Good Housekeeping Microwave Handbook [antikvár]

GOOD HOUSEKEEPING MICROWAVE HANDBOOKMicrowave ovens work off an ordinary 13 amp socket. When they are plugged in, the electrical energy is con verted by a magnetron inside the- őven, into microwaves. These are high frequency, short length waves similar" to television, F.M. radio and visible light waves. The microwaves are attracted to water molecules in food and cause therryto vibrate millions of times per second. In so Qoing they produce an immense amount of heat in the same way that rubbing hands together warms them and the faster the hands are rubbed the warmer they become. (Cooking in a conventional oven can be compared to warming your hands in front of a fire.) The heat that is generated within rhe food begins to cook it from within and not from an external source of heat as when cooking conventionally. Microwaves can only ?penetrate to a depth of about 5 cm inches) so the centre of larger pieces of food is cooked by concfiictfon of the heat produced near the surface of the food. Microwaves are reflected by some materials (see illustration opposite) such as metal, whilst others such as glass, allow them to pass through. This is why the walls of the microwave oven cavity are made of metal and glass (except the specially treated glass used on the microwave door) is used as a container for cooking. ;Microwaves can cook any food in the sense that they can turn it from the raw