Microwave oven controls. pikrepo.com / Public Domain
December 6th is Microwave Oven Day. When’s the last time you used your microwave for cooking, as opposed to just reheating?
Cooking with your microwave
Most people seem to only use a microwave oven for reheating. As a challenge for today, you could try to actually cook something from scratch in your microwave.
After microwaves started becoming affordable in the 1970s and 1980s, cookbooks for actually cooking in microwaves were all the rage. Now, they, sadly, they seem to be consigned to dusty bookshelves in charity shops.
Madame Benoit microwave cooking books. © CooksInfo / 2020
While not everything was suited for microwave cooking, many cooks discovered that some things such as sauces could be made as well as if not better in a microwave than on a stove. A microwave oven offers other benefits, too:
“Cooking in the microwave doesn’t heat up the kitchen, it’s often faster than a conventional oven, and some foods, like vegetables, retain more nutrients when cooked in the microwave. A microwave provides a quick and easy alternative to some basic cooking techniques.” [1]Microwave. Utah State University Extension Service. Accessed November 2020 at https://extension.usu.edu/createbetterhealth/cook/microwave
Microwaves make it easy to cook wherever there’s an electrical outlet.
And they are very useful at this time of the year going into the holidays, as they let you prepare or heat up an easy meal between all the more elaborate cooking going on.
There are now many specialty cookware tools made just for microwaves.
#MicrowaveOvenDay
Further reading
Cooking in small spaces: Using a microwave oven. (Julie Garden-Robinson. North Dakota State University Extension Service. FN1618. November 2017)
Microwave Ovens and Food Safety (USDA)
History
A column in the Harrisonburg Daily News Record, 2002, makes a mention of “Microwave Oven Day”:
“Whether it’s Christmas or New Year’s Day, a birthday or even Microwave Oven Day, there’s an e-card for it.” [2]E-Card Popularity Growing. Harrisonburg Daily News Record. Harrisonburg, Virginia. 30 December 2002. Page 11. Col. 1.
The unnamed writer, however, did not mention what day it was reputedly on.
Sources
It’s National Microwave Oven Day! Here Are 7 of the Most Useful Microwave Products. Parade Magazine. 6 December 2017. Accessed November 2020 at https://parade.com/626089/parade/its-national-microwave-oven-day-here-are-7-of-the-most-useful-microwave-products/
National Microwave Oven Day. South Africa: Roodepoort Record. 6 December 2017. Accessed November 2020 at https://roodepoortrecord.co.za/2017/12/06/national-microwave-oven-day-2/
University of Lincoln-Nebraska Extension Service. December Food Calendar. Accessed November 2020 at https://food.unl.edu/december-food-calendar#microwaveovenday