I bought what I think was BestBuy's second cheapest microwave oven. 1) the bettter ones were also deeper, and I like having counter space in front of it 2) I figured, and it's still true, that things like Auto-cook, require me to consider what kind of food it is and what it weighs, or how many "portions" it is. Very hard for me. Instead what I do is look at the food and in one step I decide how long to cook it. Sort of like Mr. trump looks at a document and unclassifies it. Very cerebral.
So what is the biggest weakness of the new oven? Something I never would have considered. For the old one, a Sharp, it was easy to rotate the glass turntable, if it stopped with the food on the far side. The new one, a GE, it's not easy to rotate, certainly not with just the tip of two fingers. I'm surprised. I would have thought they all work the same way.
I will suggest anyone who wants to buy a new microwave to get the feature that the microwave can sense steam is coming out of the food that's being cooked.
Panasonic was the first one that has that feature for many years. Now LG has it. LG seems to be better than Panasonic now.
I can put instant coffee powder in a cup of water and press the "sensor reheat" button. It will nuke it until it starts boiling and then beeps and stops. Then I can decide how much longer I want to heat it.
It has "sensor cook" functions to cook oatmeal, potato, rice, etc., all based on the steam sensor capability.
It actually does a nice job of cooking rice. You don't have to input the amount you have, because it can sense the steam coming out when it starts to boil, and then it will automatically adjust the time and power after that.
LG NeoChef 2.0 Cu. Ft. 1200W Countertop Microwave, Black Stainless Steel
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Spec & User Manual
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Product details
The added support means you can place even tall or heavy items anywhere you like without fear of them tipping over while heating. Bright LED lighting makes it easy to check on the progress of your food while offering greater energy efficiency than traditional lighting. Best of all they have been designed with practicality in mind; the smooth surface easily wipes clean. Spills Splatters Don't sweat it. LG's Easy Clean interior - assisted by Anti-Bacterial Coating - resists stains and buildup, so cleaning your microwave doesn't have to be a chore. Simply wipe with a damp cloth; no chemicals, no scrubbing, no problem.
Easy Clean gray interior with LED lighting (1.0-watt LED lamp)
Smooth Touch glass controls with clock/timer and child lock
Smart Inverter technology for better results
1200 watts of power with 10 power levels
7 Sensor Cook options: Potato, Fresh Vegetable, Frozen Vegetable, Frozen Entrecote's, Bacon, Rice, Soften Butter
5 Sensor Reheat options: Beverage, Casserole, Pizza, Dinner Plate, Pie
4 Defrost options (by weight): Meat, Poultry, Fish, Bread Popcorn, quick start, and more/fewer options Smart Diagnosis
That's not the way you cook rice in microwave with "sensor cook" feature, or InstantPot electric pressure cooker. Almost the same rule of thumb, you use one cup of water for each cup of rice in a 1:1 ratio. You don't "boil the water off" like in electric rice cooker, or manually in a pot on the stove.
I cook acorn squash by cutting it in half, coring out the seeds, placing it face down on a plate, adding 2 Tsp water, and covering tightly with microwave safe plastic wrap. Nuke on high for 10 minutes. About 1/2 the water steams out from under the plastic wrap during cooking. When cooking any frozen veggie, steam escapes from any/all of my microwave cooking containers minutes prior to completion of the cook time (good thing or the containers would explode). Sounds as though this "sensor cook" feature would interfere. When I reheat leftovers, I generally use
5/10 or 6/10 power and never want steam (the food would be overcooked and/or dried out). Can't think of anything I use the microwave for where this feature would be useful.
Definitely useful in making instant coffee and reheating coffee. It will stop when steam starts coming out. Without this feature you will have to estimate the time. If you overestimate the time then you'll have a lot of spilled coffee to wipe off the glass turntable inside the microwave oven.
I used to use my InstantPot electric pressure cooker to cook rice, with rice to water at 1:1 ratio. It is very good, but cooking one cup of rice and having to clean the inner pot is a chore. So I use my this microwave with 'sensor cook' rice setting. I put one cup of rice and one cup of water into a 1 qt Pyrex measure cup. The steam sensor automatically adjust the power and cooking time. I eat directly from the Pyrex cup. No big pot to wash for cooking 1 cup of rice.
Rice will absorb water at 1:1 ratio (1 cup rice to 1 cup water). But if you cook rice on a stove or in an electric rice cooker, you have to put excess water to boil it dry then the rice is done. Normally electric rice cooker is (1 : 1 ¼) rice to water ratio, more if you cook brown rice use (1 : 1 ¾) because brown rice needs longer time to absorb water.
Water will boil at 100C/212F. An electric rice cooker has a temperature sensor at the bottom to detect the temperature. It will keep boiling until it detects that the temperature has risen above 100C/212F. That's how electric rice cooker works by boiling the excess away until there is no more excess water.
In pressure cooker or microwave you put exactly 1:1 ratio so there is no water to boil away. You end up with perfectly cooked rice. You don't have to "drain the excess water" because you have not put in the excess water to begin with.
I do it by weight, 30g long grain rice, 120g of water.
Doesn't look anything like 1:1 ratio by volume.
When I used to do it on a stove, I always ended up with lots of water and strained the cooked rice at the end. But you have to be careful, the rice can very easily boil over that way.
The drain excess water was about doing it on the stove.
Those have always been the two alternate ways of cooking rice, end up with no water or strain off the excess water when trying the rice shows that it is cooked.
Yeah, that's why I do the rice in the microwave in a bigger square rigid bakelite thing with a lid. The curry goes into that after the rice is cooked and I eat it using a splayd.
That way there is only the one thing to wash and it works fine in the dishwasher.
I just do it by time. 2 mins on full power, 10 mins on med low. I had to fiddle a bit to get the timing right but that works fine.
I can't see how it can do that unless it actually detects when there is no longer any steam being produced.
I prefer the flatter square bakelite thing with a lid.
It doesn't matter how much water you use. Rice itself will absorb water at 1:1 ratio.
All the excess water will not be absorbed by the rice grains.
Nobody measure rice by weight. In cooking rice everybody use volume, namely cups. And one cup is 180ml, not 250ml in rice measuring cups (the plastic cup that comes with every new rice cooker).
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You said you use 30g long grain rice with 120g water. That would be almost 1:4 rice to water ratio. Too much water to boil away means you overcook the rice. You will end up with mushy watery rice.
Read my post again. If you cannot understand what I have explained, then it will be just wasting my time to repeat my explanation again.
Because you put too much water so you boiled it for too long. The starch in the rice started to thicken the water and you ended up boiling thick starch soup.
Even in conventional cooking, your cooking time actually starts at the point the water starts to boil. That's why most cooking instructions say: "Bring water to a rolling boil, then ......".
You have to clear you mindset and think carefully. This is a different way of cooking.
The microwave is computerized. It can determine the amount of food you put into the microwave automatically by how long it takes for the steam to occur. In this case for the "sensor cook" rice setting, It will bring to water to a boil, then know how much water there is, and reduce the power to maintain temperature slightly below 100C/212F and then stop after the appropriate length of time the computer has determined. You will get perfectly cooked rice if you correctly use 1:1 rice to water ratio.
There are other sensor cook settings for different kinds of food like bacon, oatmeal, vegetable, potato, etc.
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