Microwave Cooking Principles

Follow the Microwave Cooking Principles

Cooking is the theme of both conventional/traditional style and a microwave cooking.

What matters at the end is the taste and the time required for preparation. Microwave gives you an edge over other cooking methods by cooking it 5- 10 times faster than any other method.

Cooking with microwave needs to be performed under following principles:

Arranging:

While setting the table for a meal, make sure to set your microwave too for instant reheating of all the dishes.

You should arrange the dishes in a circle with the dense foods or largest pieces closer to the rim for enabling even heating of the foods.

Bursting:

This is a major concern of all those cooking with microwaves.

You need to understand that the steam built up within the food burst opens the top layer unlike the center of the food and to escape this, the food should be partially uncovered or the cover should be pierced to enable the steam to escape.

Never cook the food in a closed plastic bag.

Density:

The density of the food to be cooked decides the cooking time.

For porous foods such as breads, less cooking time is required unlike the dense potatoes which have very less pores for the microwaves to pass through.

Height:

Huge dish which occupies the entire microwave needs to turn over for even cooking as waves get transmitted from back to the top.

This makes the cooking closer to the waves faster than the rest.

Moisture:

If you wish to enjoy the best micro waved dishes then make sure to add a little moisture content to any of your dishes let it be roasting turkey too.

Even dry food like turkey can be well micro waved if you add gravy/moist sauce to it.

Quantity:

The basic theme of microwave cooking – speed process can fail if you tend to fill the microwave with tons and tons of food to be cooked as the heating gets distributed.

Always concentrate on small/medium quantity.

Shape:

Shape determines even cooking even if you own the best and the most expensive microwave model.

Round shaped foods are evenly cooked when compared to the square shaped as the corners get cooked much faster than the center.

In uneven shaped food, cooking time needs a lot of rearranging for even cooking.

Size:

Cooking in size is different from cooking in quantity.

By size, we mean same sized pieces of a food can be evenly cooked if placed in large numbers but the case is not the same if the size varies.

Example: ten muffins of same size can be evenly cooked.

Standing time:

Microwaves prepares your dish in seconds or minutes which still continuous to cook even once taken out due to the high temperature waves immersed.

Thus a standing time is a must in all the dishes.

Temperature of the food:

It is obvious that a cold food takes a couple of extra seconds to get ready before the room temperature ones.

Turning:

Even cooking can be performed only if you keep turning your food in and around.

To escape this issue, most microwave companies have come up with turntable that continuously rotates itself to perform even cooking.

Using Metal:

Warning! Never use metal pan or a container while cooking.

This produces spark due to overheating and may result hazardous.

Wrapping foods:

Cooking gravies or sauces are a headache if done uncover as it splatters continuously.

To avoid this, you should partially cover the food or if using a plastic wrap, make sure you pierce it as mentioned already.

The best option would be to use a wax paper or a paper towel which does not require any piercing any also performs even cooking.

And because cooking with microwave is fast, understand these microwave cooking principles is more important than in traditional cooking.

Source from: S. Gilmore, L. E. Baltzer, Food preparation study course: quantity preparation and scientific principles By Iowa Dietetic Association

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