I'm Biggie: avid cook, speedy lunch packer, mom in San Francisco, & former expat fluent in Japanese. 
Speed tip: Frypan defrosting
If you’ve forgotten to take something out of the freezer and want to get cooking in a hurry, there are a few methods of thawing food that are faster than putting it in the refrigerator. Of course there’s the microwave oven (Defrost setting), but this can create hot spots that start cooking the food unevenly. Another way is to put the food in a freezer bag, squeeze out excess air, and immerse in a bowl of cool water under a tiny trickle of water to create convection currents that speed up defrosting (discussed in my popular tip for freezing ground food in usable quantities). I found a third technique in my Japanese freezing books, though. (Read on for details of the frying pan defrosting trick.)
The third technique is one that I’ve run across in my Japanese-language freezing books, which works according to the same principles as the Super D Frost Wonder board. Line a heavy room-temperature frying pan with aluminum foil, put the frozen food right on top (wrapped or unwrapped), put the pan on a rack or the stovetop (turned off) and let it defrost quickly at room temperature, turning the food over once. Heavy frying pans such as the All Clad saute pan
Defrosting this way is much quicker than letting food defrost in the refrigerator, although you can put a lid on the frypan and stash the whole thing in the refrigerator if you’re called away (I did this today when I went to pick up my son from preschool). I kept a lid on during thawing to keep our curious cats away. For best food safety, though, it’s best to avoid room temperate defrosting during hot summer months or if you’ve got the heat cranked up in the winter.
FURTHER READING:
- Magnets to track freezer inventory
- Save time & energy with bento baskets for the freezer
- Food books in my kitchen
- All posts on freezing on Lunch in a Box
- Biggie’s list of top speed tips, tutorials and equipment reviews
June 16th, 2008 | Categories: freezing, tips | 
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June 16th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
So, do you actually get the pan hot and then line it/add the frozen food? Or.. I don’t get how it’s helping if the pan isn’t hot!
That is a great tip, though!
June 16th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
@1 from Alicia: No, you use a room temperature pan. With heavier pans, the aluminum at the core (or the cast iron) helps transfer heat much faster than regular defrosting. This is the same principle as those magic defrosting boards that used to be advertised on TV. (I edited the post to clarify, thanks!)
June 16th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Ah, alright thanks for the clarification. This is actually a really good idea for my family, since we freeze all of our meat. Although I don’t think we have a heavy pan like that, all ours are cheap. At least I know what to buy us for the next holiday! Lol.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Sorry to be utterly pedantic here, but the pan isn’t conducting cold away from the food - that’s physically impossible. Heat energy, in the form of the kinetic energy (movement, for want of a better word) particles in the pan is being transferred to the foil and then the food through collisions between the molecules. In other words, heat energy is moving from hot to cold, causing the pan to cool down and the food to heat up - exactly the same thing that happens when you heat the pan to cook food, only at a lower temperature.
This will continue until the pan and the food reach thermal equilibrium (are the same temperature), which would also be room temperature.
I don’t doubt that this technique works, just that cold exists in some form that can be removed. Only heat energy (the kinetic energy of particles) exists here - something cold simply has less of this energy.
Again, sorry for being so pedantic. I have a physics exam today and I just couldn’t let it slide. :p Love your site. You and Nigella are pretty much the only reason I haven’t starved to death already.
June 17th, 2008 at 3:30 am
Another draw back is the use of aluminium foil and food. The contact of food and aluminium is not recommended as aluminium transfers not only a metallic taste but particles of aluminium, which are toxic for health (Alzheimer’s disease). I know that it depends on the intake of aluminium, but somehow avoiding to use aluminium pans and aluminium foil, don’t do much harm.
June 17th, 2008 at 5:45 am
@ Martha Rose: Wow, I learned something this morning! I feel smarter already. ^_^
This is a great thing, though - I will definitely have to try it out!
June 17th, 2008 at 6:47 am
Ooh, that’s a great tip! I’ll have to try it out.
June 17th, 2008 at 7:09 am
Haha I’ve wondered about this for a while… my mom has a grill pan that claims to also work as a defrosting board and I asked her once how it works, she said “I don’t know” but she said it works great. Same concept
June 17th, 2008 at 9:04 am
@4 from Martha Rose: No worries about your being pedantic; I was being colloquial in my description. You’re correct, of course: there is a transfer of heat energy. The frying pan method works quickly, though, and saves people money who were thinking of buying yet another unitasking kitchen gadget.
June 17th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Being a fan of you for a long time. Thanks for the great tip. Just out of curiosity, how long did it take for the chicken to thaw?
Thanks!
June 17th, 2008 at 9:12 am
@5 from Zoé: I ran this past my husband, who is a health & biotech journalist, and he says that the theory of dietary aluminum as a cause of Alzheimer’s disease has not been proven in reliable studies, and that current research points to other causes. If you’re not comfortable with using aluminum foil in cooking, by all means avoid it, but remember also that heavy duty pans such as the All Clad saute pan
pictured above only have aluminum sandwiched in the core of the pan for heat conductivity, and the pan surface that comes into contact with the food is stainless steel. You could put the meat directly on the frying pan for the same effect without using foil.
June 17th, 2008 at 10:16 am
@8 from Yvo: That would make sense that a grill pan would tout its ability to defrost, as many of them are made out of heavy cast iron. You might not get as much contact with the pan if there are those raised grilling bars, though. Maybe turn the grill pan over and use the flat bottom?
June 17th, 2008 at 10:18 am
@10 from Mai: This was a pretty thick hunk of chicken thighs (the packs from Costco), so I’d say they were thawed in about an hour+. I didn’t time it exactly, though — your results may vary.
June 17th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Just make sure the food isn’t acidic, like a frozen brick of tomato sauce, especially if you’re going to “stash it” until later - the two metals will create a battery and produce acid.
June 17th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
ah! I gotta try this sometime with my cast iron skillet ^^ gotta get some aluminum foil first tho lol
June 17th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
@11 from Biggie: I’ve also looked into the aluminum/Alzheimer’s issue, and agree with your husband- there is no good evidence to support the theory that aluminum is a cause- aluminum in the brain is a by-product of the disease, not a cause.
I also like aluminum because in my area it’s recyclable, whereas plastic isn’t. I’d rather pack my freezable food in aluminum, then drop it in the recycle bin when it’s too worn to use again.
Cookie sheets work great for thawing too!
June 17th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
I’ll be trying this tonight, thanks 8^)
June 17th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
@16 from KittyPants
Aluminum has been (and is still) used as an adjuvant in vaccines, so it is injected directly into the body. There are theories that that particular use may have a more direct link with Alzheimer’s than cookware, especially as the use of vaccines has increased so dramatically in the past 20-30 years.
Interestingly, there are some studies indicating a link with (here I go again) gluten intolerance and Alzheimer’s. One possibility is that the gut permeability resulting from gluten intolerance opens the door for metals such as aluminum and mercury to cross the blood-brain barrier.
(Sigh) Seems like either way, we’re sunk, whether we use aluminum, drink water from plastic bottles, or microwave in plastic, doesn’t it? What’s left???
At any rate, this is very interesting, and I never would have dreamed that frozen food could defrost so quickly at room temperature!
June 18th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
That is SO interesting! Will try that tonight!
June 18th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
The smartest food blog on the Internet!
June 18th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
@14 from Monica: Mmm, delicious battery acid!
Yech, thanks for the reminder about acidic foods.
June 18th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
@16 from KittyPants: Good point about aluminum foil being recyclable here; I do toss it into the recycle bin once it’s officially dead.
Agree that cookie sheets work for this too — small ones are also great for flash-freezing foods separately before you toss them into a freezer bag for easy access afterwards.
June 18th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
@18 from Alison: Interesting about the possible link between gluten intolerance and Alzheimer’s — I’ll mention it to my husband. (After his celiac disease misdiagnosis a few years back and nine months of the GF diet, I KNOW he’ll be interested!)
It does seem that there are hidden dietary dangers everywhere, doesn’t it? I guess we all need to determine our own comfort levels with the different risks and let it go at that.
June 18th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
@20 from Mary: Surely the honor of smartest food blog on the Internets would go to Cooking for Engineers, no?
June 19th, 2008 at 4:47 am
@23 from Biggie
It’s certainly tough to figure out how to balance all the information (some of which is tough to find) with living in Real Life!
Since Bug will be nearing school-age soon, you have probably already heard “he needs all his shots or he can’t go to school.”
I am not anti-vaccine (at least,not yet), but just wanted to throw one piece of info out there for you: the second MMR shot (he got the first at around 18 months, if he followed the recommended schedule) IS NOT NECESSARY UNLESS HE FAILS A BLOOD TITRE (antibody test).
The first shot is supposed to give life-time immunity. That second shot is mandated because 5% (yes, that’s 5%) of the kids who got the first shot didn’t mount an immune response. That means that 95% do have life-time immunity and don’t need the second shot.
There are NO studies showing that those kids develop antibodies after the second shot.
My information comes directly from the Merck website (Merck is the manufacturer of the MMR vaccine).
Sorry for the detour from the original topic! We now return you to your regular programming.
June 19th, 2008 at 6:30 am
Is this different in any way to any other form of room temperature thawing (ie leaving it on a plate)?
June 19th, 2008 at 7:39 am
I learned this trick many years ago, but simply put the frozen item in the basin of a stainless steel sink — the principle is the same.
It does work on other materials, with the efficiency dependent on their thermal conductivity.
June 19th, 2008 at 7:52 am
@26 from Metanoia: Yes, it’s different because it’s much faster than regular room temperature thawing on a plate (thanks to the conductivity of the frying pan).
June 19th, 2008 at 8:36 am
The directions on those defrost trays say that you should “condition” the tray by running hot water over it before using it too, so I would suppose that doing that would help speed things up if using a heavy pan.
June 19th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
@25 from Alison: Thanks for the vaccine info, Alison. I’ll keep it in mind as we approach his second MMR shot. I forget exactly when that is, though… (Bad Mommy!)
June 19th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
#30 from Biggie: How can you POSSIBLY call yourself Bad Mommy when you make all those delicious and amazing bento boxes for your little one???!!!! (I need a mock-mad icon here…)AND you share recipes! You are a Role Model Mommy for the rest of us!!!!!!
Besides, it’s not like we get a heckuva lot of warning about the vaccine schedule. My oldest got his first shots (3 of’em) when he was 4 hours old. After 26 hours hours of induced labor (3 weeks early), I wasn’t exactly on top of things enough to say, “hey, wait, let me do some research on this.” The nurse just smiled and chirped, “Don’t worry, this is standard procedure, sign here!”
I will regret to my dying day that I didn’t research vaccines BEFORE it became (in our son’s case) so horribly necessary. Had I done so, he might never had had a reaction.
Here in PA, they “mandate” the second MMR for entering kindergarten. I put “mandate” in quotes because they don’t tell you that you can legally send your child to school without any shots at all–you just have to check off the box saying that your child has either a medical or religious exemption. And if your child tests positive for antibodies (and 95% will, but the pharmaceutical industry won’t tell you that, because they make more $ form selling you the vaccine), THEY ARE EXEMPT FROM THE SECOND SHOT.
Not that I’m advocating no shots. I’m not! I’m just saying, only get the ones you NEED. For example, my 4-hour-old, 4 1/2 pound baby was NOT at risk for hepatitis B, which is spread by sexual contact and shared needles, and he really didn’t NEED it just then.
Get them ONE AT A TIME,not together, as there is no research indicating that multiple vaccines are safe. In fact, the number of babies with severe reactions would indicate that multiple vaccines are NOT safe.
Again, I apologize for side-tracking the thread.
Back to frypan defrosting!
June 20th, 2008 at 11:45 am
@29 from Lori: “Conditioning” the pan by running warm water over it first totally makes sense. Thanks for the tip!
July 20th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
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November 26th, 2011 at 12:32 pm
This works in reverse, too. When I’m finished baking a pie, I turn a large pot upside down and place the pie on it. This cools the pie off faster.
These uses are kitchen examples of what’s called a “heat sink”.
You can also defrost faster if you do it like I do with the pie and use your largest pot, turned upside down. Placing your frozen item inside an upright large pot won’t work as well because it will trap cold air.
November 27th, 2011 at 3:23 pm
Add a desk fan to this setup for real defrosting magic. Simply leave the food still wrapped from the freezer and place on a cast-iron pan with the fan actively blowing on the pan. This make the heat transfer go twice as fast. (If our physics savvy friend wants to reword this so be it)
June 8th, 2012 at 4:19 am
Ooh, Nate that’s a great idea!
) you can use a cheap submersible aquarium pump to circulate the water.
I do leave the food wrapped from the freezer. Sadly, the likelyhood of the bag leaking seems to be directly related to how icky the ooze coming out of it is–chicken seems to be the worst
For the water method, instead of running the tap at a trickle to quick-thaw stuff, which I hate because of the water waste(lived too many years in deserts