2. Microwaves are great machines, and it can be daunting if you're new to them. Here's a guide on telling you how to work them.
3. Read the instructions and safety warnings thoroughly.Set the time that you want to microwave something for.your microwave has a dial, turn it clockwise until the screen displays the desired time. If your microwave has a number pad, type in the desired number of minutes followed by the desired number of seconds.You may have to press "Cook" on your microwave before the time set will activate the microwave.
4. Apply your understanding to microwave specific items.Start with Bake a Potato in the Microwave. Warm a plate of leftovers at low power.Warm a milky coffee at medium power and check carefully when to stop so the milk retains its goodness.
5. Understand how a microwave oven heats food.Microwaves penetrate and generate heat at depth within water-bearing food. Microwaves do not cook from the "inside out", but do cook thin food essentially all throughout at once, and reduce the depth within thick food to which conduction from the rest of the food must carry heat.
6. A microwave generally cannot cook food that does not contain much water, including something that is light and fluffy, well. Don't microwave something that contains little water for more than a minute or so before the microwave has a few minutes to rest, and put a cup of water in the microwave (which will get hot) with it to absorb the otherwise unused microwaves. Microwaves tend to have many hot and cold spots from "standing waves".
7. Understand how heat flows through food. A cooking method heats only the outside of a food item--or in a microwave, the outer layers, perhaps an inch, enough to cook a two-inch-wide chunk more or less all at once. The heat must flow through the food to cook the rest. In a microwave, heat must also flow from better-heated to worse-heated spots.
8. Water-based food--most food, and the only kind that microwaves can cook--cannot get hotter than 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees centigrade) until all of the water in the spot being heated has been boiled away. One should use high heat only to scorch the surface, then low heat to cook the interior to the desired level of overall doneness without ruining the exterior.
9. Pressure cookers keep water from boiling until it reaches a higher temperature, and, so, also cook extremely fast. Watery foods, such as watery soups, can cook well at higher heat levels because they carry heat through themselves by convection. If you have been scorching the outside of items before cooking the inside, just reduce the power at first--you don't necessarily have to increase the cooking time. Remember, the overly-high heat wasn't cooking the food faster, just drying it out.
10. Understand the side-effects of other cooking methods, and choose to include them if you like.Some cooking methods, such as frying, smoking, or boiling with salt or spices, also add material and thus flavor to the food. Some cooking methods add water to the food. Some cooking methods dry out the outside of the food.
