Microwave cooking (not reheating)

[Fire Me Boy!]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/09/di...ur-coffee.html

Creating a Dish, Not Just Reheating One

ALLOW me to introduce you to your microwave. I met mine just the other week.

This mysterious, stigmatized box has acquired a reputation as a mere popcorn popper and leftover heater-upper. But it can do so much more. It can fry. It can dry. It can produce a perfectly steamed whole bass with ginger and scallions, topped with fried parsley. Just give it four minutes.

Game-changing new uses like that were brought to my attention with the release of “Modernist Cuisine at Home,” a home-cook-friendly iteration of “Modernist Cuisine,” the six-volume megabook on the science of contemporary cooking that routinely calls for tools like a centrifuge. The “At Home” recipes can still be quite demanding (a 45-minute scrambled egg, a 29-hour roast chicken), but when I got to the chapter on the microwave, my world flipped on its axis.

“The microwave tends to be an underappreciated thing in the kitchen,” the author Nathan Myhrvold told me over the phone. “It’s overused for one set of tasks and underused for another.”

Microwave cooking — not reheating, but cooking — can be particularly healthful, something to keep in mind in the wake of the holiday cookie overload. Steaming involves no added fat, and frying requires just a swipe of oil.

Read the rest: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/09/di...l?pagewanted=2

[Fire Me Boy!]

Originally Posted by FAX

I'm not buying this idea. At all. Nope. Not buying it.

How many Michelin Star meals have been cooked in a microwave, I ask you? None, I'd wager.

Food needs fire. Real fire. Not some sort of bizarre, magical device that blasts invisible rays inside a box in order to agitate the cellular structure of a foodstuff.

As Mr. Iowanian would say, "If you want to excite a molecule, play with your pecker."

FAX

I'd wager you might be surprised. Certainly not 100 percent of the meal, but components - wouldn't surprise me at all, depending on the chef.

Wylie Dufresne is a pretty well-known chef.

"Wylie Dufresne has four commercial microwaves at his restaurant, WD-50, that he has used for various applications, including cooking foie gras (“beautiful results in terms of texture”) and vegetables. He likes the machine’s “hands-free element” and its consistency."

[Fire Me Boy!]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

WTF? A $100 cookbook?

To hell with that crap.

I got it for Christmas, and it's really quite interesting.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

WTF? A $100 cookbook?

To hell with that crap.

That'll buy something like 80 burgers on McDonalds' value menu.

[ptlyon]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

That'll buy something like 80 burgers on McDonalds' value menu.

Anybody have that white cheddar onion burger yet? Is it good?

[scott free]

Some things i regularly cook in a microwave are frozen veggies in a sealed container with a bit of water, leaves them perfectly cooked every time with plenty of crunch, if i'm in a hurry i'll steam a piece of fish that way also, with no really noticeable difference in quality, definitely bacon.

I use the broiler function it has to crisp up cold pizza, or even do the occasional steak under it.

You can do some decent cooking in one.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Fire Me Boy!

I got it for Christmas, and it's really quite interesting.

It will be equally interesting when it comes out in paperback for $30.

It looks really interesting, I'll give you that. It's clearly something quite different from your standard Betty Crocker Red Book or another damn Pioneer Woman cookbook, but with so much stuff available online, I'll just stick with that.

I do like my set of Good Eats hardbacks, but three of those combined cost less than $100.

[Fire Me Boy!]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

It will be equally interesting when it comes out in paperback for $30.

It looks really interesting, I'll give you that. It's clearly something quite different from your standard Betty Crocker Red Book or another damn Pioneer Woman cookbook, but with so much stuff available online, I'll just stick with that.

I do like my set of Good Eats hardbacks, but three of those combined cost less than $100.

The Modernist Cuisine at Home book is nothing like any of those books. And I would genuinely be really surprised if it's ever out in paperback. It's a swank book - full-color, very high quality, huge, and gorgeous.

[FAX]

Originally Posted by Fire Me Boy!

I'd wager you might be surprised. Certainly not 100 percent of the meal, but components - wouldn't surprise me at all, depending on the chef.

Wylie Dufresne is a pretty well-known chef.

"Wylie Dufresne has four commercial microwaves at his restaurant, WD-50, that he has used for various applications, including cooking foie gras (“beautiful results in terms of texture”) and vegetables. He likes the machine’s “hands-free element” and its consistency."

Okay ... Wylie has won one Michelin star for his NYC restaurant named after an oil. I'm not certain if he still has it, though. It's been awhile, apparently.

Still, was the star awarded for his nuclearized foie gras? I do not know.

But it gets worse. Foie gras is typically made from duck liver ... the fatter, the better. So, the growers stuff pipes down the throats of ducks in order to force feed the little ducks fat which, in turn, makes their liver fatter which, in turn, makes their poor, little fatty livers more desirable. It's an horrific practice. And your microwave hero condones the practice. Not only that, but he takes those poor, little ducks' livers and microwaves them!!! Good God, man!!!

FAX

[ptlyon]

Originally Posted by FAX

Okay ... Wylie has won one Michelin star for his NYC restaurant named after an oil. I'm not certain if he still has it, though. It's been awhile, apparently.

Still, was the star awarded for his nuclearized foie gras? I do not know.

But it gets worse. Foie gras is typically made from duck liver ... the fatter, the better. So, the growers stuff pipes down the throats of ducks in order to force feed the little ducks fat which, in turn, makes their liver fatter which, in turn, makes their poor, little fatty livers more desirable. It's an horrific practice. And your microwave hero condones the practice. Not only that, but he takes those poor, little ducks' livers and microwaves them!!! Good God, man!!!

FAX

**** ducks. They deserve to die.

[Bump]

I wouldn't want to use a microwave, **** that. I don't think it would be a great idea cooking out of the microwave a lot too, that just doesn't sit well with me.

[Fire Me Boy!]

Originally Posted by FAX

Okay ... Wylie has won one Michelin star for his NYC restaurant named after an oil. I'm not certain if he still has it, though. It's been awhile, apparently.

Still, was the star awarded for his nuclearized foie gras? I do not know.

But it gets worse. Foie gras is typically made from duck liver ... the fatter, the better. So, the growers stuff pipes down the throats of ducks in order to force feed the little ducks fat which, in turn, makes their liver fatter which, in turn, makes their poor, little fatty livers more desirable. It's an horrific practice. And your microwave hero condones the practice. Not only that, but he takes those poor, little ducks' livers and microwaves them!!! Good God, man!!!

FAX

I'm just taking issue with this. I'm not a fan of the microwave, but I'm willing to admit I may not have been using it in the proper applications and in the proper manner. At least the NYT reporter suggests it's one of the professional kitchen's secret tools.

In any case, I thought it was an interesting article, and I'm looking forward to reading more about it in the book.

[FAX]

Originally Posted by ptlyon

**** ducks. They deserve to die.

You may **** a duck if you wish, Mr. ptlyon. That is between you and your God.

However, the fact remains that, simply because you can jiggle an atomic particle to the point that it heats itself up, does not mean you are creating superior cuisine. I don't care what the $100 dollar book says. Good food requires fire.

Besides, what if there is a holocaust or Armageddon type of deal? What then? There will be no electricity and, therefore, no microwaves. Are we to starve or be reduced to eating raw food to survive? You have to think long-term about stuff like this.

FAX

[tooge]

Originally Posted by FAX

You may **** a duck if you wish, Mr. ptlyon. That is between you and your God.

However, the fact remains that, simply because you can jiggle an atomic particle to the point that it heats itself up, does not mean you are creating superior cuisine. I don't care what the $100 dollar book says. Good food requires fire.

Besides, what if there is a holocaust or Armageddon type of deal? What then? There will be no electricity and, therefore, no microwaves. Are we to starve or be reduced to eating raw food to survive? You have to think long-term about stuff like this.

FAX

I'm thinking of Jeff Goldbloom explaining the teleporter in The Fly. How he makes Geena Davis eat a steak that has been teleported. I"m guessing that's about the same as microwaving one.

[ptlyon]

Originally Posted by FAX

You may **** a duck if you wish, Mr. ptlyon. That is between you and your God.

However, the fact remains that, simply because you can jiggle an atomic particle to the point that it heats itself up, does not mean you are creating superior cuisine. I don't care what the $100 dollar book says. Good food requires fire.

Besides, what if there is a holocaust or Armageddon type of deal? What then? There will be no electricity and, therefore, no microwaves. Are we to starve or be reduced to eating raw food to survive? You have to think long-term about stuff like this.

FAX

I'm not arguing about the use of microwaves Mr. FAX, I'm just stating ducks should die.

[FAX]

Originally Posted by tooge

I'm thinking of Jeff Goldbloom explaining the teleporter in The Fly. How he makes Geena Davis eat a steak that has been teleported. I"m guessing that's about the same as microwaving one.

Oftentimes science will run amok, Mr. tooge. That's when the trouble usually starts.

Have there been sufficient studies done on the long-term effects of microwaved foie gras on humans? I sincerely doubt it. Yet here we are (without sufficient research being conducted), creating a new, popular movement to microwave our pate and eat it too.

I ask you; do we know for certain that microwaved foie gras is not the predominant cause of dwarfism? Case closed.

FAX