How do I cook food from frozen?

Frozen food gets a bad reputation largely from being cooked wrongly. Vegetables defrosted before cooking release their water and go limp; meat cooked from frozen browns on the outside long before the middle is safe. The rule is roughly: small and already-cooked, cook from frozen; large and raw, defrost first.

Safety

Step by step

1. Cook frozen vegetables straight from frozen, without defrosting.Defrosting first releases their water and gives you limp, waterlogged vegetables.
2. Roast frozen vegetables and chips at a high temperature on a preheated tray.220°C and a hot tray. Spread them out — crowding creates steam, which is what makes them soggy.
3. Cook thin items — burgers, fish fillets, sausages — from frozen at a slightly lower temperature for longer.Lower heat gives the centre time to cook before the outside burns. Check the internal temperature.
4. Defrost large raw joints and whole poultry fully in the fridge.Allow plenty of time — a large joint can take 24 hours or more. Put it on a plate to catch drips, on the bottom shelf.
5. Never defrost at room temperature.The surface sits in the bacterial growth range for hours while the centre is still frozen.
6. Use a meat thermometer rather than timing for anything cooked from frozen.Cooking times from frozen are much less predictable than from chilled.
7. Don't refreeze raw food that has been thawed.You can cook it and freeze the cooked dish. That's the safe route.
8. Cook frozen ready meals exactly as the packet says.The instructions are tested for that specific product and its density. This is one case where following instructions precisely matters.

Tips

• Frozen vegetables are frozen within hours of harvest and are often nutritionally comparable to, or better than, fresh produce that's been in transit and storage for a week.
• Adding frozen ingredients to a hot pan drops the temperature sharply. Cook in batches rather than dumping everything in at once.
• For frozen fish, patting the surface dry as it thaws slightly gives much better browning.
• If you need to defrost quickly, use cold running water in a sealed bag, or the microwave's defrost setting followed by immediate cooking.

Common mistakes

• Defrosting frozen vegetables first — They release their water and turn limp. Cook from frozen.
• Defrosting on the kitchen counter — The outside reaches bacterial growth temperatures long before the middle thaws.
• Cooking a large frozen joint without defrosting — The outside overcooks before the centre reaches a safe temperature.
• Crowding the tray — Trapped steam is exactly why frozen chips and vegetables come out soggy.

Questions people ask