Slow microwave ovens

[William Gothberg]

Funny how the food ends up at eating temperature whereas it was -20C. Therefore it's defrosted. Apply heat to a frozen thing, thing gets warmer, simple physics.

[William Gothberg]

Can we not have a different frequency which goes deeper before being absorbed? Or even a combination of more than one frequency? Or a choice depending on the food you're cooking?

Depends what you're cooking/heating in there. If I put in a large bowl of vegetables in cold water, it takes quite a while to get to boiling point before the veg starts to cook. And since it's chopped veg in water, everything gets heated, nothing is more than a cm deep. Doubling the power would heat them up way faster.

[William Gothberg]

[insert very rude comment about Lynn]

[William Gothberg]

I don't own a design company, I was asking WHY. FFS just answer the question.

[William Gothberg]

I can't comment on the meat as I'm a vegetarian, but surely soup, once any part reaches boiling or near boiling, is going to bubble about and convect by moving the liquid about. When I cook soup, I just stir it when it's finished.

Anyway, for bigger things like a roast, what we need is a different frequency of microwaves that penetrates deeper. Must be possible.

[William Gothberg]

I can't say many things I cook have large solid lumps. All ready meals are pretty much fluid, so convection and conduction can take place, and almost everything I cook is a dish of something which is only 2 inches deep.

Mine thaws a frozen (already cooked) pizza extremely well, on full power. It turns a -20C pizza into a +40C pizza in 4 minutes.

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

My wife of 28 years died in April.

[William Gothberg]

Funny how I can defrost stuff on full power just fine.

I don't microwave huge lumps of food like that. So, you could have a 2kW microwave where anyone cooking a roast could still turn it down to what they used to use, but if you want to heat soup, or defrost a pizza, you can use 2kW and get it done very quickly.

Only if your food is more than twice as thick as the microwave penetration distance.

Doesn't happen to me at all. List some of the foods that go wrong when reheated on full power.

[Bill Wright]

It's been a hell of a year for quite a few of us in the group, I think.

Bill

[Bill Wright]

I've just heated some sardines. Low power is OK but medium or high and the bones explode.

Bill

[William Gothberg]

In that case I deeply apologise. I am truly sorry to hear that, no matter how much we hate each other.

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

Yes, and all of the best for 2019.

[Bill Wright]

The microwave energy doesn't magically focus in the deep interior of the food and heat it from the inside outwards. The microwaves only penetrate the first centimetre or two before losing sufficient of their energy in this process so as to have insignificant effect on the deeper interior which therefore relies upon conduction from the hotter outer portions to raise its temperature sufficiently to kill any pathogenic micro-organisms so as to eliminate the risk of food poisoning.

"What's he on about Grandad?"

"Well, he says when you put stuff in the micro it gets hot more on the outside than on the inside. Microwaves work by invisible waves, little tiny ones."

"Could I see them with my microscope?"

"Well no because as well as being tiny they're invisible."

"How do people know they're there then?"

"Err, because they warm food up, for one thing."

"What else?"

"Well, erm, they make television work. That's why we have aerials, to pick the waves up."

"Do the aerials get warmed up by the waves then?"

"No."

"Why not? If the food gets warmed up..."

"Look, let's get back to the microwave oven. You see, the waves can only go into the food about half an inch..."

"Is that about ten centimeters?"

"Tell you what. How about if you have another go on your X Box?"

******

The microwave energy doesn't magically focus in the deep interior of the food and heat it from the inside outwards. The microwaves only penetrate the first centimetre or two before losing sufficient of their energy in this process so as to have insignificant effect on the deeper interior which therefore relies upon conduction from the hotter outer portions to raise its temperature sufficiently to kill any pathogenic micro-organisms so as to eliminate the risk of food poisoning. (77 words; many of them long)

Shorter version for those who fall asleep half way through long paragraphs: The microwaves heat food from the outside. They don't penetrate very far, so the inner parts of the food are cooked by conduction. If these parts get hot enough the germs are killed. (33 words)

Bill

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

Thank you for your kind words. Hate? I do not hate you.

[Bill Wright]

No it isn't.

Bill

[William Gothberg]

If you don't hate me, then why the er.... [consults dictionary] animosity in every post to me? You don't enter any discussion, you just say "prick", "wanker", etc.

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

Those words do not mean hate.

[William Gothberg]

I tend not to call people that unless I hate them. I hate people who don't drive properly, so I shout "wanker".

So, you still love me then?

[dkol]

The frequency used is already the one where water has the best absorption band.

No point when those are worse.

It doesn't.

Because there is a lot more water to heat.

Yes but you shouldn't be using that much water when microwaving chopped veg. When you microwave it with the right amount of water it will cook much faster.

[dkol]