Microwaves and browning pans are the most modern and efficient method of cooking | Hacker News Reader

Microwaves and browning pans are the most modern and efficient method of cooking

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3 pointswestcort5 comments

I have been cooking with a MicroPro Grill for over a year. The manufacturer uses a high-end Eterna coating that shows no sign of wear. Anything that can be prepared an an oven can be prepared in this browning pan, and in less than half the time. Clean up is minimal and I use far less energy. Moreover, my smoke detectors have never been triggered.

My experience using these pans has convinced me that natural gas ovens are an inferior holdover technology actively suppressed through advertising slogans like "Now we're cooking with gas" and dubious research papers sowing doubt on the (now long proven) safety record of microwave ovens. Microwaves are not an inferior good, but were meant to be the future of cooking.

> The following culinary items were all prepared in the microwave [...] indistinguishable from food prepared in a conventional oven.

Right off the bat, I can tell that isn't true. In all the photos you posted, there is zero browning on the exterior of those cuts. Some of the sauce/cure has indeed heated up enough to caramelize and brown on the outside, but the actual meat itself looks like a low-quality sous vide cooked it. For a $240 cooking utensil, these results are not very attractive.

You're welcome to cook however you like, but these photos don't necessarily have me rushing to throw away my cast-iron skillet any time soon.

No sauce was used on the first 3 photos. That is all browning of meat. It is not distinguishable from food cooked in the oven, cooks faster, and doesn’t dry out the meat or vegetables the way conventional ovens can.

A perfect example for the lady tasting tea experiment: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_tasting_tea

It's also $240. I can buy a skillet and a camp stove for less than half the price, and still have money left over to buy my steak.

I agree that the initial cost is high, but the value has been great considering I have used them thousands of times. These would be great for someone who is in college, graduate school, or working 24/7 on a startup. Unfortunately, I did not know about products like this in that stage of my life, but for a student or a person with little time due to business demands, it is a way to eat healthy foods and save both time and money.

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