The Baking Queen

You’ll hear a lot of advice about cooking in the microwave, and some of it’s even contradictory. If you’re confused about microwave cooking, don’t worry. Many other people aren’t sure about this fast and easy food preparation method, either. Here are a few tips to help you cook in the microwave with success.

Use the right plastics. Plastics serve many purposes in our kitchens, but not all of them take heat well. Some will melt and deform in the microwave. Others will leach harmful toxins into your food. That means it’s important to heat in plastics that are meant to be used in the microwave. Don’t be tempted to microwave butter tubs and similar packages, and only heat pre packaged foods that have microwaved instructions. If the food doesn’t come with instructions, get rid of the packaging before you heat it.

Food cooks best in the microwave if you use small pieces. Larger items should be cut into pieces of similar shape and size, and evenly spread in your cooking dish. You’ll need to move or rotate some of the food while it’s cooking. Thick areas should be near the outside walls of the container, since the outer part of foods cook faster in the microwave.

You should pierce foods that have any kind of skin or shell before you cook them. Vegetables and eggs fall into this category. If you don’t pierces these foods, they could explode from built up steam inside them. It’s also important to use a slightly larger container than you would in an ordinary oven – this helps your food heat more evently. Round or oval containers work better than rectangular or square ones because corners can create a heat buildup, overcooking some areas.

If using recipes, cook for the lower part of the state time range. It’s easy to cook food for a little bit longer, but you can’t un-cook anything! If your microwave doesn’t have a turntable, you’ll need to periodically stop it so that you can rotate the food inside. Remember that dishes inside the microwave will be very hot. An oven pad or mitt should be used to prevent burns.

If you cover a food in a conventional oven, use a lid in the microwave so that moisture will be retained and cooking will occur evenly. Leave all lids slightly open so that pressure won’t build up inside the container, and lift lids carefully when you remove food. Turn the opening away from you when you do this to prevent yourself from being burned. If food needs to be salted, do this after cooking it. That’s because salt can cause microwaved foods to dry out.

When baking, you can use the microwave to help you with minor tasks. For instance, sticks of butter can be softened by heating on half power for thirty seconds. When warming heavy cream or sour cream, use a low setting to prevent curdling. Hardened brown sugar can be made soft again by microwaving it in a loosely covered container with a slice of apple or piece of bread. Bread crumbs are made by microwaving cubed bread until stale, then crushing it inside a plastic bag.

Frozen meat can be separated by defrosting for thirty seconds to a minute. Then, if you wish to cook it further, arrange it evenly in the dish. You can also drain hamburger fat by microwaving the meat in a plastic colander on top of a bowl or other dish. The fat runs into the dish and out of the meat.

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