Microwave oven: is there a benefit to microwave?

Microwave ovens are one of the most discussed product groups among the variety of home appliances. On the one hand they and the products cooked in them are suspected of a negative impact on the human body, on the other hand, they are considered the guarantors of the healthiness of food. So, is UHF useful or not, are they needed in the household or is it better to avoid using this technique??

Why UHF is suspected of all the “mortal” sins, it becomes clear after a little excursion into physics. Heating in ovens is not produced by thermal energy, as on a stove or fire, but with the help of electromagnetic radiation. Apart from microwave ovens it is emitted by cell phones, TV sets and even floor heating, and the sun is its biggest source. Ovens use ultrahigh-frequency i.e., the highest in its range radio waves. The frequency used in microwave ovens is the same in all countries and is 2450 MHz.

As you have already understood from our story, microwave food tastes like boiled food some people like it, some not so much. So, in order to make the dishes more appetizing, manufacturers actively equip their ovens with a grill.

The grill is an element with special infrared radiation that heats not the air, but the food directly. Grills come in TEN, quartz, and halogen. The elements are heated to a very high temperature – 600-800 degrees – but the heat cannot penetrate very quickly. It works primarily on the surface.

Intense high-temperature heating causes rapid formation of crispy crust. Food placed on the grid gets a powerful heat charge that closes the pores on the surface. Thanks to this effect, the juices of meat, fish, and vegetables remain inside, while a ruddy crust is formed on the outside.

Grilling is considered a gentle way to fry, because no oils and fats are used. The crust protects all the ingredients which make up the natural nutrition, flavor and aroma of food from being destroyed. And it stays tender too. The food is quite dietary, easily digestible, and contrary to the stereotype of healthy food, with a wonderful taste and intoxicating aroma.

MICRO-PARK

There is another way to improve the quality and taste of cooked meals – with the help of steam. The combination of microwave radiation and the action of red-hot moisture works wonders – cooking becomes more even, the food retains its juiciness, volume, color, taste. Steam helps you defrost better and faster, and reheat better.

Principles of steam formation differ from company to company. Water can be turned into steam by microwaves or with special heaters, just like in regular steamers.

Steaming in the microwave is a specific process. The closed space of the appliance or the mold is filled with hot steam which surrounds the food from all sides. So fish or meat heats up more quickly and evenly, and therefore can be cooked to perfection. But vitamins and minerals remain untouched.

Steam creates an interesting effect on the surface of the food: it seems to seal the pores, these corks and resist the loss of substances, they also allow to save the form. Food does not lose its taste and aroma. You can use less salt and spices when steaming.

IT’S GOOD FOR WHEN IT’S CONVENIENT

Microwaves aren’t just guarantors of diet food, they also make life a lot easier for their owners!

WHAT ARE THE PRACTICAL BENEFITS OF THE MICROWAVE OVEN??

1. This appliance can simplify a lot of tedious cooking. One of them is the defrosting. A piece of dough or a fish carcass comes to room temperature in a few minutes. It’s easier to plan your menu with the oven.k. You can make more use of the food in the freezer even if you forgot to take it out in advance.

Even difficult foods such as mashed potatoes or porridge are particularly easy to heat. In the past you had to invent all kinds of tricks, but now you just need to put it on a plate and pop it in the oven for two minutes!

2. The appliance allows you to spend less time cooking, thawing and heating. And it makes a person more free, gives an opportunity to spend time on rest or other interesting activities.

3. Modern ovens strive to be more and more functional. They are already competing with ovens, roasters and steamers because they allow you to bake at the right temperature convection mode , fry on two grills top and bottom , steam. More and more often you can find microwave ovens with the function of a bread maker for home cooking flavorful white or Borodino. Combinations have a particular advantage, because the combined effect of different processing methods speeds up the process, improves its quality.

4. Microwave ovens, even those with a wide range of functions, have elementary controls that can be mastered by anyone. But it can also be simplified, for which automatic programs are created, they already have all the necessary settings, the user needs to specify one or two parameters, such as portion weight and type of product. The desired operating mode and cycle time are automatically calculated by the appliance.

To determine the degree of heating, defrosting or cooking more accurately, sensors are used – sensors that assess the actual state of the product and, through an electronic system, control the duration of the cycle.

Disputes about the benefits and harms can be endless, but those who already own a microwave, no doubt, appreciated the benefits of this achievement of technological thought and learned to use it wisely in their lives.

THE STORM IN THE GLASS

Many products new to mankind began with a beautiful or amusing legend. That’s what happened with microwaves. Even then, in the middle of the last century, company managers understood that a cleverly invented story would get people’s attention. So, what did they make up??

It was an evening, there was a man sitting in the lab, an engineer named Percy Spencer. At the time he was studying the behavior of a new device he had created for use in air defense radar. It was an ultrahigh-frequency wave emitter.

In between experiments, Spencer remembered a little stash of food – a candy bar – lying in his pocket, and began fumbling for it with his hand. What was the amazement of our hero when instead of the supposed bar consisting of nuts and chocolate, he found a shapeless mass that looked more like a nut paste for sandwiches. What happened??

Our genius had an idea – the waves heated up the candy bar, thus putting it “out of action”. Microwave wave power was 10 kW, at least 10 times greater than in any modern microwave oven! The only thing that was left out of the picture was why Spencer didn’t warm up as well?

However, he was not concerned about it, the engineer wondered if something else could be “fired up” in such a way? Kernels of corn were used, they were simply poured in front of the device and, oh wonder, they turned into popcorn – air corn. It is said that another experiment was conducted that day, with an egg. It can be called both successful and unsuccessful at the same time, as the contents of this natural container really heated up, but there was an explosion and the hot egg white and yolk flew in all directions!

So, only a month after the end of WWII, a patent was registered in the USA for a device to cook food with the aid of electromagnetic radiation. And just a couple of years later, the first microwave ovens were on the market.

PEACEFUL MAGNETRON

This picturesque story has one flaw – it is untrue. Engineer Percy Spencer – did exist, he worked for Raytheon, which, then and now, fulfills U.S. government military orders. Spencer was a natural born, with no higher education, but who succeeded solely because of his natural giftedness, his special technical talent. He holds more than a hundred patents for his inventions.

Spencer studied high frequency waves and certainly learned from publications and his own experience about their ability to heat objects capable of conducting electricity. But this information had no practical application.

The microwave era began at one of the company’s executive meetings. There was only one thing to discuss – the war was ending and there would simply be no one to sell military equipment in the foreseeable future no one thought of the Cold War back then . To stay afloat, the company needed to switch over to “peaceful means”, i.e. master the production of products that were in demand by consumers. That’s when Spencer came up with the idea that microwave energy could heat sandwiches, not “spot” German and Japanese planes.

THERE IS AN IDEA!

What was the idea?? Each furnace would be equipped with a magnetron, a device that generates waves. These waves only affect water molecules which are found in all products . Waves give these molecules an oscillatory motion. And vibration causes internal friction, which leads to an increase in temperature.

Another effect was heating due to internal electrical resistance. This is caused by eddy currents – Foucault currents that arise from the changing effects of the electromagnetic field.

THE PROBLEMS OF THE MICROWAVE LINK

When the question of the microwave “moved” in practical terms, the company turned to the Federal Communications Commission for the allocation of a special, special frequency. The communications people decided that 2450 MHz would be optimal. They were not proceeding from the requirements of the new instrument, it was simply a free frequency that was not used by radio and television stations or in radiolocation. “Acquiring” its own frequency did not simplify the development of the ovens, but only made it more difficult, because the wavelength was 12 cm, i.e. was in the same dimensions as the internal dimensions of the device. The problem was that the frequency could not heat the food evenly because of the formation of “standing” waves.

It should be said that Percy Spencer wasn’t working alone, but was assisted by engineer Marvin Bock. It was he who found the solution. Marvin suggested hanging a rotating bundle of metal rods from the ceiling of the chamber. He, like a mixer whisk, was “stirring” the field, making it even. Then it was invented a rotating tray for food, which is still in most microwave ovens in the world.

Another solution is still used almost everywhere excluding a few companies – it is periodically switching on and off the magnetron. Why, you may ask?. It’s very simple. The microwave power can’t be adjusted, but using it to the max all the time doesn’t make sense either, because portions can vary significantly, such as a handful of corn and a whole chicken.

If you simply reduce the voltage applied to the magnetron, no waves are produced. Spencer had the idea of pausing the transmitter. The higher it is, the gentler the effect. Power levels, the same ones found in those. The specs just say how long the magnetron is on and how long it’s idle. For example, at 25% power, 75% of the time is spent on the “break”. Microwaves armed with new technology could now defrost, heat and cook tiny and huge portions.

GULLIVER IN THE LAND OF MEN

Back to PR. The world’s first microwave oven was presented in 1947. Frankly speaking, in the presented unit, you and I would hardly recognize the usual microwave. Raytheon’s brainchild was more like a refrigerator in size – it was 1.7 m high! And the weight is 340 kg! That’s why they invited a dazzling blonde of gigantic height to demonstrate the firstborn, so that the oven would not seem too unwieldy.

Philistines didn’t appreciate the novelty, this thing with a tube for water cooling and unaccustomed voltage of 220V was worth as much as 3 thousand Euros. dollars! The restaurateurs, on the other hand, immediately realized that it was the right appliance. It takes a few minutes to heat up some buns, sandwiches and hot dogs, making customer service much faster and easier.

BEHIND THE BOOM

Now all of us know how a real microwave oven “should” look like. Its size and price have been gradually reduced to today’s, but it’s taken almost 30 years! People used to get used to the idea that it would be waves, not heat, that warmed their food. But it wasn’t until the eighties that confidence in an already not-so-new appliance managed to turn into a real increase in sales, and the microwave oven at home became the norm.