozen burritos!!

We toast our homemade burritos in the oven or in a panini press. I like the tortilla dried a little and with the slightest crunch on the ends. That sounds good but I don’t have all of the stuff.
I bet I will tomorrow though. :) @Dutchess_III

Sounds yummy @Sagacious

No I make my own burritoes KNOWIT ALL. In college I got food poisoning from a vending machine burrito. Never again!

It depends on what it is I’m defrosting. Cooked food like chili I might well defrost in the microwave. Raw meat I prefer to defrost in the fridge but will sometimes start or finish it on the counter.

I kinda use a combo of your choices. If it is a larger item a pound or more I will nuke it for half the time needed. Just enough to get the ice crystals to soften yet not begin to cook it and then let rest on the counter (or fridge) until thawed enough to cook. Seafood like frozen shrimp or crab just goes in a bowl of cold water. Frozen burgers straight on the grill. Really depends. Like you I try to avoid microwaving at all costs.

Imma make a burrito tomorrow and try the oven thing. That just sounded good.

I usually do it on the counter. If I have to do it fast I put it in lukewarm water. More like rinse it in the water. That’s very quick. I don’t let it just sit in warm water.

Special Relativity

E = mt^2

Where,

E = eat
mt = empty
t = time

I don’t like to use the microwave to cook anything. I would just as soon not have one, but the rest of the family likes it so it stays. Defrosting for me involves all of the methods you mentioned except for microwave. I often make soup so it’s easy to just throw it in a pot and let it defrost while it cooks.

@Dutchess_lll I’m honored. :)

Waaa! Got all the fixins for a burrito..but no tortillas!!

Yes, indeed, a microwave oven is not ‘natural’.
But observe that cooking in general is not natural either, no other species sets fire to stuff in order to heat their food.
I have no problem cooking on a stove but I use the microwave when it’s expeditious, e.g. for defrosting or warming up leftovers or cooking a frozen snack food.

You know the horrible things that a microwave does to anything bread related.

Certainly, bread fares poorly in a microwave, ... I don’t suggest a microwave is the same as a toaster-oven or frypan or modern household oven or a crockpot, but I’d put microwave with the others in a group of common ways to apply heat to food.

I like microwave popcorn cuz the grandkids can make their own. All I need to be around for is to open the hot bag.