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New Material Speeds Microwaving Time

livescience.com — A new material designed for use in microwaves heats foods and beverages more quickly and saves energy

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  • 888gavin, on 07/28/2008, -20/+3But does it run Crysis?
  • peterjmag, on 07/28/2008, -10/+1Foil does that too. Try it some time.
    • bornahokie, on 07/28/2008, -1/+7foil + microwave = something not good.
    • Pilot85, on 07/28/2008, -1/+2hey, that didn't work, and now my microwave is dead! how unexpected!
    • secrity, on 07/28/2008, -0/+1If done right, and for the right reasons, foil is perfectly fine in the microwave. The old TV dinners that came in foil trays could be heated in the microwave just fine.
      • MacEnvy, on 07/28/2008, -1/+2It has to be the right kind of foil. They make plasticized foil (really it's just reflective plastic, like mylar) that can go in the microwave, but the stuff that comes in a roll on a cardboard tube can do some awful (and awesome) things to a microwave.
      • secrity, on 07/28/2008, -0/+1Regular aluminum foil can be OK in a microwave as long as there is also food or water in the oven and the foil it is not wadded up or in small pieces. Foil is useful when microwaving a turkey or something in a pie shell; it can be used to shield the tips of the turkey legs and wings or the edge of a pie shell.

        Small flecks and very thin layers of metal, such as a CD, will spark in a microwave. I have heard of brown paper bags catching fire in a microwave because of small flecks of aluminum in the recycled paper. Aluminized Mylar is likely to make sparks. I like to see the looks on people's faces when they see their expensive gold or platinum rimmed china sparking in a microwave.

        http://www.afcma.org/cd.htm

        http://www.alufoil.org/front_content.php?idart=227

        http://www.fsis.usda.gov/PDF/Microwave_Ovens_and_F ...
  • l800LEMMINGS, on 07/28/2008, -16/+5cooking food at faster speeds depletes the nutritional value of the food
    • lebsoljah, on 07/28/2008, -0/+12Using a microwave proves that you don't care anyways
    • mike17032, on 07/28/2008, -2/+6*****.

      And look around, do we look like a nation of starving people? Losing .0000453% of the "nutritional value" of some food isnt exactly going to ***** matter.

      Tell me you are one of those raw food only tards?
    • Phearce, on 07/28/2008, -0/+7Wouldn't it go the other way: prolonged cooking allows more time to break down nutritional content?
  • UpperUpsilon, on 07/28/2008, -0/+33Good. Now Ramen will only take 1.5 minutes.
  • macweirdo42, on 07/28/2008, -1/+31"This baby can flash-fry a buffalo in 60 seconds."
    "60 seconds? Aww, but I want it now!"
  • MacBookForMe, on 07/28/2008, -0/+2faster, faster, ever faster till...I love SLOW food
    • KaiUno, on 07/28/2008, -0/+1I like easting my food slowly. And having it cooked faster gives me more time to do just that.
  • sanman, on 07/28/2008, -1/+1I've heard of Infra-wave, too. Anybody know if that's any good?
    • MacEnvy, on 07/28/2008, -0/+1Yeah. It was also great way back when they called it a "toaster oven".

      Okay, so it's a little more complicated than that ... but not too much. It's pretty much what you'd get if you cooked your food under a powerful heat lamp.
  • crazyjake, on 07/28/2008, -0/+4now i don't have to wait as long between my constant gorging on whole chickens and microwavable pizzas. let the gluttony commence!!
  • Cretius0, on 07/28/2008, -2/+9Take the extra 10 minutes out of your day and prepare a fresh meal. In 15 years you'll thank yourself for the foresight.
    • marx2k, on 07/28/2008, -2/+22Sure dad.. whatever. Can I borrow the car, or something?
    • mike17032, on 07/28/2008, -1/+8If you mean because it tastes better, then fine but I fail to see how that matters 15 years down the road. Maybe 15 minutes later when you are eating it, but in the long run who cares.

      If you are of the mind that microwaving food is somehow less healthy, thats *****.
      • burjzyntski, on 07/28/2008, -0/+11It's not the act of microwaving the food that makes it less healthy, it's generally the food that goes into the microwave that is less healthy.
    • dragon76, on 07/28/2008, -0/+1There was a PBS show devoted to ACTUAL *GASP* COOKING in the microwave. It was called "Microwave's Are For Cooking". If you get a decent microwave that displays the wattage there are lots of microwave cook books but they are dependent on the power of the microwave to time correctly.
    • Ramble, on 07/28/2008, -0/+1Because rice is bad for you.
  • crashingechelon, on 07/28/2008, -0/+6Finally I don't have to wait 2 1/2 minutes for those hot pockets! Now if only I could get to the microwave quicker, blasted hot pockets.
  • lebsoljah, on 07/28/2008, -6/+2mmm... radioactivity

    http://thyroidoperation.co.uk/images/homer.jpg
  • mdcraig62, on 07/28/2008, -0/+19I put instant coffee in a microwave oven and almost went back in time.
    • kevdotbadger, on 07/28/2008, -2/+1The coffee or you?

      i would be scared if some coffee from the future appeared on my desk.
    • awtripp, on 07/28/2008, -1/+6I spilled spot remover on my dog and now he's gone.
  • JimPuchai, on 07/28/2008, -1/+2Smart cooks have known this for many years. Plates and pots with a percentage of clays are heated together with the food. To get all the energy into the food use a Pyrex plate or similar. The plate will remain cool except where in contact with hot food.
  • morepowerr, on 07/28/2008, -0/+1I always worry about food getting messed up but the container.
  • mttyd, on 07/28/2008, -0/+1Just wat I need extra hot dishes to burn myself on... Just to let everyone know cheap clay dishes from Walmart will do this just fine and on the cheap...
  • alx1507, on 07/28/2008, -0/+3This is great timing for this new technology. Those 3 second poptart wait periods were starting to become unbarable.
  • ozziegt, on 07/28/2008, -0/+7I have some bowls which do this (by accident, I assume). It's f*ing annoying. The bowl will be so hot you can't pick it up and the food will still be cold because the bowl absorbed all the damn energy.
    • secrity, on 07/28/2008, -0/+3Are they Melamine?

      A rule of thumb is to not use plastic in the microwave, use heat resistant glass instead. Many ceramics are also OK in the microwave.
  • someone2, on 07/28/2008, -2/+2but will it blend?
  • mdcraig62, on 07/28/2008, -0/+3For my birthday I got a humidifier and a de-humidifier... I put them in the same room and let them fight it out.
  • wkenri, on 07/28/2008, -0/+1Microwaving dinner; now that's a great way to get cancer.
    • Superc00kie, on 07/28/2008, -1/+3Okay, what kind of ***** is that?
  • DesertTripper, on 07/28/2008, -0/+1The first microwave my parents got was in 1975 (a Litton, IIRC), and it had a microwave-absorbing plate just like the one being described here which was supposed to be for making pancakes and frying bacon, etc. (though, as I recall, the pancakes I made with it were awful.)

    Plus, those inserts that come with microwavable pizzas do pretty much the same thing.

    This is "new" technology?
    • ParanoydAndroid, on 07/28/2008, -0/+1Those inserts for microwaveable pizzas or bagel bites, etc ... do nothing even close to anything similiar to the cermacs described in the article.
      In a microwave the vast majority of the cooking comes from the water molecules in the food vibrating, and then heating up. The problem is that this means that the food cannot exceed ~212F, and the Maillard reaction (the browning reaction that makes food crispy and flavorful http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction ) requires temperatures greater than 212F. This is why microwaved food getts soggier, not crispier, unless you just microwave the damn thing till all the water evaporates ... which would not be tasty.

      The fake metal inserts are provided to allow foods to heat up independent of the water, and to therefore become hotter than 212F, and get crispy and tasty- this is why they are provided with foods that, ideally, should have a crust on them. The ceramics in the article on the other hand are to speed up cooking by providing another hot surface in the microwave, not to achieve greater temperatures.
  • liuite, on 07/28/2008, -0/+1super-heating food and/or high blood sugar level leads to vascular disease!
  • beerock, on 07/28/2008, -0/+1alright, all the kooks came out for this one.
    I'm sure every one of you has a degree in nutritional science.
    And nobody mentioned the legacy and supremacy of the toaster oven (the most effective way to melt cheese on things).
  • nocash23, on 07/28/2008, -0/+1cool. our over consuming society can now get their nuked vitamin depleated food in 60 sec. rather than 2 minutes. thanks for saving time that could be better spent on the wii or some equally empty consumerist past time.... lets hear it for speed cooking for fatties.
  • MrFurious2k, on 07/28/2008, -0/+1Kick ass! I've always been frustrated that my dinner takes more than 30 seconds to heat up.
  • lionelmandrake, on 07/28/2008, -0/+0Petalite Identification:
    ===============
    Color: colorless, grey, yellow, yellow grey, to white
    Crystal habit: tabular prismatic crystals and columnar masses
    Crystal system: monoclinic 2/m.
    Cleavage: Perfect in one plane
    Fracture: Subconchoidal
    Mohs Scale hardness: 6 - 6.5
    Luster: Vitreous, pearly on cleavages
    Refractive index : nα=1.504, nβ=1.510, nγ=1.516
    Streak Colorless:
    Specific gravity: 2.4
    Fusibility: 5
    Solubility: Insoluble
    Other Characteristics: Fluorescent
    Natural Occurrences: Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela


    OH CRAP!
  • 19quest64, on 07/28/2008, -0/+0I'm surprised only about one or two people have mentioned this already, but won't you now burn yourself trying to take anything out of the microwave? This just seems like a stupid idea.
  • DrJG, on 07/28/2008, -0/+2Microwaving need not be only for instant and bad food. Few people can afford a full time person to do all the housekeeping and fresh cooking three or more times a day. Cooking on large scale when you do cook anything and refrigerating - or freezing portions - and then microwaving indivudually served plates when one is in a hurry to eat or tto hungry to wait, works fine. One does need to know about health questions of effects of microwave on food though.
    • Superc00kie, on 07/28/2008, -0/+1"Health questions of effects of microwave on food." Yeah, right! A load of stupid conspiracy theories that have been debunked a million times and only nutjobs believe. Microwaves have been in use for several decades now and no health risk has been proven.
  • Ramble, on 07/28/2008, -0/+2Stupid idea. I have some mugs that do this, you can't pick them up because they're too hot and the stuff inside the damn mug is cold.
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