TOT: one for you scientists

[polygonum]

I have yet to have acceptable spuds out of microwave.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I have. Lots. they are essentially baked spuds without the dried out cover.

If you want to be a bot more damp, add a little water and cover.

If you want a baker, microwave for 10-15 and the finish in the oven, which will now be hot enough ...:-)

[polygonum]

I have tried many microwaved bakers. Somehow, even if they are transferred to a conventional oven at some point, they are never as nice as fully baked.

Mind, I think an awful lot of tatties these days are excessively wet and never make good bakers at all. Suspect the farmers water them a lot to increase tonnage.

[Tim+]

fully baked.

increase tonnage.

I've often thought that farmers should be paid for potatoes by dry weight. As you say, they're almost all bloated with water these days and almost uniformly tasteless.

Tim

[The Natural Philosopher]

fully baked.

increase tonnage.

correct.

try avoiding maris piper, king edward and concentrate in desiree, and if you can find it vanessa. That has to be my favorite late early..

[polygonum]

The best I have had in recent years have been Red Duke of York - but they tend to be expensive. At their best Rooster are OK, but tend to have a lot of black areas. Suspect Rooster are some sort of offspring of Desiree?

Don't remember Vanessa - will look out for them.

Tend to avoid the "composer" ones - Mozart, Vivaldi, etc.

[Simon Brown]

And stops the microwaves from getting into the peas directly too.

That one is less likely to be a problem with normal quantities of boiling water and peas. You just pour the lot through a sieve or use the lid to keep the peas in the container while pouring off the water. Sure, it will take marginally longer with more water, but nothing like the time to boil the water first.

[Simon Brown]

It does absorb it well enough for it to be perfectly viable to heat anything frozen solid, in the microwave.

You don?t get that effect when heating frozen stuff like pies or meat in the microwave.

I do that every time I zap a cup of peas in the microwave with no added water. Very fast indeed.

[The Natural Philosopher]

not tried those. will check em out.

Rooster are probably rebranded desiree

rare in shops. I buy em from farmers in sacks.

yes...

[Tim+]

fully baked.

increase tonnage.

When Red Roosters first hit the shelves were a rich yellow colour and so hard they were almost woody (and they were very tasty). Since then, they've become watery pretty much like most other varieties.

Tim

[Ian Jackson]

I have microwave 'baked' potatoes nearly every day.

Typically, in my 800W oven, depending on the size of the potato, up to

1.5 minutes lying on one side, then 1.5 minutes lying on the other side. [In my oven, the lower side cooks fastest.] Leave for 1 minute, then on the lowest power setting (mine is 'Warm'), up to 8 minutes. Done carefully, the resulting potato is 'al dente' - cooked, but still slightly crisp - which really brings out the flavour.

[Apellation Controlee]

Warmed from the inside out?

[Martin Brown]

Roughly speaking that is true.

Microwave radiation penetrates the food and heats it to a depth broadly comparable with half it's wavelength which for 2.45GHz is about 6cm.

Cooking a prepared grape in a microwave oven is somewhat amusing although the plasma ball it produces may damage the internals. Plenty of youtube videos around of what happens:

[Jim Lesurf]

Alas, "viable" != "most efficient" returns TRUE. :-)

How did you measure the VSWR? And how did it change with time as different parts of your 'pie' melted? Did you adopt the approach theorists love: i.e. start with a spherical pie? How did this compare with when you tried one pea?

Fine as an anecdote. How about some controlled comparison measurements, though? That way it would be easier for people to have a basis for drawing a reliable general conclusion rather than asserting their beliefs based on a few examples.

N.B. I'm not advocating either opinion. Just pointing out the lack of assessable data in this thread where people are firmly asserting their conflicting personal beliefs. I've noticed that the title of this thread invites "scientists" to consider the content. So I'm reminding people of what science is based upon. :-)

Slainte,

Jim

[brightside S9]

Does this help?

[Paul D Smith]

++++++++++ Worth looking up "inverse backed alaska". So you can....

- boil water in an "ice-cup"

- heat jam inside ice cream etc., etc.

And you might want to look up the sparking grape-peel whilst you're at it. Hours of fun for the amateur scientist with a microwave :-).

Paul DS

[whisky-dave]

But it's less efficinet which is one of the reason the defrost function is there. Microwaves use the fact that fast moving molecules get hot, trouble with solid water is the molicules can't move much and until they do the wat er won;t get very hot. Teh did a test and found that it takes a lot longer to heat from ice than from the equvalant amount of cold water (just above f reezing).

When I cook peas I add a 'splash' of just boiled water to the frozen peas t hen nuke them usually at 3/4 power for about 2-3 mins.

I think you do that's why the cooking time is significanlty longer when coo king from frozen, it's all about rasing teh temerature of the food.

typically to get it from 8C to 80C+ can take around 5mins from chilled, from frozen -15C to get it to the point of 5C can take 5mins too.

I can boil water quicker is a kettle than the microwave.

Try nuking an ice cube see how long it takes.

[Jim Lesurf]

Thanks for that. I've bookmarked it. :-) Quite a nice page on the behaviour of pure liquid water in bulk. Shaped films contaminated with various substances thinly placed over other items, or inside them, with all dimensions much smaller than the wavelength can complicate the issue, though.

Slainte,

Jim

[polygonum]

the 'microwave' radiation as effectively as water.

frozen solid, in the microwave.

there. Microwaves use the fact that fast moving molecules get hot, trouble with solid water is the molicules can't move much and until they do the water won;t get very hot. Teh did a test and found that it takes a lot longer to heat from ice than from the equvalant amount of cold water (just above freezing).

nuke them usually at 3/4 power for about 2-3 mins.

It seems fairly understandable that it takes longer from frozen simply because of the latent heat of freezing/melting. Has your experiment allowed for that?

[Simon Brown]

Even real scientists don?t bother to drive head first into a brick wall with no helmet to prove that that does damage your head just a tad at the higher speeds.