Who Needs A Fucking Microwave??

[Ting Ho Dung]

I wanted to heat up a hot dog before going to the Orlando Guitar Expo. Many of you are aware that I have posted that I do not eat processed meats. That I am a shitty chef. But still manage to cook for my family each and every day and have sit down meals every night. Well, the microwave went bang and my hot dog was cold after 30 seconds in it. I wondered what to do and was quite frankly at a loss for ideas. It's been thirty years that I've enjoyed Microwave. So I got out a 2 quart pot, put in a little water, laid a colander over the steaming water. Placed said dog and a bun in the steam. Done in five. So it wasn't 30 seconds and done. But it was 5 and done.

So my question for you engineers and smart people; What do I save, other than time, for running a 1000 watt microwave for one minute as apposed to a small eye on the stove for 5 minutes?

I think the stove top is probably healthier if you can call a dog healthy. Why??? because there are no microwaves????

My wife went to the grocery this evening and got some Digeorno pizzas. Why??? because she didn't know how to warm left overs without a microwave. Degeornos in the oven @ 400 degrees @ 20 minutes. She would have cooked them anyway. But the oven was still warm so I put some leftover lemmon pepper chicki from last night in a skillet and placed them in the oven. Already spent energy heated the skillet and chicki up. opened the door after the chicki was bubblin' and let the heat out into the house. Already spent energy mind you.

Yeah, so I'm frugal. Not cheap. Just thinking about weather I should replace a microwave @ 400 bucks or buy a guitar with it. All a microwave is good for is reheating things in 30 seconds. You smart guys tell me what the BTU expense of heating a cup of water in a microwave as apposed to on the stove. You health nutz tell me what the ill effects of microwave vs convection heat may be.

Make sense?

[cspot]

I've actually been told on numerous occasions that microwaves use more energy than conventional ovens. Couldnt tell you for sure tho. I like the kettle and cup o soup...

Hamers rule!

[hamerjunkie]

Unless you have an over-the-stove style microwave, you can pick up one fairly inexpensively (not cheaply), a decent 1100 watter should be around $100 or so......

[RobB]

Microwaves are good for certain things, but "cooking" with one is strange to me. Some foods seem to come out slimy and rubbery, IMO. Great for popcorn, heating water and (some) frozen foods.

Get a convection oven. I use mine all the time. Takes longer than a microwave, but everything is cooked through, no cold spots.

[BadgerDave]

Let me put it this way:

Would you go to a restaurant that prepared your food in a microwave?

[Ting Ho Dung]

Microwaves are good for certain things, but "cooking" with one is strange to me. Some foods seem to come out slimy and rubbery, IMO. Great for popcorn, heating water and (some) frozen foods.

Get a convection oven. I use mine all the time. Takes longer than a microwave, but everything is cooked through, no cold spots.

I have never ever. Never ever tried to cook with a microwave. The only use I have for one is to reheat leftovers at lunch. But then you have to stir them constantly to keep from getting cold spots. Popcorn?? Well, I remember really good tasting popcorn from an air popper or a thing we popped it with about a teaspoon of oil. The American Heart Association says you should not eat microwave popcorn because of somthin' .... I don't personally like microwave popcorn but it is fast and convenient. Is convenience going to kill us all or is it going to make us more productive and healthier? I think I'm going to let the thing lie dead and see if the wife can adapt. I know I can.

[killerteddybear]

Thousands of generations lived and died before the creation of microwave cooking. Of course you can live without it.

+1 on the convestion oven, we just got one and I love it.

[singlehum]

Maybe it's my imagination, but to me it seems that things heated in the microwave never seem to stay hot as long as when cooked conventionally.

[BlueRedWhite]

I love cooking and i think any mediums are good. I used to only used the microwave for heating leftovers, till i discovered some other nice things to do... Try asparagus on a plate with a bit of water for 4 mins...they are excellent!! Try spaguetti squash (a whole half) for 15 mins, awesome.

Is good for a few things, and it is very handy if use correctly. I was invited last night to eat at a friend's and the rice, which was great, was done in the microwave. With the right tool, it was great..now the use for the microwave is very limited, but it can be more precise cooking tool for a few things....

Then, a convection oven.. I cannot live without it!!!

[LordsoftheJungle]

I'm with BRW on this one,,, preparing a quality entree with a microwave may be too much to ask, but for quick meals, side dishes, or reheating stuff they're friggin awesome. One of the greatest inventions of all time!

then again, so was the bamboo steamer ,,, love that thing

[mathman]

Take a good corn chip, place 4 or 5 on a plate. Cut some nice pepper-jack or plain Monterey jack or just good cheddar cheese on each one. Place one jalapeño pepper slice on each and a dollop of crystal river hot sauce then microwave or 30 to 60 seconds. Long enough to melt the cheese. Enjoy!

Also, I wouldn't want to be without one at work since the nearest restaurant is 20 miles away and an occasional break from sandwiches or salads is nice.

[Ting Ho Dung]

Exactly!! It's a 400 dollar warmer of left overs. With no disrespect to BRW or our Lord. Asparagus in an iron skillet with a bit of butter and a run of olive oil, garlic and sea salt is the Hamer of asparagus nus! As with prepackaged meals ready to eat; I've already given my view on them.

I do understand that the microwave is a convenience and one that I've learned to use. Please don't think I'm being rude or thinking if you use one that I am in any way being derogatory. If mine didn't break yesterday I wouldn't have this conversation. I am wondering if it would be better to go back to the old way of thinking. It took me five minutes to cook a hot dog. Isn't a hot dog a convenience in its own? I don't eat them. I don't like them. That was the first I've had in several years. I cooked it the old fashioned way.

My question is, Is it better healthwise to cook it on the stove? What about warming up leftovers? Is it good for you to have microwaves heat them? What are the cost advantages/ 1000 watts on a microwave as apposed to stovetop or oven? Include leaving the oven open after cooking for heating the house. That is heat after fuel has been expended. Luckily, here in FL we don't have to worry about that much. But that brings into question about the heat in FL and AC units and if we want to run our ovens in the summer.

Someone here has to be smart enough to answer these things.

[onguitar]

Microwaves are 50 to 70% more efficient than conventional electric ovens for reheating small things. For big things you are better off using the electric oven (which is kind of pointless advice since big things don't fit in small microwaves anyway). The difference is that microwaves heat only the food by making the water molecules super excited. Conventional ovens heat the air and the metal and the food and the room and whatever else while they are at it. On the stove top you have to factor in whether the element and pot size match, etc. aswell. The other advice is use your microwave in summer to keep the room cool, and your big oven in winter to keep the room warm.

But anyway they say you don't save much from cooking appliance efficiency - better off focusing on lighting and household heating etc. And of course food is way better using conventional ovens...

[Ting Ho Dung]

Take a good corn chip, place 4 or 5 on a plate. Cut some nice pepper-jack or plain Monterey jack or just good cheddar cheese on each one. Place one jalapeño pepper slice on each and a dollop of crystal river hot sauce then microwave or 30 to 60 seconds. Long enough to melt the cheese. Enjoy!

Also, I wouldn't want to be without one at work since the nearest restaurant is 20 miles away and an occasional break from sandwiches or salads is nice.

With you on the corn chip and jalapeno. Done it. Been there. But what about doing it in the oven? We used to have little bitty counter top ovens back in the day too. Is thirty seconds what we want? Do we need it? Is it healthy?

[Uncle Thor's Hamer]

There is no residual radiation in the food after being microwaved. So no danger of radiation or electromagnetic fields from your food. As far as healthfulness of the food, the only thing which strikes me as possible is overheating parts of the food in the microwave. Vegetables for example might have areas overheated and thus nutrients damaged. As the vege sits on the plate for a minute the heat evens out and you don't realize one part of it was superheated. Nuking a hot dog or reheating a lasagna won't harm the nutrition afaik.

I've become the family chef and enjoy cooking from scratch. I think the big nutritional problems are most likely related to chemical exposure (pesticides, hormones, meds) from contaminants in the food, and nutritionally vacuous foods due to mass production. When possible I use organics (no not perfect by a long shot). Avoid canola oil when possible. I prefer simple home made sauces, dressings, and toppings vs prepared.

The microwave is really handy for some things but most of my cooking is stove top or oven based. Or grilled outside.

[The Shark]

http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do?ic=48_0&search_query=microwave&search_constraint=4044&depts=F&facet=price%3A%2450+-+%24100&tab_value=Online&clicked_tab_value=Online&&_mm=

How could you do without one at these prices?............

I use mine to warm up food, pop popcorn and heat my orthopedic neck ring. I cook hot dogs in water/beer.

[DaveL]

http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do?ic=48_0&search_query=microwave&search_constraint=4044&depts=F&facet=price%3A%2450+-+%24100&tab_value=Online&clicked_tab_value=Online&&_mm=

How could you do without one at these prices?............

I use mine to warm up food, pop popcorn and heat my orthopedic neck ring. I cook hot dogs in water/beer.

You could probably find one on craigslist for $20 or free.... am totally serious

[Punkavenger]

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/05/18/microwave-hazards.aspx

[The Shark]

http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do?ic=48_0&search_query=microwave&search_constraint=4044&depts=F&facet=price%3A%2450+-+%24100&tab_value=Online&clicked_tab_value=Online&&_mm=

How could you do without one at these prices?............

I use mine to warm up food, pop popcorn and heat my orthopedic neck ring. I cook hot dogs in water/beer.

You could probably find one on craigslist for $20 or free.... am totally serious

You're making my point.

[Ting Ho Dung]

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/05/18/microwave-hazards.aspx

Pretty radical artical. I wonder how much of it is true. Hopefully none but it does bear noting. Freezing food also changes the molecular structure of the cells. I think everyone would agree that eating food in their natural state is best but who likes raw brocoli? But for now I'm going to see how long we can go without a microwave.

[3of5]

I got a microwave with a carousel for $29 at Target a couple of years back. It is all I need in a microwave oven. My wife and I are both serious home cooks so the mw is mostly for defrosting or rewarming any leftovers that are leftover to warm over. Mw is good for streaming vegetables. Very fast. An average size artichoke is steamed in about 8 minutes. If covered, you only need a tiny amount of water so you lose few of the vitamins. Most of the vitamins are lost in the cooking water and steam. That being said I prefer vegetables grilled outside or stir fried in a wok.

[JohnnyB]

For Christmas my step-daughter and her husband gave us one of these, but it was more like $139 from Costco.

Previously I would have agreed with everyone about the downsides of microwaves--the chewy bread, the inconsistent heating, the non-organic feel of the reheated food. But not anymore. These Panasonic Genius Inverter Technology microwaves rewrite the rules. If you put in some leftovers to reheat, press the "Sensor Reheat" button followed by "Start." In response this microwave monitors the heat and moisture coming off the food it's reheating and adjusts the output level and timing accordingly. When I put some leftover chicken in and reheat by this method, it comes out as though it was freshly baked or roasted in a conventional oven, heated through uniformly, no toughness, no cold spots, no shit. It also has separate buttons for popcorn, breakfast, lunch/snack, dinner, beverages, etc. It's almost worth it just for the popcorn--the bag is full to bursting with no uncooked kernels and no scorching. Imagine that!

It uses the same logic control for defrosting (haven't tried it yet but looking forward to it), and you can use it as a reg'lar old microwave, setting the time and power level and doing it manually. Once you've tried Sensor Reheat you won't want to on most things.

I do find that for reheating a hamburger or sandwich it works best to put it in a paper bag, roll it shut, and give it about 40 seconds on high. Perfect hamburger. Sunday night I put it through the acid test--reheating pizza on Sensor Reheat. It came out as though it had been wrapped in foil and placed in a conventional oven for 15-20 mins.

For all this talk about energy consumption, how about consumption of my energy. Aren't labor-saving devices there to save me the labor? On that score this Panasonic rules!

[mathman]

Doesn't seem that Panasonic makes one of those as a over the range model. I wonder if the wall mount kit would work over the Range.

[RichRS6]

Haven't had one for over 6 Years, don't really miss it.

When we had one we found our diet became much more junk orientated, the kids especially as they would nuke anything and everything whenever they got peckish instead of waiting for mealtimes.

Pizza, popcorn, micro burgers, even micro fries, all that shitty stuff that if you didn't have a microwave you probably wouldn't want to eat but if it only takes a couple of seconds somehow becomes much more acceptable, even if the end result is barely palatable.

[JohnnyB]

Doesn't seem that Panasonic makes one of those as a over the range model. I wonder if the wall mount kit would work over the Range.

Thorn (the OP) never said anything about over-the-range. Hamerjunkie did, because Thorn mentioned a $400 replacement cost

This Panasonic is worth replacing the over-the-range MW with a standard hood and putting the Panasonic on the counter or on a microwave cart.

[mathman]

Yea, I know, but the Panasonic looked interesting and we are having to replace ours right now. But we want the over the range mounting to save counter top space and Panasonic doesn't seem to make that model in an over the range mount.