Cooking With A Microwave

Cooking With A Microwave
The Right Way

Everyone knows that microwaves heat foodstuff much faster than traditional ovens.

The reason for this is that traditional ovens need to raise the entire oven temperature to desired degree before the food even starts getting cooked – this is why we need to pre-heat traditional ovens.

Microwave ovens target the foodstuff directly rather than the surroundings. As a result the food starts getting cooked homogeneously – inside and outside and we can save lot significant amount of time.

Microwaves tend to vibrate molecules inside the food causing it to get heated quickly.

A common perception is that microwaving food can make them less nutritious than conventional cooking. On the contrary, the food cooked in microwave oven may retain more nutritive value than traditional forms of cooking, as you heat the food for less time with lesser quantities of water.

Microwave safety tips on cooking with a microwave

Always stick to the owner’s guide while using the microwave – that is the best description of how to use your microwave safely.
If the microwave door doesn’t work properly. Do not neglect it and operate the device.
Always use microwave safe containers or microwave oven cookware. Glass or ceramic containers that aren’t labelled ‘microwave-safe’ may overheat and cause burns.
Never stand or let your kids stand next to a working microwave for long periods of time
Never heat liquids in microwave for extended durations of time

Advantages Cooking With A Microwave

Saves loads of time with fast cooking.
Safe to operate since the exterior body always remains cold regardless of how long you use the microwave.
You require minimal amount of oil to cook food
Some food stuffs turn out more flavor, texture and goodness in microwave than conventional cooking methods due to varying time and heating concepts
Microwave ovens are more energy efficient than traditional ones. Conventional methods of cooking use energy to heat oil, water or air - microwave ovens only heat the food, so you can save on your energy bills.
Microwave ovens can be used for wide range of functions from simple defrosting to full fledged cooking.

Common misconceptions

The popularity of microwave and their ease of use do attract a decent amount of misconceptions, such as:

Microwaves alter food composition- not true. The rapid cooking does change the food structure faster, but it does not created any fatal or risky components in the food by microwave energy.
Microwave Food cause Irradiation - not true. The radiations are limited only to the time for which microwave is operational – when it is switched off, there are no longer any microwaves radiation in the oven or the food.
Microwave energy is radioactive - not true. Microwaves work on a totally different concept to radioactive reactors. Hence, they are not radioactive. Despite innumerable research projects microwaves have not been proven to be either causes or promotes cancer.

Microwave cooking methods.

Never overcook the food. If it is not fully cooked you can always microwave it for a few more seconds, but you can’t revert overcooked food.
As in any cooking, the microwave cooking does not end when the microwave stops operating. The heat in the food continues to cook it – this time duration is termed as Resting time. This is important while baking cakes – you must not leave them in the microwave till upper crust dries out.
Resting time is important in many recipes (mainly using frozen meat) to cook the center of the food while avoid overcooking of exterior, otherwise the center will remain uncooked and cause food poisoning.
Liquid foods must be stirred well to distribute the heat evenly in the dish. This is true for soups or stews or any other liquid drink you are preparing.
While cooking solid food pay attention to their arrangement, to maximize uniform cooking of the food stuff. In most cases, you may have to halt the cooking and flip the food to ensure proper cooking on top and bottom.
The size of solid foods (such as potato, cakes, etc) decides how it is gets cooked. Hence, try to maintain the food in the same size while cooking.
If you are heating leftover or small amounts of food, it is advice to place a glassful of water to absorb the excess energy. This will makes microwave generator does not get affected.
Avoid spicing up your food before heating. It is preferable to keep the spices to the end of cooking.
Regular plastic will melt in the microwave, but Clingfilm is ok. You can use it to avoid spoiling your microwave container and also to cover the food and retain the steam.
Microwavable plastic spoons or wooden spoons are microwave safe and do not get heated in the microwave process. Hence these can be left inside while cooking.
Paper towels are another microwave safe products. They can be used to avoid explosions and also absorb moisture from cooked food.

3 Things to remember when cooking with a microwave

The food which cooked in the microwave is always as nutritious as conventionally cooked food, and and studies suggest that microwave cooking retains more vitamins, minerals and nutrients than boiling.
Radiation from microwaves are too small to cause any health problems to human. But of course a damage to the oven door can lead to greater leaks which can be risky.
The only problems cooking with a microwave is the food may still have the cold spots or not heat evenly. This can cause bacteria to grow.

Once you try cooking with a microwave oven instead of just using it to warm up food, you will discover what a powerful cooking tool it is.

For a start, you can visit our free microwave recipes section, which contains a number of easy microwave recipes.