Cooking argument

[Traab]

Ok, I have been fighting with my mother over this for years now. We make a lot of shrimp meals in my house and have been arguing over this since the first time. We freeze our shrimp until the day we are going to eat it then thaw it out. My mom says it has to thaw slow in cold water or else it will get all germy and disgusting. I say that using warm water to thaw it is ok because it is literally getting cooked as soon as the ice melts enough to peel off the shells. It would be a different matter if it was being prepped for the next day or something but it is literally thaw/peel/cook, so it wont have time to go bad before it gets sauteed or whatever. Now im not talking hot water, im saying, plop the iceberg of shrimp into a bowl of room temp water so it thaws faster, am I wrong to do it?

[Hyde]

The trick seems to be not letting them sit in water of any kind. Your mom has it kind of backwards. Thawing them slowly in water will maximize bacteria and make them kinda suck as they absorb yet more water. She's got the slow part right, though- Putting the frozen shrimp in a collander to thaw overnight in the fridge is the preferred way.

A quick thaw in warm (or any not-frozen water, really) is acceptable but generally sub-optimal.

[Derjuin]

With regards to germiness, yes, warm water will accrue bacteria faster than cold water. Specifically, temps below 40 degrees F almost halts all bacterial growth, while temperatures above that (up to about 135 F) are what's known as the TDZ - Temperature Danger Zone; bacteria grows fastest at these temperatures.

So basically, yeah, your mom is right, but not entirely; the safest way to thaw them is with cold water. Because they're seafood, you really want to keep them out of the TDZ as much as possible (seafood poisoning from bacterial waste can be pretty bad). But you don't want to let them sit in the water.

[Roland St. Jude]

The danger zone for harmful bacteria is between 40 and 140 F. You want to minimize the amount of time your food spends at that temperature. Using water that is between 32 and 40 F may take a little longer to thaw your shrimp, but it's better than using warmer water which may well take the shrimp to 40+. It probably doesn't matter, food safety-wise, if you are literally standing over them and pluck them out when thawed. But see my non-safety comment at the end of the post.

You can probably get the same speed you're looking for by running cold water over the shrimp or stirring the shrimp in cold-water.

Ideally, I'd recommend thawing them in the refrigerator overnight (in a colander or the bag they came in) and rinsing them only very briefly before cooking.

Food safety aside, I find warm water to does slightly alter the shrimp, I'm not sure if "par cooking" them is exactly the right term, but I find it gives the shrimp a gummy texture that more "properly" treated shrimp don't have.

tl,dr: Mother knows best.

[Jack Squat]

I thaw pretty much everything other than seafood in warm water, and that's only because some foods (mostly seafood) start cooking.

Yes, the water at that temperature harbors bacterial growth, and yes, if I were a restaurant I'd fail health inspections. But it's perfectly safe (http://lifehacker.com/5897107/defrost-frozen-meat-in-about-half-the-time-with-a-hot-water-bath) according to a USDA sponsored study.

[Dr.Epic]

Um...alchemy! Use alchemy.

Wait, shrimp=/=human right? Because you're not supposed to do alchemy on thems.

[Don Julio Anejo]

Better idea: put the food in a plastic bag first. THEN put it in warm water (so the water can't touch the shrimp directly). It takes a bit longer, but generally tastes a lot better since the food defrosts naturally (just faster) and doesn't lose flavour to water. As for shrimp, I'm 90% sure my mom (former chef) uses lukewarm (like 12 degrees C) water and defrosts it directly in the water. I personally don't know as I hate srimp.

Also, whether to use cold/warm water or to defrost by letting it sit is just a matter of how it tastes to you (stuff defrosted in water loses flavour), there's absolutely no issue with bacteria unless water itself is really bad (shrimp itself is frozen, which kills most of bacteria to begin with); and most water in the first world is highly chlorinated and generally safe.

Edit: I just double-checked and she says it's much better to defrost shrimp overnight in the fridge.

[dehro]

my mum never speeds up the thawing process, so I've learned not to do it either and to leave stuff thaw at it's own speed, no water involved.
whether that applies to seafood as well and whether it makes a difference bacteria-wise I wouldn't know. her preference to do it this way seems mostly related to keeping as much of the taste as possible alive and not ruin the stuff by defrosting/cooking too fast.. again, ruining flavour-wise.
the exception there being veggies, that don't seem to suffer too much from being plonked in boiling water straight out the freezer.

[shawnhcorey]

I agree with the others; they should be thawed in the fridge overnight, without any water. Shellfish needs to be cooked quickly or they turn rubbery. Thawing them at over 4°C will start them cooking and make it difficult to avoid that rubbery texture.