Topic: Inadvertent pre-cook !

[Peripatetic Phil]

Planning to make a chicken curry this evening, I earlier today took a pack of free-range breasts from the freezer and put it on the hob to defrost.  Working upstairs some hours later, I was concerned that I could smell something cooking.  As my wife is currently in Viet Nam, and there is no-one else in the house (the cat does not cook for herself, as far as I am aware), I eventually went down to investigate, and saw the strong cling-film top of the pack stretched to near bursting point.  My first thought was that the breasts had been contaminated before freezing and that the bacteria had multiplied exponentially during the defrost, but then I realised that the hob had been left on ...  Only on 20%, mind, but clearly enough to part-cook the breasts, which were now white in the thinner regions.  The amazing thing from my perspective is that the plastic container had not melted at all.  Presumably the liquid which had emerged from the breasts had been sufficient to keep the pack below melting point.  Anyhow, I removed the breasts from the pack, poured the liquid into the base (which lives permanently on the hob in a pressure cooker), cut up the breasts and put the pieces into the base as well.  I will bring this up to a gentle simmer, then turn it off, and by the time I am ready for my curry this evening the breast pieces should be pre-cooked to perfection !