Defrosting meat - fastest and safest way?

[CBear6]

I forgot to take the mince out of the freezer last night or tonight's shepherd's pie and it's frozen solid. I've got it in a covered bowl on the table and it's gone softer around the edges but not by much.

I'm always funny when it comes to how food is stored/prepared and normally use fresh instead of frozen. What's the quickest and safest way to defrost meat? Or is it safe to cook mince from frozen?

Mince can be defrosted quite well in a microwave. Some machines have a special preset & others you give it repeated bursts of a minute or two on a low setting and then break it up so that the softer parts don't start to cook and the frozen ones are on the outside. You can cook mince from frozen but you have to keep stirring it and breaking off the cooked bits.

Chuck it in the microwave until it's soft enough to break up with a wooden spoon (doesn't matter if it's partly cooked round the edges and partly frozen in the middle) and cook immediately.

So basically yes cook from frozen but use microwave to make it less of a solid block.

Excellent, dinner is saved!

Thank you ladies :)

I'd just stick it in the pan while frozen.