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Comment by kingosticks | Hacker News Reader

You and me both. I was fed up of following the cooking instructions only to have some things explode. I was particularly tired of cleaning up porridge which will quickly turn concrete-like. Instead, drop it down to medium, add on a minute or two and it's perfect.

Why is it that all microwave cooking instructions say to use high power. I recently bought a soup that included the cook time for a 1000W microwave, I can't imagine that ending well.

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A microwave only work with an on/off cycle. It runs on MAX for x seconds and off for y seconds. If you want 50% effect, it runs 5 seconds, then wait 5 seconds. Cooking it on low is just letting the food distribute the heat naturally for a while, instead of building up an energy bubble that will expload in steam. So low effect is good. It's still max effect but on half the time.

When cooking oatmeal porridge I usually do one cup oatmeal and 2 cups and a little more of water. In deep plate, full effect in microwave for 2 minutes but I watch it the whole time. When it starts building a volcano I let it go on until the edges of the volcano goes to the edge of the plate. THen everything is nicely cooked and I stuff my butter and a bit of salt in there and stir it until it's the thickness I want. Add milk to stop the thickeninig and eat. Maybe with some applejam on top. Oh, and make sure the oatmeal is not the generic type, it tastes nothing. There are really nice types around that makes oatmeal really great.

Of course there is a slowcook method too but I haven't tried that yet. Let the oatmeal just stand in cold water over the night, no cooking included.

Cheap ones, anyway. Expensive models sometimes have an inverter.

Several years back (and things may have changed) Panasonic had a patent on the inverter and was the only microwave that offered it. I purchased a Panasonic for that reason and love it.

This from their website: The Panasonic Microwave Ovens powered with patented Inverter Technology™ deliver evenly cooked meals, from edges to center, every time.

My Panasonic bit the dust after about five years of use with a light show. I believe the magnetron shorted and burnt out the power supply. As I was microwaving water for tea, there was a bright white light on the inside of the microwave. Family also described a similar failure around the same time frame of ownership.

I enjoyed that microwave before that happened and was thoroughly impressed with the ice cream soften setting.

Thanks. I've googled around for microwaves that heat evenly, but the term "inverter" never showed up. Glad to know this exists.

I had the same microwave and I loved it. Unfortunately it caught on fire, and according to Amazon reviews we weren’t the only ones. Luckily my wife was in the kitchen when it happened.

I’m sure whatever model they’re selling now is different, so I’m not trying to scare people off. The point is I now have a microwave without an inverter and I hate it. It might end up going to my photography studio and I’ll get a new one for the home.

My experience with a Panasonic inverter & grill oven was that it didn't make the food hot, even if you gave it double the time. That defeated the point for me.

I ended up using a cheapo 600W microwave that cost 1/4 of the expensive Panasonic but would actually make food hot.

I've also had other experiences of bad usability in Panasonic products. Pointless extra button presses to to tell it you actually want to _microwave_ at _full power_. Who knew you would actually want to use your microwave for microwaving? /s Just let me press the time & start, already.

I now have a Samsung with convenient controls and a cheerful tune.

My partner enjoys what we call "overnight oats" but it's not for me, I like the warm wake-up. I'm half milk, half water, 4 mins at 60% and then I don't have to stand there watching it. Fruit on top as a treat otherwise it's plain all the way! But there can be a big difference in the oats you use, totally agree.

Overnight, then heat (saucepan/stovetop, or microwave) in the morning.

Cooking need only be long enough to heat the oatmeal, not to absorb liquids. This is especially useful for steel-cut oats.

My oatmeal technique is to boil water (in an electric kettle), pour that over the oats in a bowl, and let it sit for a few minutes. This works with both regular rolled oats and quick oats (thinly rolled), but it takes longer with regular oats. I'm making hot water anyways for a beverage, so it's already available. After a few minutes, I just add milk, cinnamon, and sugar.

>A microwave only work with an on/off cycle.

That may be changing soon because of solid state microwave/rf-heating:

Solid State Cooking Oven Uses RF Energy, 1m31s

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6Xg1UAwutc

Goji Food Solutions Solid State RF Cooking Demonstration, 2m35s

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg-UtHjkkfM

[3] https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a...

[4] https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/design/the-future-of-...

[5] https://appliancebuyersguide.com/mieles-dialog-oven-brings-r...

[6] https://thespoon.tech/miele-introduces-the-dialog-a-high-end...

[7] https://www.infineon.com/cms/en/applications/consumer/home-a...

[8] https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/i/infineon/micr...

[9] http://www.gojifoodsolutions.com/

tl;dr essentially a beamforming solid state microwave phased array

edit: removed one double link

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