All about microwave ovens. Criteria for choice, specifications, manufacturers.
Perhaps no other subject of household appliances causes so much curiosity and fierce disputes around the world as a microwave oven. So we decided to join this exciting discussion. So good or bad favorite microwaves? Do they resemble a hyperboloid engineer Garina, piercing around the county invisible deadly beam?
Microwave oven: Is there a candle game?
If the microwave oven was different from ordinary gas or electric plates only by the method of heating products, it would not make sense to argue about its advantages. Cookies, in the end, however, what physical processes are in the oven, - if only the food was tasty and useful, and cooking is not too time-consuming. Why recently, the market for the sale of microwave ovens is growing so rapidly, a much ahead of the plates market? The answer seems obvious: the microwave ovens is more convenient and more economical in operation than their traditional competitors, and even take less space and allow you to cook for a shorter time.Preparing
The main feature (and maybe the problem) microwave cuisine is that the microwave radiation affects the water molecules, which is known from the laws of physics, under normal conditions it is impossible to heat up to the temperature above 100C. Thus, directly with the help of microwave radiation, we will not be able to get a ruddy fried chop or, say, bake pie. Another circumstance: microwaves are quite freely penetrated into the product (to a depth of 10 cm) and it is evenly heated - in contrast to the plates, where the surface heating occurs mainly. The result is a dish, elementaryly manufactured by the traditional method (for example, in a pan or in a saucepan), it may not work in the microwave oven. Let's say you never fry in the microwave scrambled eggs-glazing so that the yolk remains liquid. Even more disappointment will comprehend you when you try to cook the egg skeyka: it will extremely effectively explode and distribute the uniform thin layer along the walls of the furnace chamber.
Conclusion: It is necessary to realize that recipes for the preparation of the same dishes in microwave ovens and can differ significantly on the stove. Also, note that the microwave is largely "American Miracle." Therefore, culinary delights, which is capable of, carrying a pronounced fingerprint of American cuisine. That in the translation to the household language means: buy in a hypermarket semi-finished, remove the packaging, warm up. After all, the initial task of the microwave was just warmed up, and not to cook. The combination of the microwave oven is coped to great. By the way, both vitamins in food persist much better than with other methods of thermal treatment. Users that are going to prepare will need a stove equipped with a grill - a device for surface heating of products. Such furnaces may well compete with plates. But even if you are an experienced cook and cooking process on the stove you know literally from the crust to peel, keep in mind: you still have to retrain.
And now the microwave ovens is out of competition, so it is in the ability to defrost products. The possibility of 10 minutes to lead to the "working state" the zone of meat cannot not please everyone who at least once came across this problem. Probably, it would be worthwhile to have such a useful device in the kitchen, even if it was no longer suitable for anything!
Choose
The choice of a specific furnace model depends on how seriously you come to the cooking process. If you are not addictable in food and prefer not to spend precious time on the kitchenware, it means that the stove is suitable for you. In other words, without grill or a couple of couple, which will no longer use anyway. If you, on the contrary, love to please yourself and your close home cooking masterpieces, need a "smart" and a multifunctional furnace, which combines the oven and grill and allows you to track all the exciting meal preparation processes in detail.In microwaves, quartz, penny and convection grills are used.
Quartz lamp (Samsung G-2638CR, LG Electronics MC-805AR, Gaggenau EM119, etc.) begins to warm at once. Usually it is mounted on the top panel of the camera, due to which the workspace is saved. The quartz grill is easy to contain clean. However, its main drawback is also associated with the problem of purity of the working chamber. The fact is that the quartz lamp splasped with fat, the productivity is sharply reduced. Therefore, the stoves with a quartz grill need to wash.
In Tann Grill (Daewoo Kox 846t, LG Electronics MH-595T Silver, Sharp 770 B, etc.) Heating is carried out by spiral. It is easy to design and can move through the chamber depending on the form of the product being processed. This ensures its uniform heating. In the LG Electronics MH-794 HD model, the Robo-Grill Tenh Heater is used, which itself is installed in the best possible relatively cooked dish. The main disadvantage of bean grills is in their inertia: it takes time for both heating the apparatus and cooling at the end of the work. And this is not always useful for placed in the food furnace.
With baking, the convection grill is perfectly coping with the formation of a ruddy crust. It uses a combination of a spiral and a fan that blows placed in the stove with a dish of hot air. The combining convection mode with microwave radiation, you simultaneously handle both the surface of the product and its "core". In general, in the microwave oven with a convection grill, you can bake the real pies and pastries, and 1.5-2 times faster than in the oven.
Deciding with its "culinary strategy", you must immediately estimate, for which the number of mouths will have to be prepared. The volume of the microwave chamber chamber varies from 17 to 34 liters depending on the model. The greater the oven, the wider its potential opportunities. Say, 17-20 liter stoves without a grill in everyday life are bachelor. Practice shows that a family of 5-6 people is best suitable for a solid furnace with a volume of about 30 liters, equipped at least one type of grill.
Large furnaces have, perhaps, only one disadvantage: greater power consumed (up to 2-2.5 kW). Meanwhile, until the recent past electric grid, our apartments were designed to calculate consumer power in 1.5 kW per apartment. When you turn on the network, such a microwave can easily cause overload and output of electrical wiring (especially in rural houses). And this is fraught with different troubles, up to the fire.
For simplicity and ease of cooking, the microwaves of the latter models are supplied with a variety of useful and ingenious devices. Such, for example, as a steam sensor with a microprocessor embedded in the oven (in particular, in the Panasonic NN-C780P model). Now the hostess does not have to think how much the semi-finished product weighs and, therefore, for what time to configure the timer. It is enough to give a task to bring the product to a boil and prepare the required amount of time.
Most furnaces are able to choose the necessary mode of operation. For example, the MOULINEX Y85 model provides an OPTICOOK system: depending on the dish and its mass, the stove itself determines the optimal ratio of the capacity of microwave radiation, grill and convection.
Microwave manufacturers pay attention to and increase the ability of their products to defrost product. In such models, such as LG Electronics MS 255NB Magic Blue, Panasonic NN-F359W and many others, the function of Turbar Morning is provided. The oven in the process of work independently combines various modes of operation, due to which the defrost time is reduced by half or two times.
In some furnaces (Daewoo Koc 984T, Samsung CK99FSR, etc.) provides for the use of a special metal plate "KRISP" (which translated from English means "crust"). Such a plate is heated by microwave waves and fries the dish chosen by you, as the most ordinary cast iron frying pan.
By the way, since we were talking about the dishes: do not forget that microwave ovens do not tolerate metal objects in their chambers! The microwave waves create vortex currents in metal that can heat it strongly. This is especially dangerous if the layer of metal is thin and forms a closed loop (as, for example, in a gold-plated edging pattern ornament on a porcelain plate). The stove in such cases is broken down by a series of electrical (corona) discharges, which does not benefit neither to her nor the dishes. If you put in the oven, say, a massive frying pan, sparking will not be, but also to prepare something fearful to you, it is also unlikely to succeed. Since the microwave waves of the metal will not penetrate and the frying pan heats up very unevenly, the dish fully or in some places will remain raw or in places burn. Therefore, when using microwaves, make sure that the metallic dishes do not accidentally get inside the stove, wrapping foil and different plug-spoons. Special heat-resistant glass or porcelain dishes are recommended.
An important role in choosing a microwave oven plays, according to manufacturers, and convenience in management. For example, despite the fact that we live in the era of the touch buttons, the simplest microwaves are still popular, equipped with only two switches - to install power and time. It will cope with this control system and the old and young (and there is a similar stove noticeably less than the rest). Another extreme is a variety of models presented in the market, allowing to program the cooking process at a very high level. You can specify a complex sequence of commands stove - it is not easy to implement them and inform you about it, but (as you wish) be buried in the "trip computer" favorite recipe (LG Electronics MS 256NB Magic Blue, DeLongi MW 675F1, Panasonic NN- C780P et al.)
Recently, the manufacturers of microwaves pay special attention to the process of microwave radiation, which turns out to be far from exhausted all its capabilities. So, Panasonic has developed a generation of furnaces acting on a fundamentally new inverter technology. That is the difference. In a conventional furnace, the microwave radiation of one specific frequency is used, so the only power level is achieved. And if you need to prepare something with a small heat release ("on a small fire"), with the old technology it is possible only by alternating on / off the output power in the pulse mode. As if the mistress, boiling broth on a big fire, then, instead of reducing the flame, it would turn off the gas, waited until the broth cool down, and then again turned on the maximum fire - and so while the dish does not prepare (though, already without taste and vitamins). The inverter used by the Panasonic firm allows you to control the power level by changing the frequency of the supply voltage supplied to the magnetron. This means that your dough will prepare all the time with the power of 600-700 W, and potatoes, carrots and other roots - 900 W.
Thus, in the food prepared in the invertor furnace (Panasonic NN-C780, NN-V690 and NN-F359), the taste bouquet is better preserved, not to mention vitamins and other substances beneficial substances that have the usual collapse during heat treatment.
Samsung firm went on another way. It uses in its models a new inner coating of the chamber from the so-called biochemal enamel (Samsung CK99FSR). According to the manufacturer, such a coating, in addition to high strength and wear resistance, has the ability to maintain a greater number of vitamins in the preparatory food.
In the LG Electronics models, an antibacterial coating is used. This is a heat-resistant enamel with a layer of epoxy resin applied to it. Such a coating has a high resistance to mechanical effects, makes the surface with superstruck, has increased ecology - it does not stick to soot and fat, which ensures the absence of smell and prevents the reproduction of bacteria. The furnace is easily clean without the use of cleaning products.
Safety
In the microwave oven, it is impossible to prepare the product weighing less than 100 g. In this case, the oven will not be up to the end, which will reduce its service life, and then lead to a breakdown. It is impossible, but if you really want, it is possible. Only it is necessary to put the waters on the swivel table, and the extra radiation will go to her (and at the same time will give you an additional service - boils water for coffee or tea).
If it is necessary to warm up a large amount of product without stirring (for example, the mountain pancakes), you need to cover the dish with a lid and reduce the heating power. And do not remove from the furnace until the dishes become warm (or hot).
If you want to cook a milk porridge in the microwave, the edges of a sufficiently deep dishes are 1-1.5 cm. It is necessary to brush with oil from the inside. Then the milk will not run away. Permanently a lot of stuffing stories about the terrible consequences of using microwave ovens. Is it true that by buying a microwave, we put under your health? For objective lighting of the security of microwave ovens, we turned to consulting various experts: doctors and representatives of the well-known manufacturer's company.
Here are the excerpts from the conversation with the doctor of medical sciences Julia Petrovich Syromyatnikov, the main researcher of the federal scientific center of the hygiene. F. Erisman:
- What kind of trouble are people who use poor-quality or defective microwave furnaces?
Yu. S. : One of the most common serious flaws of microwave furnaces is the elevated level of electromagnetic fields around the case. In principle, the furnace made for all rules at a distance of the half-meter from the contour should not be emissions. In practice, weak electromagnetic fields are sometimes distributed by 1.5-2 m.
You may ask how it turns out that technician gets on sale, capable of bringing harm to a person if everything controls SanEpidemadzor. The fact is that now there is a huge number of medium and small merchants, who, unlike major importers, is very difficult to control. Therefore, there is always the likelihood that the trading network will receive a poor-quality product, which simply did not undergo any sanitary control. So the first requirement for acquired technique is the presence of a hygienic certificate. Rule number two: follow the instructions for using a microwave oven. If you are still worried about your health, check your stove after three years of operation for increased microwave emissions. This service has a testing laboratory of our federal center.
If the oven is in order and correctly exploited, it is almost harmless to health. Nevertheless, you should not be near the stove when it works. Log the products you want to cook, set the mode - sootize a few meters, will not be worse.
- How long is the microwave radiation for the human body?
Yu. S. : When it does not exceed the permissible value, then we can assume that safely. If the radiation indicators are higher than the maximum permissible, there is a risk to human health. Signs of harmful effects are expressed primarily in asthenic state. A person begins to experience weakness, increased fatigue, its performance decreases. During the examination, changes in blood composition may be discovered. In general, the most sensitive to harmful radiation organs are the central nervous system and gonads (sex glands), as well as the blood system, by changes in the composition of which can be fastened to feel unfavorable.
- And often you have to deal with the furnaces that have become dangerous to health after, say, five years of operation?
Yu. S. : Especially such statistics did not behave, but it can be said with confidence that approximately 20% of the stoves with a five-year service life for further work are not suitable.
But what is thinking about the safety of microwave ovens Supervisor of the Panasonic Household Appliance Department Sergey Kozhevnikov and an expert of the same department Natalya Busarova:
S.K. : The production of microwave ovens is currently at such a high level, which allows you to say that modern microwave ovens are completely safe for human health. The appearance of the people that the walls of the furnaces allegedly skip the outwards of malicious rays, absolutely mistaken. Metal fully reflects the microwave rays, and thus they do not fall out.
N. B. : The only theoretically weak place is the door on which significant mechanical loads occur. But modern furnaces are arranged so that in the formation of any distortion when the door is closed, the protective mechanism is triggered, and the device simply does not work. The same thing happens if the furnace suddenly opens. Of course, any protection with time refuses, but most often this is due to the wrong use of the furnace. For example, a merchant puts in a cafe for heating sandwiches furnaces intended for home use. The model does not designed for such a "increased attention".
S.K. : The casing of the furnace is the most reliable element in which the whole six degrees of protection are provided. Over seven years of operation (guaranteed by Panasonic in Russia, the life of microwave ovens) with protective devices can not happen.
Some parameters of microwave ovens
| Model | Volume, L. | Power consumption (microwave / grill), W | Price, $ | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gaggenau EM932. | 35. | 850/1800. | 2600. | Built-in oven - oven, shadow grill |
| Gaggenau EM203. | 32. | 950/1500 | 1490. | Built-in oven - oven, shadow grill |
| Gaggenau EM119. | thirty | 900/1300. | 730. | Built-in oven - oven, quartz grill |
| Daewoo KOC 846T | 24. | 900/1400/2800 ("Combi") | 230. | Tennic grill, ceramic coating of the inner surface |
| Daewoo Koc 984T. | 29. | 1450/1200/2600 ("Combi") | 330. | Quartz-Tennic Grill, Cresp plate |
| Daewoo KOs 970t. | 29. | 1000/2600 ("Combi") | 320. | Double Combined Quartz-Tennic Grill |
| LG ELECTRONICS MH-794GS | thirty | 900/1150. | 250. | Tennic Grill, Intellowave system, Robo Grill, Antibacterial Coating of the Inner Surface |
| LG ELECTRONICS MC-805AR | thirty | 850/1250 | 315. | Tennic Grill, Convection, Spit, MultiWave System, Steel Coating Inner Surface |
| LG ELECTRONICS MC-806CLR | thirty | 850/1250 | 490. | Tennic Grill, Convection, Spit, MultiWave System, Steel Coating Inner Surface |
| LG ELECTRONICS MH-595T SILVER | twenty | 800/1100. | 190. | Tennic grill, antibacterial coating of the inner surface, design "Silver Egg", system Intellowave |
| LG ELECTRONICS MS 256NB MAGIC BLUE | 26. | 900. | 170. | Tourism Morozka, Heavenly Blue Transparent Case, Intellowave System |
| LG ELECTRONICS MS-195T | twenty | 800. | 140. | Egg Design, 4 Authorization Modes |
| LG ELECTRONICS MH-656EL | 26. | 900/1250. | 321. | Antibacterial coating, stainless steel finish, Turboration, IntellowaVe system |
| Moulinex Y57. | 17. | 900/1100. | 320. | Optiquick function, mechanical control panel control, enameled coating of the inner surface, folding grill |
| Panasonic NN-C780P | 28. | 1000/1515 | 340. | Inverter, automatic turbine machine, internal stainless steel coating |
| Panasonic NN-F359W | twenty | 900/1100. | 310. | Inverter, automatic turbine machine, internal stainless steel coating |
| Panasonic NN-M690P | 28. | 1000/1300 | 340. | Inverter, automatic turbine machine, internal stainless steel coating |
| Samsung ck99fsr. | 28. | 900/1300. | 240. | Internal coating from biochematic enamel, plate "KRISP", convection |
| SAMSUNG G-2638CR | eighteen | 800. | 135. | Inner coating from enamel, quartz grill |
| SAMSUNG M-1712R | 21. | 850. | 110. | Internal coating from enamel, mechanical management type |
| Samsung SE 115KSR | 32. | 850/1300 | 260. | Internal coating from biochemal enamel, spit, plate "KRISP" |
| Sharp 770b. | 27. | 900/1200/800 | 320. | Double grill heating system; Functions "Pizza", "Crispy Snack" and "Couples" |
| Sharp R-210 B | nineteen | 700. | 160. | Mechanical management |
| Sharp R-75A8 | 24. | 800/1500. | 400. | Oven - oven with convection |
The editors thanks Yu. P. Syromyatnikov for consultation in the preparation of the material.