Which Microwave?

[lastminute]

Looking into buying a combination microwave to hopefully replace
the power guzzling conventional cooker!!
Thought maybe some of you kitchen gurus might offer some assistance in choosing
the right unit for me to use, hoping it will be easy to use and understand!

Thanks..

Gerry (...totally useless in the kitchen!)

 

[TRITON]

Will this microwave be used for drying, or to facilitate small section bending of timbers ?.

 

[sawtooth-9]

If you are going to eat it, don't "nuke" it

 

[MJ80]

I put in a hotpoint integrated unit and we really like it. We have only been using the cooking modes and haven't done anything like a chicken in it yet. It is great for doing chips in, much quicker than heating up the oven. The pizza mode isn't too bad either for frozen pizza. It has a special tray and also a little removable platform for roasting. We are happy with it, and it also makes beans.

 

[Lorenzl]

About 20 years ago we had a Smeg and it only lasted a couple of years. We replaced it with a standalone as that was cheaper than getting the Smeg repaired.

This house has a NEFF which has been running for over eight years.

With the Smeg we decided to make the Christmas cake one year with combined heating and microwave. Checked it after an hour and it was like a cookie in texture.

We just tend to use the NEFF as a microwave.

 

[eribaMotters]

I have a Bosch Combi be at present, but consider it to be two different beasts in the one box and have always used it in an either or mode. I do not believe you will save money as if you attempt to microwave something you would have previously roasted then the result will not be comparable.
Many years ago I was gifted a Remoska [sold by Lakeland Plastics] by my mother. I had to teach Secondary School cooking/food tech as well as my workshop stuff and thought it a gimmick. This was a big mistake. At 400/450 watt it will do everything our conventional oven will at home and some things better [with the exception of very crispy roasts] and it is usually used every day when away in the caravan and a few times a week at home.
Have a look on the likes of Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace you should be able to pick up the standard 2L size model for about £50 in excellent condition and save yourself a fortune on the cost of a combi and running costs.

Colin

 

[Seascaper]

Hello,
We have a small Panasonic combined oven and microwave. It takes up little space standing on the kitchen worktop and has a drop down oven type door. We use it all the time, and also has a good grill, it is one small piece of equipment that can do everything. It even has a very low setting so you can use it to rise bread and then put the oven setting on and cook the bread. It is just big enough to do a good roast. Cost about £280
Regards

 

[Pedronicus]

All the ones I have seen have timers on them for both the microwave & conventional cooking functions so one has to be aware of this and not just walk away as with a normal cooker as the timer needs to be reset every 60/90 minutes. Also the capacity of the cooking chamber is rather small.

Recently used ours when I carried out a month long test to see exactly how much gas our 2-oven AGA uses by turning it off - worked out at circa £3.75 per day! Considered replacing it with a bog standard gas cooker but this would cost over a grand for AGA removal and new cooker plus in winter we would need heating in the kitchen and start having to use the tumble drier.

 

[Seascaper]

Hello,
We have a 2 oven gas Aga, just recently installed, I had worked it to cost between £2 and £2.50 a day based on paying 4p kWh from British Gas. We use the combination microwave oven when in the recent heat of summer it is too hot for the kitchen. The Aga is our source of heat in the winter apart from the log stoves and the warmth is a welcome heat in the winter months. I am looking at fitting a heat only gas boiler in the future but we love the Aga, I put one in our previous house and did the same here. The only difference being we moved from a cold part of the UK to the warmest part, the Isle of Wight, so it is destined to be off more in the summer or just on a low setting so that we can use it as a warming oven.
Regards

 

[Scruples]

If you are going to eat it, don't "nuke" it

Things tend to taste better after being 'nuked' in a microwave. The radiation warms the food by 'jiggling' the molecules until they get hot, whereas conventional cooking just blasts everything until the molecules lose their texture and taste. If anything, the microwave oven is the least damaging of the two.

 

[sawtooth-9]

W3

Things tend to taste better after being 'nuked' in a microwave. The radiation warms the food by 'jiggling' the molecules until they get hot, whereas conventional cooking just blasts everything until the molecules lose their texture and taste. If anything, the microwave oven is the least damaging of the two.

Molecules do not loose their "texture".
Molecules do not have "texture" to loose.
You may prefer food cooked in a microwave - and that's fine.
I think a basic understanding of chemistry would serve you well

 

[Scruples]

W3


Molecules do not loose their "texture".
Molecules do not have "texture" to loose.
You may prefer food cooked in a microwave - and that's fine.
I think a basic understanding of chemistry would serve you well

Yes, you're right. It's not the molecules that 'loose' <sic> their texture. It's the food in a conventional oven that breaks apart as the long heating time heat destroys it, along with the flavour.

My reasoning may have been a little simplistic, but the results are the same.

The MW ovens cook to a depth and conduction takes over to heat the inner food, rather more carefully by not blasting it. The radiation has no lasting effect after switch-off or to the quality of the food cooked; the opposite is, in fact, true.
Welcome to the future.

 

[Stevekane]

We have one of those cheap Halogen Ovens that sit on the worktop, its a large circular glass top and a metal non stick bucket bottom, our one came from Aldi and was very cheap and we use it all the time, works just like a regular oven, roasts bakes bread etc but no need to warm up and I beleive halogen is said to be more economical, and as a bonus its extremely easy to wash out. These were very popular a few years ago and it seemed to me that people bought them but didn't understand that they were just a regular oven,,so it was quite common to see them unused in charity shops. We would miss ours thats for sure.
Steve.

 

[Spectric]

Get a Ninja 15 in 1 , pressure cooking and steaming are better than micowaving.