One of the newest inventions made to be included in the list of modern kitchen appliances is the defrosting tray. The defrosting tray is also known as the dethawing tray in some places. Since it is a pretty new product in the market, people have some qualms when trying to operate this kitchen appliance.
We are here to teach you how does a defrosting tray works with simple and easy steps. Hopefully, this will make you comfortable enough and interested in the advantages of this appliance to make you go out there and buy yourself a defrosting tray and begin using it.
Steps to Using a Defrosting Tray
A defrosting tray is basically a kitchen appliance meant to carefully warm up frozen foods like peas, meat, etc. without burning it, melting it, or making it smelly. Below, some steps are given on how to use a defrosting tray so that you can understand how to dethaw your frozen food quickly and in a safe way:
Step 1: Understanding the Components of the Defrosting Tray
The defrosting tray comes in all different sizes and shapes. But the basic features of all of them match. You will see that it is just a tray-like flat top that is made of aluminum.
Aluminum was chosen because not only is it a good conductor of heat, it also does not rust or stain very easily the way steel and iron do. However, some defrosting trays also use copper.
They chose this material for the tray to make sure it heats up pretty quickly and can cool down quickly, too, unlike those cast iron skillets that stay hot for a long time even after you take it off the heat.
The power source of the appliance is electricity. So, you have zero hassle of it being powered by gas like your stove. It is also an open tray system and is nothing like the closed spaces inside a microwave oven. This helps get rid of unhealthy stench since the open-air helps the smell escape.
Step 2: Understanding the Defrosting Tray’s Operations
The defrosting tray is better than warming up your frozen food on your stove because of how it adjusts its heat to the room temperature or surrounding temperature it is in. It then transfers enough heat to warm up your frozen food to that same room temperature.
Step 3: Defrosting Frozen Meat
Suppose you place a piece of frozen meat on the tray and turn the appliance on. In that case, the machine will immediately calculate the current temperature of the surroundings and compare it with the cold temperature coming from the meat on the tray.
This will, in turn, warm the meat up so that the meat slowly dethaws to that same room temperature. It does not warm up the meat any further than room temperature.
Trying this same thing on a pan on the stove is pointless because the pan’s heat will go into the steak, but the cold from the steak transfers to the pan and makes it too cold to cook.
This is why we always keep our frozen foods outside for a while to reach room temperature before we cook it. That usually takes a long time. But the defrosting tray makes it easier and quicker to achieve that.
Step 4: Defrosting Frozen Vegetables
Storing vegetables like peas, tomatoes, carrots, etc. in your freezer because they might be out of season soon is pretty common. You end up stocking up on those vegetables but have a hard time warming them up after taking them out of your freezer.
Grilling them on your pan might not be a good option unless you plan on sautéing them or boil them.
But placing them on a defrosting tray will work fine because it melts away the ice stuck all over these juicy vegetables and brings them to a temperature that makes it easy to chop them at least.
The heat from a defrosting tray may not heat up meat right to its core, but it will definitely conduct its heat right through the vegetables and soften them quickly.
Final Words
There are various defrosting techniques people use. But this defrosting tray makes it happen quicker. Neither you have to worry about burning your frozen food by heating it on a stove, nor about the bacteria or stench that comes from heating it in a microwave oven.
Defrosting in your fridge overnight is also a good technique, but what if you forget to do that, and you immediately need to cook? Dethawing the food on the kitchen counter will also take too long. So, why not get yourself this appliance instead since you now know how does a defrosting tray work?