6 ms·

I had the same. Although, i only use up to 3 minutes, so the second dial is very innacurate to my needs. Who puts a microwave on for 30 minutes!?

drran 6y ago
Me. I cook mostly in the microwave, so I program it typically to 25 minutes and more, until a meal will be finished.
- crazygringo 6y ago
  I'm quite fascinated... what exactly do you cook? I've never heard of this. I assume that when you cook for 25+ minutes, you're using the lowest power setting?
  - drran 6y ago
    I cook in the microwave everything, except eggs. I have a large programmable microwave with grill and convection. Most often, I just preprogram microwave to 1) heat water for 4,5-5 minutes at max power to boil it, then 2) keep water hot for meal specific duration from 10 to 60 minutes at 30-40%, like in slow cooker. It works for a single meal, but I'm single, so it works for me. If microwave is not programmable, e.g. at work, then I cook at 60%, but it's a bit hard to guess proper cooking time and get reliable result. I will not publish all recipes there, of course. By a book.
    - AriseAndPass 6y ago
      I'm also very curious to hear how a meal can be cooked in just a microwave. I have severe food allergies and this would be great especially when I travel and stay in places that don't have a full kitchen. Can you point me to a recipe book you'd recommend, if you don't want to post the recipes here?
      - drran 6y ago
        My native language is not English, so I cannot recommend cooking book in English. Cooking in microwave is really simple, when you understand how to regulate cooking temperature with water, and how much time and power you need to cook meal. Example recipe: put into a dish cup of water, half cup of rice, slice of chicken at top. Cook for about 20 minutes at 600W, or (easier) cook at 900W for 5m, to boil water, then continue to cook at about 40% for about 18m. If it undercooked: warm it again and keep warm for some time. If it overcooked or boiled out: next time add more water or/and reduce cooking time and/or power. At the end, add butter, vegetables, salt, etc. To keep the meal warm at low power and to avoid excessive drying at high power, cover the dish with another dish. Similar recipe here: https://steamykitchen.com/22048-how-to-cook-rice-microwave.html https://steamykitchen.com/22048-how-to-cook-rice-microwave.h...
      - cinntaile 6y ago
        Cooking entire meals by using a microwave was a trend sometime during the 70s or 80s so check out the cooking book shelves in a second hand store or eBay.
      - adrian_b 6y ago
        After my parents died so the quantities of food to be cooked became smaller I have also transitioned to cooking only with microwaves. However, I had abandoned other techniques like frying many years ago, so the fact that using microwaves is restricted to steaming and boiling poses no problem for me. I boil food that requires added water, e.g. rice, corn flour, semolina or other dry cereals and dry legumes, such as dry beans, lentils and so on. I cook by steaming (in glass vessels with lids) meat, fish, invertebrates, fresh and frozen vegetables (e.g. broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, celery, onion, cabbage and many others), certain fruits (e.g. quinces), potatoes, sweet potatoes, sweet corn, green peas or beans and so on. Most vegetables can be steamed or boiled at full power, depending on kind and quantity at times between 5 min and 15 min, while animal food usually requires steaming at reduced power (e.g. 440 W) for 15 min to 20 min (after a short time at high power to preheat). I drink a lot of herbal teas and I make those using a glass teapot in which I put 1 liter of water, I preheat for 4 min, I add 2 tea bags, then I heat again for 2 min. It is much more tasty than made on a kitchen stove. Using microwaves has 2 advantages: much shorter time and perfect reproducibility. Because I eat only food that I cook myself from raw ingredients, before converting to microwaves I wasted a large part of one of the weekend days with cooking food for all the next week. Now I cook each day mostly what I am eating that day, wasting just 15 to 20 min at most, on average, except when some ingredients can not be partitioned in small enough portions, e.g. a packet of meat that must all be cooked immediately, when that ingredient after cooking will be kept refrigerated and parts of it added each day to whatever else I am cooking. Every time I am buying something that I have not cooked before at microwaves, that may require a little experimentation to determine the right cooking time. However, once the time is known, it will be used forever in the future, because the results will be the same. Once you have steamed or boiled the food ingredients that require thermal processing, they can be mixed as you wish according to any traditional recipes.
    - adrian_b 6y ago
      Now I cook in the microwave everything, even eggs. While some ways to cook eggs may be trickier, there exists at least one very simple way. Break one egg and put the content into a glass cup (thermoresistant). Add a little oil (e.g. olive oil) and salt. Beat well with a fork, then 1 minute at microwaves should be enough.
kennydude 6y ago
They're so inacurate it hurts. My parents one is so bad that you have to put it to 5 minutes before it'll do anything, manually count 2 minutes, then stop it.
- jedimastert 6y ago
  Most mechanical timers are like that, like kitchen timers too. They need a certain amount of force to get over the static friction of starting the device. Instructions will generally tell you to wind past a certain point (in your case, probably 5 minutes) and then wind back to your preferred time.
ThePadawan 6y ago
That seems like a good setting to thaw meat (on very low wattage).
- canofbars 6y ago
  I think the majority of people (including myself) have never actually adjusted a microwave from full power. I imagine it would do a lot better at defrosting meat without drying out the outside.
  - ThePadawan 6y ago
    Last time I bought a microwave, I distinctly remember scrolling past the best selling models until I got to one (that still had good ratings) with just two rotary dials. Wattage and time. I either want low wattage + long duration or vice versa, so dials (which allow very speedy rotation between the endpoints) are absolutely awesome for the job.
justnotworthit 6y ago
0-5 should be half the dial; You need increasingly less resolution past that. I assume that would greatly increase the electro/mechanical (?) complexity of the dial (increasing cost).
wincy 6y ago
Microwave a family sized frozen lasagna or defrosting a whole chicken are the only things that come to mind.

drran 6y ago

Me. I cook mostly in the microwave, so I program it typically to 25 minutes and more, until a meal will be finished.

crazygringo 6y ago
I'm quite fascinated... what exactly do you cook? I've never heard of this. I assume that when you cook for 25+ minutes, you're using the lowest power setting?
- drran 6y ago
  I cook in the microwave everything, except eggs. I have a large programmable microwave with grill and convection. Most often, I just preprogram microwave to 1) heat water for 4,5-5 minutes at max power to boil it, then 2) keep water hot for meal specific duration from 10 to 60 minutes at 30-40%, like in slow cooker. It works for a single meal, but I'm single, so it works for me. If microwave is not programmable, e.g. at work, then I cook at 60%, but it's a bit hard to guess proper cooking time and get reliable result. I will not publish all recipes there, of course. By a book.
  - AriseAndPass 6y ago
    I'm also very curious to hear how a meal can be cooked in just a microwave. I have severe food allergies and this would be great especially when I travel and stay in places that don't have a full kitchen. Can you point me to a recipe book you'd recommend, if you don't want to post the recipes here?
    - drran 6y ago
      My native language is not English, so I cannot recommend cooking book in English. Cooking in microwave is really simple, when you understand how to regulate cooking temperature with water, and how much time and power you need to cook meal. Example recipe: put into a dish cup of water, half cup of rice, slice of chicken at top. Cook for about 20 minutes at 600W, or (easier) cook at 900W for 5m, to boil water, then continue to cook at about 40% for about 18m. If it undercooked: warm it again and keep warm for some time. If it overcooked or boiled out: next time add more water or/and reduce cooking time and/or power. At the end, add butter, vegetables, salt, etc. To keep the meal warm at low power and to avoid excessive drying at high power, cover the dish with another dish. Similar recipe here: https://steamykitchen.com/22048-how-to-cook-rice-microwave.html https://steamykitchen.com/22048-how-to-cook-rice-microwave.h...
    - cinntaile 6y ago
      Cooking entire meals by using a microwave was a trend sometime during the 70s or 80s so check out the cooking book shelves in a second hand store or eBay.
    - adrian_b 6y ago
      After my parents died so the quantities of food to be cooked became smaller I have also transitioned to cooking only with microwaves. However, I had abandoned other techniques like frying many years ago, so the fact that using microwaves is restricted to steaming and boiling poses no problem for me. I boil food that requires added water, e.g. rice, corn flour, semolina or other dry cereals and dry legumes, such as dry beans, lentils and so on. I cook by steaming (in glass vessels with lids) meat, fish, invertebrates, fresh and frozen vegetables (e.g. broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, celery, onion, cabbage and many others), certain fruits (e.g. quinces), potatoes, sweet potatoes, sweet corn, green peas or beans and so on. Most vegetables can be steamed or boiled at full power, depending on kind and quantity at times between 5 min and 15 min, while animal food usually requires steaming at reduced power (e.g. 440 W) for 15 min to 20 min (after a short time at high power to preheat). I drink a lot of herbal teas and I make those using a glass teapot in which I put 1 liter of water, I preheat for 4 min, I add 2 tea bags, then I heat again for 2 min. It is much more tasty than made on a kitchen stove. Using microwaves has 2 advantages: much shorter time and perfect reproducibility. Because I eat only food that I cook myself from raw ingredients, before converting to microwaves I wasted a large part of one of the weekend days with cooking food for all the next week. Now I cook each day mostly what I am eating that day, wasting just 15 to 20 min at most, on average, except when some ingredients can not be partitioned in small enough portions, e.g. a packet of meat that must all be cooked immediately, when that ingredient after cooking will be kept refrigerated and parts of it added each day to whatever else I am cooking. Every time I am buying something that I have not cooked before at microwaves, that may require a little experimentation to determine the right cooking time. However, once the time is known, it will be used forever in the future, because the results will be the same. Once you have steamed or boiled the food ingredients that require thermal processing, they can be mixed as you wish according to any traditional recipes.
  - adrian_b 6y ago
    Now I cook in the microwave everything, even eggs. While some ways to cook eggs may be trickier, there exists at least one very simple way. Break one egg and put the content into a glass cup (thermoresistant). Add a little oil (e.g. olive oil) and salt. Beat well with a fork, then 1 minute at microwaves should be enough.

kennydude 6y ago

They're so inacurate it hurts. My parents one is so bad that you have to put it to 5 minutes before it'll do anything, manually count 2 minutes, then stop it.

jedimastert 6y ago
Most mechanical timers are like that, like kitchen timers too. They need a certain amount of force to get over the static friction of starting the device. Instructions will generally tell you to wind past a certain point (in your case, probably 5 minutes) and then wind back to your preferred time.

ThePadawan 6y ago

That seems like a good setting to thaw meat (on very low wattage).

canofbars 6y ago
I think the majority of people (including myself) have never actually adjusted a microwave from full power. I imagine it would do a lot better at defrosting meat without drying out the outside.
- ThePadawan 6y ago
  Last time I bought a microwave, I distinctly remember scrolling past the best selling models until I got to one (that still had good ratings) with just two rotary dials. Wattage and time. I either want low wattage + long duration or vice versa, so dials (which allow very speedy rotation between the endpoints) are absolutely awesome for the job.

justnotworthit 6y ago

0-5 should be half the dial; You need increasingly less resolution past that. I assume that would greatly increase the electro/mechanical (?) complexity of the dial (increasing cost).

wincy 6y ago

Microwave a family sized frozen lasagna or defrosting a whole chicken are the only things that come to mind.