Hacker News Reader

Comment by gordaco | Hacker News Reader

But glassware can be used in microwaves, and metal can not. I don't cook in glassware, but I very frequently heat food in glassware.

View on HN

Metal actually can be used in a microwave safely. For example, sheet pans with rounded edges and metal bowls are quite safe, as long as you have a decent amount of something in those containers to absorb any energy that the metal reflects. Plenty of prepackaged meals found in grocery stores have a thin sheet of metal in the packaging to change the way the meal heats up in the microwave.

Things like crumpled aluminum foil, a metal fork, or random bits of decorative metal in a dish could cause electrical arcing because charge can build up on the "edges" (e.g. the tines of a fork).

Of course, it's more convenient to use something like glass because we just don't have to give it a second thought (aside from the whole exploding glass problem). And for that, it's reasonable to simply avoid putting any metal in a microwave.

Microwaves might convenient but are inferior to conventional ovens. You won't find one in a professional (high end) kitchen.

Do you happen to have a source for this?

One can find articles that seem to imply the opposite.

> A few of Mr. Myhrvold’s microwave recipes — an eggplant Parmesan, which purports to turn the vegetable creamy instead of rubbery, and a steamed chocolate sponge cake — echoed ones I had seen before. (Mark Bittman has written in The New York Times about using the microwave to make several dishes, and “Eleven Madison Park: The Cookbook” includes a recipe for microwaved pistachio spongecake.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/09/dining/microwave-cooking-...

Despite that he wrote an elaborate technical cookbook, does anyone from the gourmet chef world really consider Nathan Myhrvold an authority on cuisine or cooking techniques or taste?

Many chefs in high end restaurants won't accept a microwave. Michel Roux Jr even complained when contestants used them on British TV show Masterchef.

If you want to start name dropping, what about Heston Blumenthal? I bet he has a microwave.

I'm sure some chefs reject microwaves to make a point. I would contend its a minority though, I would also contend that it's to allow the Mr Rouxs of the world to justify inflated prices, rather than any inherent problem with the machine.

Chef Ping is found in plenty of high end kitchens; I know plenty of chefs who use them from pubs right the way up to two star kitchens.

Hell, even some of the sponge cake on the menu at el Bulli was microwaved.

When microwaves were fairly novel, contemporary cookbooks and magazines acted as if future Americans would be cooking all foods in the microwave. From what I recall, my mother cooking pork roast in the microwave did not last very long.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com