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Joined: Jul 2004
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stranger
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stranger
Joined: Jul 2004
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Why do we say "defrost the sausages" and not "thaw/unfreeze the sausages"?
This, amazingly, is now driving me mad. Please, please help.
Trouser
ADDITIONAL:
Thanks for the poss answers - seems to be no absolute solution though - which i guess is always the way. It makes no sense, i tells you... Trouser [London]
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Because that's what it says on the microwave button?
I think it used to be thaw back when we just left them out till they softened up. Seems like it might still be, mostly; I'll gots to listen. Where you from, Trouser?
And welcome to our private brand of lunacy.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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The reason for saying defrost goes back three hundred years, to Thaddeus, High Count of Baragarantria, who was the first person to consider the possibility of being revived after death. He and the seven Thaddeuses who followed him were all put on ice in the Baragarantrian Alps, high up between Switzerland and Italy.
Unfortunately, the climate changed and it became necessary for the peasants in Baragarantria to be put to work hauling in ice to keep the eight bodies more or less intact. This went on for some years until there was a revolution, the current Count was deposed, and the bodies on ice were left in the crypt.
A week or two later the first tourist, who quite by coincidence was the guy who invented the microwave, to return to Baragarantria asked about the terrible odor around the base of the castle. "Don't worry about it," he was told, "It's the thawed Thad Counts." So instead of thaw he put defrost on that button on the front of the microwave.
Bet you didn't know you can't thaw large soup containers in the microwave, since you can't see defrost for the tureens.
TEd
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Carpal Tunnel
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All one needs is TEd and the words "three hundred years".
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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All one needs is TEd and the words "three hundred years".Second prize: six hundred years. 
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old hand
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old hand
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Us UKians say thaw. As in puddy-tat.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Well, in our house if it's left in the fridge or under cover to unthaw, we say "Defrost". If it's in the microwave, we say "nuke". Go figure.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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I never thought about it before but I say defrost for meat and thaw for other things even in the microwave. Except for icecream and ice cubes which melt and planes which de-ice (but never in the microwave).
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Carpal Tunnel
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Thinking about it I'd have to say we thaw steak, hamburger, and chicken. Sausages we just move straight from the freezer to cooking. They're small enough they don't take any special procedure. That's assuming they even make it to the freezer in the first place.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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we used to have to defrost the freezer, but we always thaw things out, unless we're doing it in the microwave, then it's defrost...
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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The only time we ever use the word defrost is when you have to remove frost from something - like windows in a car. also when you eat just the frosting and throw away the cake, but that's another story
For the rest, it's thaw.
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journeyman
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journeyman
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There's that danged "d" in 'frigerator, again!
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old hand
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old hand
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defrost must have been invented by a clever marketing wizard: It implies that you need to do something when in fact the thawing happens by itself: thaw can be used intransitively, whereas defrost cannot, as far as I know.
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Carpal Tunnel
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AHD4 lists both transitive and intransitive definitions: a freezer that defrosts automaticallyhttp://www.bartleby.com/61/77/D0097700.html
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Oh, good, Trouser ... you put a thought in my head where it is now like a tune I can't keep from running like a tape loop!
Welcome to our merry band.
Now, I use thaw when something takes a long time - like the frozen Butterball turkey at Thanksgiving - where it takes 24-38 hours in the fridge.
Defrost I tend to use when it takes just a short time like hamburger patties left in the fridge for a few hours or "nuked" if you're in a hurry - although I don't like to do that. I think it changes the flavor but that could just be me.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Thanks for the poss answers - seems to be no absolute solution though - which i guess is always the way. It makes no sense, i tells you...
Trouser, I hope we've at least helped to stem the madness tide. I empathize.
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journeyman
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journeyman
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I agree. Defrosting is artificially expediting the process of thawing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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artificially expediting the process of thawing
Does soaking in water count as "artificially expediting the process of thawing"?
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journeyman
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journeyman
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Well, crap. I dunno.
A watched frozen sausage never thaws...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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A watched frozen sausage never thaws...just defrost it in the microwave... 
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Welcome clockworkchaos ! Nice to have someone around who agrees with me - at least once in awhile ;-)
Drop in whenever you have the time. But beware, you have stumbled into a site that can be addictive. Aloha.
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journeyman
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journeyman
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Thanks, wow. This is a lovely place you have here.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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A general greeting and welcome to all of our recent newcomers; tickled to have you!
My thought is that defrost is like dial: it harks back to what had to be done in the past. Things in the freezer (including the freezer itself) got covered with frost and had to literally be defrosted; just as phones could only be dialed. Though we still use both words, the actuality of their meanings is getting harder and harder to find.
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stranger
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stranger
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Like Jackie I thought it might be a leftover from the days when refrigerators/freezers had a defrost cycle. Then I had my doubts and searched for +"frozen food" +tips +(defrost OR thaw) and scanning through the first 30 or so applicablle hits found the two words seldom appear in the same hit and there doesn't seem to be any pattern e.g. some say thaw in the microwave and others say defrost in the microwave. So, I returned to my first guess that "defrost" is an artifact of language that came with older appliances.
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