The end of microwave ovens?

[Deleted]

I wouldn't have thought that it was possible until this article made me start doubting.

The slow death of the microwave

I have to admit that I have one of the very first primitive microwave ovens that was available in France. I have had it for almost 30 years now and it just has a time dial and an off-and-on button. It doesn't even spin around inside. I have to at least double all times given on microwave instructions due to the age of the machine, but I don't want to replace it until it breaks, and it seems to be immortal.

I'm wondering when other people discovered the microwave oven, because I thought it was sensational that the automatic food machine area at USC had microwave ovens in 1969 (they were pathetic), and one of my rich friends already had a microwave at her parents' house. She just loved going to McDonald's to bring a Big Mac home to heat it up in the microwave.

After leaving university, I barely saw another microwave for at least 5 or 6 years.

[Deleted]

I have a microwave of similar vintage, Kerouac, except mine has many functions and a carousel inside and is huuuuge. It takes up an entire counter, but I can't be bothered to get rid of it and get a new one. If it were gone tomorrow I wouldn't really miss it. I use it for 1) melting butter for baking 2) reheating leftovers 3) defrosting a frozen lump enough so that it will cook properly on top of the stove. Not enough of a justification for keeping it around, I know. Do we really need more gadgets?

[Deleted]

I don't even use mine for defrosting because that function is so pathetic on mine. If I put frozen fish in it, the fish is practically cooked before it is defrosted.

Yes, it's good for melting butter, and I also use it for poaching eggs in my plastic egg poacher.

Otherwise... just leftovers.

[patricklondon]

I had a cheap one that took up a bit too much worktop space, so when I had the kitchen redone, I had a built-in one in a raised wall cabinet. I find it useful for porridge, baked potatoes and defrosting/heating-up things from the freezer (living alone, it makes sense to freeze a big batch of soup in individual portions, likewise things like scones and teacakes that would otherwise go stale and that one normally eats slightly warmed). Custard and scrambled eggs were a disaster in the old one (no low power setting so they needed second-by-second watching), so I haven't tried them. I wouldn't dream of trying to cook a substantive main meal with it - but I wonder if there's any power-saving over steaming vegetables on the hob - maybe I should experiment?


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[lagatta]

For a while everybody seemed to want to give me one; I simply don't have room for it. My stove died, and I have a countertop convection oven, which does everything my old oven did - I don't need to heat so much air to cook fish, or chicken legs. I can cook a small chicken in mine - the organic chickens I get are usually small, but do me for a week.

Some people I know make too much drip coffee and then heat it up in the microwave. I only use my moka (stovetop espresso). I wouldn't say no to a gift of a "real" espresso machine, if anyone I know is trading up on those, but I can also get proper bar espresso around the corner.

I'm looking at the article and see a photo of a housewife turning her beautiful roast into grey steamed shoe leather, but in just minutes!

"Toaster ovens" are increasing in popularity because the new small convection ovens are much better than the old-fashioned toaster ovens, which didn't bake or roast evenly.

[bjd]

When our daughter moved to Paris in 1998, I gave her our microwave oven which was over 10 years old then. It's still going, and since it was a combination oven+microwave, it was useful in a small kitchen. I replaced it with one that died rapidly, now have another one, but really wonder why I bothered.

Like many of you, I just use it for reheating the occasional leftover or defrosting something I need to cook. Melting butter+chocolate for cakes is about the only other use, so if it died tomorrow, I would probably not replace it.

[Deleted]

Patrick, I forgot - baked potatoes! I nuke mine for about five minutes and then throw them in the oven to crisp up.

[Deleted]

We use ours primarily for heating up leftovers.

Not to be a snob, but, when it comes to baked potatoes, there is no substitute for using a "real" oven. I've never tried Lizzy's method, and in a pinch might resort to.
If the skin isn't crisped, it's not truly baked. More steamed than anything...

Occasionally my husband will cook bacon in the microwave but I disapprove (although, I will eat it).

[Don Cuevas]

Our present microwave is for thawing and heating frozen food, reheating coffee (sorrrrry!), and melting butter for baking.

If anyone knows how it can be programmed to DING only once when it finishes, instead of five times, I'll give them a bottle of wine from my collection of wines under $80 pesos a bottle.

[patricklondon]

Some people I know make too much drip coffee and then heat it up in the microwave.

Heretics! I specially got a small filter holder that I can sit on top of a mug, rather than use the jug and filter that came with the machine for just the one daily coffee (less washing-up, too).

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[tod2]

Old microwaves never die.....they simply get a new magnetron !

My first microwave acquired in 1978 was huge but like Kerouac's, had no turntable.
In later years I purchased the latest fancy 'The Genius' Dimension 4 by National which not only had the glass turntable but a grill and convection application as well.
I still have it but don't use the convection part as it is broken from not being used enough....can you believe that's what the repair man told me. Something to do with moisture and not heating it often enough....mmmmm - Its a big micro and operates with touch pads.
This can be troublesome when we have a power-out as the clock has to be re-set before you can use the microwave. No good in my African kitchen I'm afraid. So went out and bought a second microwave which just had a dial. We use both every day! I've got another teeny little micro upstairs for the guests. Don't think its ever been used.

We have a micro at work which is very handy for all the staff. Years ago we had a staff member who put an egg into a bowl of water and set the timer for 30min. In about 5min there was an almighty bang. We all rushed in to the kitchen to see what happened.
The walls, ceiling and carpeted area of the staff room were covered in pale yellow dangley bits. The microwave door had blown off but luckily no one was in the room when it happened!

[bjd]

Speaking of pale yellow dangley bits -- reminds me of microwaved scrambled eggs I was served for breakfast in a B&B in Galway, Ireland. She made them that way on purpose though, and I don't think the door blew off her microwave.

Patrick, I have been making my morning coffee with one of those plastic filter holders and a paper filter for years.

[lagatta]

I have one of those too. More for guests who don't like espresso. Though my "espresso" is just as low-tech; simply a moka, or stovetop espresso pot.

The old Melitta pots were simply a ceramic filter funnel and a matching jug.

[Don Cuevas]

We have a micro at work which is very handy for all the staff. Years ago we had a staff member who put an egg into a bowl of water and set the timer for 30min. In about 5min there was an almighty bang. We all rushed in to the kitchen to see what happened.
The walls, ceiling and carpeted area of the staff room were covered in pale yellow dangley bits. The microwave door had blown off but luckily no one was in the room when it happened!
We have a micro at work which is very handy for all the staff. Years ago we had a staff member who put an egg into a bowl of water and set the timer for 30min. In about 5min there was an almighty bang. We all rushed in to the kitchen to see what happened.

The walls, ceiling and carpeted area of the staff room were covered in pale yellow dangley bits. The microwave door had blown off but luckily no one was in the room when it happened!

I will never forget the day that my mother used a pressure cooker (off topic, I know!) for the first time. She had filled it with cut up peaches in water. 
When she removed it from the burner, she unknowingly released the lid, and the contents geysered up to hit the ceiling, the stove top, the wall and, of course, the floor. Amazingly, neither of us was injured. I was just a little kid, and I was mightily impressed. I didn't buy and use a pressure cooker of my own until about 4 years ago. I apparently was not traumatized by that childhood experience, as I use it often.

[Deleted]

I have always feared pressure cookers. When the family pressure cooker was handed down to me, I got rid of it.

[mich64]

When we first married we bought an absolutely huge microwave oven, after about 10 years we gave it away when my husband won a new small version. Uses, warm up leftovers, canned vegetables in the winter, to cook potatoes before crisping them up in the oven, melt butter, popcorn, reheat coffee or tea and warm up some desserts. I preferred my toaster oven I had years ago but gave that to my sister-in-law when her oven broke. I do not miss how difficult that was to clean though, I guess that is why I never bothered replacing it.

[patricklondon]

Ah -- now then, pressure cookers

My mother had one of these going until well into the 1960s:


One day, my father, who on the rare occasions when he cooked set out to cook for an army, decided he wanted to make traditional pease pudding (dried yellow peas, end result like low-rent polenta). And forgot to let the pressure off before opening the lid. Mum wouldn't speak to him for a week.

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[tod2]

bjd - She definitely did not know ( or felt it to troublesome) to make the scrambled eggs the proper way in the micro! They are super creamy and need to have cream or a lot of butter added at the beginning. Stopping every 10- secs or so to give the mixture a good stir.
I like my scrambled eggs soft and the consistency of light airy porridge, not done until the eggs become rubbery. I bet she never whipped them enough - unless you do that the yellow and the white can be seen....UGH!

[patricklondon]

Stopping every 10- secs or so to give the mixture a good stir.

Which is why one might as well do it the traditional way on the hob - that way you're always in control of the texture and consistency.

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[lagatta]

Of course. But I've been places where there was only a microwave, no hob. Or a HUGE commercial cooker that I was afraid to use. Usually before or after seminars.

[LouisXIV]

I purchased my first micro about 1970 and back then I though bigger was better. I soon learned it is not the way to cook everything, especially a turkey. Mine would also not die, so I finally gave it away and purchased a small one that takes less space on my countertop. I really only use it to warm things. I don't use it to defrost anymore for the same reasons mentioned above. I have found that I can defrost quickly, but not as fast as the microwave, by putting the item in an aluminum fry pan for up to an hour before needing and the metal really does a great job of thawing.

I just posted my new gadget for the kitchen here: anyportinastorm.proboards.com/thread/7061/induction-cook-top