Curmudgeon's Corner: I love my microwave.

I said I wouldn't do another political post this week, so y'all are stuck with this. 

Lynne Cantwell 2024

It has become trendy to dunk on the microwave oven -- or at least that was the sense I got when I was reading all those kitchen renovation articles last year. (I'm done with renovating my kitchen now, so you can stop showing me those, Google, kthx.) The current popular opinion is that a microwave is a big, boxy thing that takes up space on the counter or a big, boxy thing that hangs over the stove where a much more powerful range vent ought to be. People don't know how to use them. This article by Jacob Sweet in The Atlantic last year (sorry for the paywall) says, in part: "Not only are microwaves ugly, but they are not particularly user-friendly", and then talks about the "Potato" button, the "Pizza" button, the "Beverage" button, and the notoriously useless "Popcorn" button. He goes on: "After four years, I'm still not sure whether it's possible to set a cook time at an interval of fewer than 30 seconds; I just press '+30 Sec' repeatedly and watch to make sure nothing explodes."

I mean, he's right about the buttons. But a lot of the rest of his rant could be solved by reading the damned instruction manual. And as for ugly? Are you kidding me? That's like calling your dishwasher ugly! Or your refrigerator!

Although... Hmm. The trend nowadays in high-end kitchens is to hide dishwashers and fridges behind paneling to match the cabinetry. I begin to see where this is going.

Back in the mid 1980s, my in-laws gave us a microwave as a wedding gift. You want to talk about big, boxy and ugly? That thing was so gigantic that it needed its own cart. But it was a godsend for two working people, especially after the kids came along. I cooked everything in it except pasta and bread. Well, and eggs. I never mastered microwaving scrambled eggs; they would get fluffy, but they'd get all 'splodey first. Anyway, eggs were still on the "foods that will kill you" list back then, so we didn't eat very many of them.

All through school, my kids got home-cooked meals nearly every night. It was quicker to microwave a meal on busy nights than to sit in the drive-thru line at McDonald's.

That original microwave is long gone, but I still have the cookbook that came with it -- and I still use it. The guidelines for how long to cook things like winter squash (poke holes in your squash, put it on a paper towel, cook on high for about 9 minutes or until squeezy soft) and corn on the cob (leave the ears in the husk, put on the turntable on a paper towel, cook on high for 3 to 4 minutes per ear) are still pretty accurate. I even cook meat in it (on a Pampered Chef stoneware pan).

(When I told an acquaintance that I cooked meat in the microwave, she cautioned me that I should be careful because meat needed to cook to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Farenheit. I told her that I'd been doing it for years, and we'd never gotten sick from undercooked meat. Kinda blew her mind.)

Anyway. The very first appliance I replaced in my kitchen here was the microwave. Some idiot had punched through the plastic cover over the clock/timer display, so I could never tell what time it was or how long stuff still had to cook. Air fryers were all the rage at the time, but I don't cook much breaded stuff (being low carb). And besides, I didn't have room for another small appliance. 

Then I discovered this guy. It's a combination microwave and convection oven. It does all the usual microwave stuff, plus it serves as a second oven and an air fryer. I don't use the air fryer mode much, but I've made pork tenderloin and frozen pizza in it, and they have come out great.

Now granted, I had to go to the manufacturer's website and download the actual manual. At first, I couldn't figure out how to change the cooking temperature to something other than high, but the manual explained it. I also learned how to use the defrost feature by time instead of weight, which I'd never figured out on the last few microwaves I've had. And the manual has been useful for using the convection features.

Anyway, I love this appliance. I use it every day. People who trash microwaves just don't know how to use them. Read the manual, for crying out loud.

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I should mention that virtually all microwaves are made in China by one company, although you probably knew that. (Feel free to bail at the five-minute mark on that video -- the rest is a commercial for the video maker's channel.)

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These moments of bloggy cooking advice have been brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell. Make sure you're (still) registered to vote!