How to Reheat Frozen Meals Properly

A chef can cook something for twelve hours and you can undo it in eight minutes. The reheat is the only part of a frozen meal you are responsible for, and it is where almost all the disappointment happens — usually because the dish went into the wrong appliance, or went in still frozen.

Two rules cover most of it. Then a list of which dish wants what, taken from the method published on each product page rather than from a general guess.

Rule one: defrost in the fridge

Overnight for most dishes. A day and a half for anything large. The reason is safety as much as quality — defrosting on a bench leaves the outside of a dish sitting at room temperature for hours while the middle is still solid, which is exactly the condition bacteria want.

It also gives a better result. A properly defrosted dish reheats evenly. A half-frozen one gives you scorched edges and a cold centre, every time.

The practical version of this rule: when you serve dinner tonight, move tomorrow’s from the freezer to the fridge. It takes thirty seconds and it is the whole trick.

One thing genuinely does change by city, and it is worth saying. We deliver frozen across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and meals arrive frozen in all three — but a February afternoon in Brisbane is not a July one in Melbourne. Get the box into the freezer promptly wherever you are, and if something has started to soften at the edges on a hot Sydney or Brisbane delivery day, treat it as defrosted: into the fridge, eaten within a couple of days, not refrozen.

Rule two: match the method to the dish

Ovens dry the surface and crisp it. Stoves let you stir and control the heat. Microwaves heat from the inside out and put moisture where you did not want it. Those differences decide which dish goes where, and they are not preferences.

Oven only

Anything with a top, a crust or a pastry. A microwave will turn béchamel to liquid and pastry to paste, and there is no recovering either.

• Classic Italian Lasagne and Roasted Pumpkin, Spinach & Ricotta Lasagne
• Braised Beef Moussaka
• 12-Hour Slow Cooked Lamb Shoulder
• Potato Gratin, Duck Fat Roasties and Honey Roasted Root Veg
• Mini Beef Wellingtons, Jamon & Potato Croquette, Zucchini & Haloumi Fritters and Cheeseburger Pastie
• Garlic & Coriander Naan
• Sticky Date Pudding with Banana
• Ready to Roast Pork Knuckle — 45 minutes, and you are cooking it rather than reheating it

Oven or barbecue

One dish, and it is worth knowing about in summer. Slow Roasted Porchetta is specified for both, 30 minutes, which frees the oven for everything else.

Stove only

Fresh pasta, the kits you cook, and the curries and soups where an even, stirred heat matters.

• Coconut & Prawn Curry — prawns overcook in seconds, which is why this one is stove only
• Roasted Cauliflower & Comté Soup
• Sticky Sweet & Sour Pork Stir Fry Kit and Classic Garlic Beef & Black Bean — kits, so you are cooking these
• The fresh pastas: Parsley & Shallot Linguine, Red Pepper Fettuccine and Gluten-Free Fresh Linguine

Stove or oven

The big braises, where either works and the oven is gentler if you are not in a hurry: Tuscan Braised Lamb Shanks and Slow Cooked Country Beef Cheeks.

Stove or microwave

The forgiving ones — sauces, curries and soups with nothing on top to ruin. The stove gives a better result; the microwave is what a Tuesday is for.

• Curries: Butter Chicken, Green Chicken Curry, South Indian Village Chicken Curry, Malay Beef Kari and Satay Chicken
• Sauces and pasta dishes: Marco’s Signature Bolognese, Wild Mushroom Ragu, NY Style Carbonara, Brown Butter Spinach & Cream and Braised Red Pepper & Ricotta Cream
• Soups: Pumpkin, Potato & Leek, Carrot, Ginger & Brown Butter and Roasted Tomato & Red Pepper
• And: Authentic Italian Meatballs, Pomme Purée and Red Wine Gravy

Microwave only, and the all-rounder

Aromatic Rice is microwave only, and five minutes. The Grass-Fed Lamb Kofta with Sugo is the one dish specified for all three — stove, microwave or oven.

Technique, briefly

Oven. Preheat properly — a dish going into a cold oven spends its first ten minutes drying out. Cover with foil for most of the time, then take it off for the last five to get colour back on top.

Stove. Low to medium, not high. Sauces catch and scorch on the base long before the middle is hot. Stir, and add a splash of water if a sauce has thickened in the freezer.

Microwave. Medium power for longer, rather than full power for less. Stir halfway. Full power heats the outside to steam while the centre is still cold, which is why microwaved food has a reputation it mostly does not deserve.

Guides for specific dishes

Four dishes come up often enough to have their own step-by-step:

Common questions