Arrrrrrgh

[wolf]

There's absolutely nothing like a wet holiday morning, when you go downstairs with the intention of whipping up a bit of breakfast, perhaps with some bacon to help things along, and instead of the happy pop and sizzle of long strips of fatty, maple cured pork crisping themselves up in the microwave you get a rather louder pop and sizzle sound, along with the smell of ozone.

The trusty Nuke-o-Matic gave up the ghost this morning.

Why do I suddenly have a craving for popcorn?

[Undertoad]

I'll sell you my little Sharp for $50 if you want it... I want to upgrade

It has an excellent user interface, I've never seen one better for any kitchen appliance. It has a built-in carousel. But it's too small for me, and it's a bit low-powered.

[wolf]

Although I'm not looking for anything fancy (it doesn't have to be a combination toaster and/or convection oven, I just need a microwave) I do want a full-size.

Ol' Sparky gave me 10 years of excellent service, so I don't have any hesitation about starting fresh.

I'll get up to the Best Buy sometime in the next week or so.

Assuming I can remember how to operate the regular oven and the George Foreman Grill. Might have to go sooner.

[lumberjim]

wolf, do your self a favor, and don't replace it. go get a convection toaster oven. microwaves are evil.

[elSicomoro]

Originally posted by wolf
I'll get up to the Best Buy sometime in the next week or so.

My ass...you'll be there when the doors open at 10 tomorrow morning.

[Undertoad]

Originally posted by lumberjim
microwaves are evil.

No man, didn't you get the May issue of Closet Hippy? Microwaves direct all their energy right into heating the food. Convection wastes energy by letting all that heat go everywhere else! Not only aren't Microwaves evil, they are Gaia-Approved(TM)!

[lumberjim]

jinx, lay down the truth for brother toad. he needs to be saved from his microwave.

[elSicomoro]

We had this discussion before.

[lumberjim]

well. so we did. sorta.

from an end user standpoint, without getting into the technical nutritional and energy cost effectiveness of it all, let me just say that cooking your bacon in the microwave is morally reprehensible. Popcorn is marginally acceptable, but the fact that the fumes from it can fuck you up serve as a sign of the inherent evil resident in your indigenous domesticated microwave.

Now, take left over pizza. You put your slice in the nuker for 45-50 seconds, and it is piping hot, melty cheese.....but the crust is soggy and tough.

I put a piece in on fan/bake for 2 minutes at 400, and mine is piping hot, melty cheese, and the crust is crispy and delectable. I bet tomas rueta would even prefer it to sex. ( i can prove that, actually). I'll trade you 1 minute for crispy anytime.

[lumberjim]

Antioxidants are plentiful in vegetables and work to eliminate free radicals, which can damage cell DNA and contribute to various diseases. That's why eating fiber, fruits, and vegetables, all of which contain antioxidants, can help prevent cancer and cardiovascular disease.

As it turns out, though, that protective effect is most pronounced when the vegetable is in its natural state.

The first study found that the simplest cooking method was also the worst when it came to preserving nutrients. Broccoli lost 97 percent of flavonoids, 74 percent of sinapics and 87 percent of caffeoyl-quinic derivatives (three different types of antioxidants) when it was microwaved.

When boiled the conventional way (i.e., not in a pressure-cooker), this green lost 66 percent of its flavonoids; when tossed in a pressure cooker, broccoli lost 47 percent of its caffeoyl-quinic acid derivatives.

Steamed broccoli, on the other hand, lost only 11 percent, 0 percent and 8 percent, respectively, of flavonoids, sinapics, and caffeoyl-quinic derivatives.

link
more links

[Undertoad]

Of course!

-- The popcorn gas comes from the flavoring, which is made in New Jersey. The microwave is not at fault here.

-- The correct way to reheat pizza is to pan-fry it. Heat the pan, swipe a little olive oil in the bottom (not much needed), slap your slice down until the bottom blackens. Perfect your heating technique so that this happens at about the same time the cheese melts a little. After you try this, you will return to the Cellar to personally thank me for introducing you to this method.

-- Nobody sane would microwave broccoli, so we can ignore that completely. But nobody sane would re-steam next-day broccoli either. No, even if they were a fuckin' hard-core researcher, you can bet they'd mic it, and they'd eat it, and they'd be happy about it.

-- Lastly, bacon... mic'd bacon would be terrible for bacon-eaters who don't eat their bacon crisp. It would be a travesty. BUT, crisp bacon eaters get a great deal out of the wave. It cooks the fat faster than the meat. This is exactly what you want if you mean to eat it crisp.

[lumberjim]

yikes!

christ, i just took shelby's word for it before.
this is from the article:

#

Microwaving causes adverse effects in food. They include: formation of cancer-causing substances, leakage of toxic chemicals from the packaging into the foods, and destruction of nutrients.

Summary of the Russian investigations published by the Atlantis Raising Educational Center in Portland Oregon.

* Microwaving prepared meats sufficiently to insure sanitary ingestion caused formation of d-Nitrosodienthanolamines, a well known carcinogen.
* Microwaving milk and cereal grains converted certain of their amino acids into carcinogens.
* Thawing frozen fruits converted their glucoside- and galactoside- containing fractions into carcinogenic substances.
* Extremely short exposure of raw, cooked or frozen vegetables converted their plant alkaloids into carcinogens.
* Carcinogenic free radicals were formed in microwaved plants, especially root vegetables

# Deceased bioavailability of vitamin B complex, vitamin C, vitamin E, essential minerals and lipotropics factors in all food tested.
# Various kinds of damage to many plant substances, such as alkaloids, glucosides, galactosides and nitrilosides.
# Possible leakage of numerous toxic chemicals from the packaging of common microwavable foods, including pizzas, french fries, popcorn etc.
# PATHOGENIC CHANGES OBSERVED IN CONSUMERS OF MICROWAVED FOOD

Changes are observed in the blood chemistries and the rates of certain diseases among consumers of microwaved foods.The following is a sample of these changes.

* Lymphatic disorders were observed, leading to decreased ability to prevent certain types of cancers.
* An increased rate of cancer cell formation was observed in the blood
* Increased rates of stomach and intestinal cancers were observed.
* Higher rates of digestive disorders and a grandual breakdown of the systems of elimination were observed.

how does a microwave work, really?

Microwave ovens emit two types of radiation: the microwaves or high frequency radio waves, and the 60 hz magnetic fields.
Atoms, molecules and cells hit by this hard electromagnetic radiation are forced to reverse polarity 1 to 100 billion times a second. There are no atoms, molecules or cells of any organic system able to withstand such a violent, destructive power.
Microwaves violently vibrate the water molecules in food, thus creating internal friction and heating the food from the inside out, while other forms of heat, including the sun do not create friction heat in Organic substances. The radiation, created by Microwaves, results in the destruction and deformation of food molecules, plus the formation of new radiolytic compounds, which are substances, that are formed through the subjection to radiation. These compounds occur much more, when food is cooked with microwaves, than food, that is cooked by conventional means. Researchers are still trying to determine the long-term effects of these Radiolytic compounds.
Is it possible, that we are ignorantly sacrificing Health on the altar of convenience?

and on a purely taste based comparison, food just gets fucked up in there. Everything gets rubbery or soggy or chewy.

[elSicomoro]

Interesting...I see that same information from the first quote on a few different sites, but I can find nothing on the Atlantis Raising Educational Center or these Russian investigations.

[richlevy]

Originally posted by wolf
Why do I suddenly have a craving for popcorn?

Thankfully, in my quest to own every cool gadget I can find in clearance sales from shopping network outlet stores, I own an aluminum stove top popcorn popper. You put in the kernels, some oil, maybe a little butter, and some honey if you don't mind the extra cleanup. Heat, pop, and eat.

I still use the microwave, but I eat maybe one package of microwave popcorn a month. Not because of carcinogrens, but because the hydrogenated oil that starts as a solid in the bags and turns into a liquid when heated probably turns into a solid again in the arteries.

[Undertoad]

That stuff is all just alarmism. All cooking involves chemical changes and carcinogens are all over the place. One could write a similar description of regular cooking, because all heating is causing molecules to move faster.

There are no atoms, molecules or cells of any organic system able to withstand such a violent, destructive power.

There is no high school chemistry student who doesn't know this sentence is a load of microwaved and thus steaming horseshit.