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Electric Microwave Ovens Cooking Kitchen Appliances
from: GaryMicrowave cooking appliances have excellent potential for saving energy, compared to electric resistance appliances, because most of the energy generated by the microwave is transferred directly into the food.
A relatively small amount goes to heating up the appliance or the utensil or plate the food is cooked on. When microwaves generated in the magnetron hit food items containing water or fat, these molecules become agitated. This generates heat, resulting in thorough and complete cooking in a much shorter period of time than using conventional cooking appliances.
Advantages of microwave ovens.
- Microwave ovens are convenient because food can be cooked and served on the same plate.
- Cooking can also be done on paper plates. Heat is transferred directly to the food, generally making a microwave more efficient for servings of four or six.
- Microwave ovens are especially useful for heating up leftover items, and they have a unique feature of making bakery products soft and fresh when reheated. Microwaves are great for reheating beverages such as coffee.
- They take much less space than a conventional oven.
- When cooking a relatively small amount of food they use approximately 50 percent of the energy that an electric resistance element or oven would use.
Disadvantages of microwave ovens.
- There is some small danger when using microwave ovens around people who wear heart pacemakers. If the door does not fit properly for any reason, microwave leakage could affect the pacemaker. (Most modern microwave ovens are carefully designed and constructed to minimize this.)
- Special precautions need to be taken when cooking some foods in a microwave to keep them from splattering or exploding.
- Microwave ovens should be used only for cooking purposes, and not for drying.
Selection of Microwave Ovens
Microwave ovens, because of their convenience and quick-cooking capabilities, are a very popular selling major appliance. Several factors should be considered when purchasing a microwave oven.
Because it is very difficult to direct microwaves evenly throughout the microwave oven. selection of an oven that has a rotating carousel is an attractive option. Using this rotating carousel will provide even cooking.
Although microwave ovens are offered with a wide variety of control settings, which include dual times and many cooking levels, most consumers will not use or need all these features. The microwave features most used include the defrost cycle and a full cook cycle with
a timer of at least 30 minutes. Most cooking functions will take place within these control ranges. A cost premium will be paid for additional control functions such as more temperature settings, electronic touch and temperature probes.
Another feature that should be considered is the size of the microwave oven and the output wattage. For one or two people, a smaller microwave such as 0.6 cubic feet and 600 watts is generally sufficient. For a larger family (four or more), a microwave with an output of 1,000
watts and a capacity of 1.0 cubic feet or larger should be considered.
Since microwaves do not brown as well as convection ovens, some have these convection oven features added. These features generally are not as cost effective or energy efficient as conventional electric or gas ovens. So if browning is needed, it might be better to precook the item in the microwave and then brown it in a conventional oven, rather than buying an integrated unit.
Operation of microwave ovens
Most microwave ovens have detailed cooking instructions that should be used when operating the microwave. As a general precaution, some food such as unbroken eggs and other foods having membranes might explode and soil the interior of the microwave unless they are punctured prior to cooking. (There is generally no physical danger.)
Food items containing both water and grease have a tendency to splatter, and should be covered with a cloth, paper, or lid when cooking. A person becomes quite skilled at using a microwave through experience. For example, experience may show that a certain sized mug of coffee will take 1 1/2 minutes to heat at an ideal temperature.
Maintenance of microwave ovens.
Most microwaves are easy to maintain and clean. Splatterings and spills
should be cleaned as they occur to prevent drying. There is some danger of burning if metal objects are placed in the microwave. This should be avoided.
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