Redneck Recipe # 36 - Do you have a tortoise or a hare ?
Going by the book
I thought it might be downright nice of me to share a thought or two gathered from the fine book on microwave oven cooking bought for a few pennies in a thrift store. The book is undated and has no author listing. Even so, it is one of the betters of the microwave oven cookbooks I have seen. More than likely it came with a new microwave oven as part of the sales package. Lucky me, right?
One of the several mysteries of microwave cooking and microwave baking has to do with the power rating of each particular oven. For example, the one in Redneck’s Kitchen is from the Panasonic folks. There is a microwave oven having a different lineage at the office, a place I visit as infrequently as possible. I don’t know what brand oven it may be, but the thing is about half the size of the Panasonic gadget. It is a certainty that the two have different power outputs – and I am guessing that this means that there is a difference in both the densities of microwave output and of their penetrating ability, too. (I have yet to determine if that guess is a good guess or not.)
Low, medium, and high power microwave oven settings
The microwave-cooking book under discussion here talks about its recipes being developed for use with power of 625 watts. The book states that when one of its recipes calls for a different power level it is to provide for more even cooking and heating of the foods in the recipe. High power (625 watts) is to be used for fast cooking. In fast cooking there is a need to stir the foods frequently, flip them over, and to rotate them within the oven. Medium power is said to be 50 per cent, or 312.5 watts, while 70% (medium high power) is 437.5 watts. Those settings are used to provide easier food heating and cooking with less attention needed than it is with full power. Low power is considered to be 30 per cent of full power; that is, 187.5 watts. Low power is used to heat and cook foods that are delicate or that require long and slow simmering for their tenderization. Defrosting of frozen foods is also done using low power setting.
Test your oven's power to match available recipes
Like in the Redneck’s Kitchen with its 1,100-watt power microwave oven, a big bruiser of stainless steel with a spinning food platform inside, it is helpful to know how much wattage your particular microwave oven affords. This helps you to match your oven to recipes developed for different power levels. Often you will have been informed of your oven’s wattage, but sometimes you may not know that. Here is how my El Cheapo (but super) microwave cookbook tells how to figure it out.
Put 8 ice cubes into a measuring cup with one cup of cold tap water
Stir the water and ice cubes for one minute
Pour exactly one cup of the cooled water (without ice cubes) into a clean microwave-safe container
Time exactly how long it takes to microwave the water on high power (full power of your oven) until lots of bubbles break on the water surface (212 degrees, F.)
If the time needed for boiling start is between 2.5 and 3 minutes, then the microwave oven power is close to 625 watts. If it takes a lot more time for the water to boil, then your oven is proportionately less powerful (example: 4 minutes indicates that the power may be in the range of 430 watts or thereabouts. If boiling takes less time, say 2 minutes, then the power is probably in the 930-940 watt range.
Aesop was right many moons prior to microwave ovens
One thing that can be said and should be said is that microwaving of foods at too high a power should be usually be avoided if lower power and longer cooking times are practical. For example, I found that if I used high power to bake cakes and cake donuts, even for only one or two minutes, I had problems with the items charring, particularly so if they contained microwave-attracting components (fruits, etc.). Most of my own recipes call for baking things at 50 per cent power for about 4 minutes for smaller products and up to 20 minutes for really large ones. It’s a lot like the race between the tortoise and the hare. Slow and easy won the race.
What have your microwave power adventures been?
Howdy sheila - I know what you mean. Almost no one was taught on or experienced in microwave cooking when they were growing up, but most learned about using ordinary ovens and stovetop cooking over fire or electric elements. I have to really concentrate my thinkiing when using a microwave - like trying to understand that setting a p;ower level is like turning the gas or electric knob on a regular stove. It seemed interesting to learn how to check your microwave's power when I came upon it in that thrift store book.
Have fun !
Gus :-)))
First time I cooked bacon in microwave... I could use the burnt bacon it to hold the door open... Flag up!
Hi dallas - Oh yes ! You have to watch that full power stuff, especially on stuff with lots of fat or oil in them. Also - gotta watch that holding doors open business - good way to get flies in the house ! :)
Gus :-)))
...the sausage could write on concrete!
Hello again, dallas - I know the feeling... The first time I tried baking raisin-filled cupcakes in the microwave I had the thing on full power. The raisins turned into charcoal rocks and their burning heat spread into the rest of the cakes. What that taught me is that if you hit vulnerable stuff with too many microwaves in too short a time (such as little raisins that seem to attract microwave energy) the heat does not have a chance to migrate to surrounding things and, instead, sticks around and burns the daylights out of those target items. Fat, sugar, moisture are some of the ones that microwaves love to pal around with.
Gus :-)))
I've rated this Hub useful and voted it up. I've never come across the ice cube test before.
My microwave is mainly used for heating up leftovers, but occasionally I try to make things from 'scratch'. It's all rather trial and error though, as I'm too old to have been taught microwave cooking (they hadn't been invented when I was at school).
2patricias - I may be a good example of the fallacy of that "too old to learn" stuff. I only re3cently became interested in the possibility of interesting "baking" using a microwave oven - of which I know precious little. Mostly I had been using the microwave oven to heat up water for coffee. Then I started messing around with one of those gadgets, and it has been lots of fun. That ice cube test came from an "old" microwave cookbook, one that probably came with an oven when someone bought the thing. I believe that my bride bought the book at a garage sale or the like one time. It is a beauty of a book - the cover is in the photo in the above article. I wish I could tell you the author and the publisher, but they are nowhere listed on or in the book - all 303 pages of it.
Gus :-)))
A very useful hub. I didn't know about the icecube thing. I tried a couple of syrup puddings on high power and found them to be quite dry so next time did them on medium and that seemed about right.
Do they teach microwave cookery in home economics or food technology I think they call it now, I wonder
Thank you, Rosemay - It can be amazing the things a person can learn from an old book, isn't it? As to the question about the teaching of microwave cooking, I lack an answer. When I went to school we were hard-pressed to learn much of anything - and there were as yet no microwave ovens.
Gus :-)))
sheila b. 9 months ago
I like making pudding in a microwave - so much better than stirring over a burner. I'm going to do the boiling water thing to see about my power - maybe I'll be a better cook after that! I'm still better with a conventional oven.