Experts say that a number of cases of irritable bowel syndrome, food poisoning, and other foodborne illnesses are caused by our faulty cooking habits in microwave ovens, once supposed to be one of the appliances safer kitchen.
However, a microwave oven remains the safest and easiest kitchen appliance to use. So how do these foods come about? It is definitely not our microwave oven itself, but our faulty method of cooking that is to blame. So the next time you turn on your oven to cook something delicious, kindly, for the sake of your belly, do the following. Otherwise, you will run for your life holding your belly with both hands towards a doctor’s clinic.
Remember, our goal is to ensure that no part of the meal is left ‘uncooked’. It’s these raw portions of a dish that carry live germs and bacteria that cause problems inside your stomach once you eat the food, especially dishes without vegetables.
The first and most important thing is the correct cleaning of the oven. A microwave oven that is even partially dirty can hamper the cooking process. How can something riddled with germs cook something healthy?
Slow cooking meat is the real formula. First cut it into small pieces and cook them giving no more than 30-40 percent heat. In this way the pieces are cooked easily and safely and the heat reaches the innermost part. Therefore, all harmful organisms die in the oven.
If it is important to cook some larger pieces of meat, it is helpful to cook them in a cooking bag. It generates enough heat and steam and distributes them evenly to all parts of the pieces so that no germs or bacteria remain. Avoid a higher degree of heat. Use 45-55 percent of the maximum.
A microwave oven is also supposed to be a good preservative of food taste and flavor. So use salt and other herbs etc only half the actual amount you use while cooking in a conventional oven.
Many times we use microwave ovens and electric grills to make a dish. So we cook it at times only in an oven. Do your grill work quickly as soon as you take the meat out half cooked, otherwise the germs become more destructive. Never let half-cooked pieces cool down.
For better and faster cooking, you may consider using liquid in the food. You save almost 30 percent energy and time too. Fatty meat also cooks fast. A pound of meat takes no more than six minutes to cook. So you keep adding six more minutes for every pound of meat you add.
If you don’t prefer to cook in a cooking bag, store the meat chunks in a medium bowl and use a lid to cover them. However, avoid an airtight cover. Allow steam to escape. Stir the food once or twice giving intervals before it finally turns off. Stirring distributes heat evenly.
To cover the container, plastic wrap may be another suitable option instead of a lid. However, refrain from using metallic foils. They can spoil the food. Also, when cooking pieces of various sizes, keep the larger pieces below the smaller ones. Cooking becomes easy.