Do you really understand Micro-Wave heating .vs. Convectional heating? Temp is not the subject.

Ok, let's turn the science thing off. The reason people do not know the overall effects of MW vs CTH (microwave versus convectional thermal heating) is basically," it's not going to show up on the packaging", or you confusing heating .vs. radiating something, and figured that since the food got hot, therein lies the solution.

Now, dammit, I said I was going to turn the science off, and look what happened already!

Anyway, those of us past the 10th grade, know that heat is produced in food by applying external heat. The food warms by exposure to thermal convection between the heating element, the pan, and the food. Very simple, and no rules broken.

Ok, now lets go with heating food using microwave energy. Hot, certainly. Consistency: well, the tendancy to rubberize, but not the target of this discussion. Long story short, microwave radiation stimulates the molecules in food by energizing them, with the by-product being heat, but if you want to include taste as a similar by-product produced by convectional heating, that is not on the menu.

Again, we have to maintain the science filter, because it confuses some people... so bear with me. (and I am not belittling people that do not dig core science, just trying to maintain a cognitive baseline.)

Yes, Taste is the key.

The tongue and nose define what taste is.

Some of the most sensitive organs in the human body are taste buds on the tongue, and smell sensors in the nose.

The tongue is involved in detecting the five (known) elements of taste perception: salty, sour, bitter, sweet, and umami.

The nose uses olfactory sensors neurons and are made up of at least six morphologically and biochemically different cell types. The combinations of the stimulus in these cells, produce a unique sensation we call smell. (There we went too far again with science, but some things have to be made clear.)

As said before, taste, as perceived, is the combination of these 2 basic senses. Try holding your nose and eating something you like, just to make the point.

Now, lets get back to the original premise. Both the sensors on the tongue and nose combine in your brain to produce taste. The levels of molecular stimulation are very different in the two methods of heating food. The receptors in our tongue and nose are really sensitive to molecular stimulation, so food tastes different when heated by each different method.

Sounds simple, and it is not, but you must agree that a simple dish reheated in a pan tastes better (or different, from that perspective) than if you nuked it in the microwave.

So there. A statement that justifies why MW food, is not the same as CTH food. I hope it makes sense.

Sources are in order:
Taste Buds

The Nose (olfaction)

Thanks, and hoping not to be a master of the obvious, but for some reason people do not get the difference.

a reply to: charlyv
I don't get it. Can you go back to the point where you said, "Ok, let's turn the science thing off."

Interesting. I learned something today. S&F.

a reply to: charlyv

I would have said that the distinction between the two is quite obvious.

But, I've seen enough episodes of kitchen nightmares to know many don't, even those claiming to be chefs.

Made me laugh. Made me think. It's threads like these why i don't visit mcdonald or taco smell too much. (fast food in genreal)

a reply to: charlyv

I don't get the point of the post... but microwave's generate heat by agitating water molecules within the item you're "nuking" ...

And yes I do get how this process affects taste..

originally posted by: Chadwickus
a reply to: charlyv

I would have said that the distinction between the two is quite obvious.

But, I've seen enough episodes of kitchen nightmares to know many don't, even those claiming to be chefs.

Yeah the distinction is definite ... microwaving dries out food, rubberizes meat just because of it's very nature... since the heat is generated from the water molecules a lot of it is lost in steam and evaporation during the process... with conventional heating, especially with things like beef and chicken.. if cooked properly at least you lock in the moisture and keep a lot of the flavor ..

Maybe that is what the OP's actually talking about... only some things taste ok to me microwaved.. often it's heating up things like water for tea .. or milk for hot chocolate.. or even briefly just to warm up some leftover pizza

Otherwise I rarely touch a microwave.. the only thing I've had that is an exception, food wise.. is this thing I found one day that is a steamer dish... it separates the food from the sauce beneath .. the sauce has a higher water content so it steams up quickly and that heats the food quicker.. so you have less moister lost in the food itself.. when you're done you mix the food with the sauce.. that wasn't half bad.. still no where NEAR on par with conventional cooking.

a reply to: charlyv

The horror.Last Tuesdays pizza MUST be reheated in the microwave . Blasphemy . The pizza gods will surely seek vengeance .
But id don't get cooking ,or science , or females ,or

The last microwave we had was fun. We would stand little wedges of green pepper up and they would be arcing across to each other. Other veggies worked too, but they all got black on the tips and tasted terrible so you waste food when playing with this.

When the last microve caught fire, we gave up on them. Heating everything is not good anyway, cold food stimulates acid production in the gut, if you constantly heat food then acid production deficiency can become a problem. Some foods taste all right in a microwave but others don't. It got so we had the microwave running for about thirty minutes a day or more if you add it up. That is way too much time to sit in front of that thing, it does give off energy, we had a tester that measured stray energy fields and it maxed out when the microwave was on.

Now, it wasn't hard at all to give up the microwave, both the wife and I didn't have one till we were in our twenties so it was actually nostalgic to get rid of it. We also dumped the satellite dish and our electric bill dropped almost five bucks a month from that, that equipment really sucks the juice. Now we basicly barely survive with ten channels on the tv. It's free though, I did have to buy a new antenna four years ago though, that put me out a hundred bucks.

We don't even rent dvds anymore and even though we can watch netflix, we rarely do. My daughter suscribes to it because she can watch shows at times it is convenient because she works varying hours.

I know, I live in the stone age. I am stuck back in the sixties, My despising windows 8 is because I am old fashioned.

a reply to: charlyv

I get what you are saying and I fully agree that heating stuff in the MW does NOT taste the same, hence why I rarely use it, over conventional oven/stove

I don't even like using it to defrost unless I absolutely have to
Prefer defrosting naturally in frig vs. MW, the meat tastes better IMO

But that is just me.....

a reply to: rickymouse

You really do know everything about this stuff dont you, I hate windows 8 also. We rarely use the microwave...

What about those pot pies with the semi-foiled liners? They crisp up.

But certainly a convection oven, heating on all sides, from the outside, will heat more evenly then microwaves penetrating and heating from the inside out. The rotating plate in a microwave is meant to distribute the waves throughout the meal and heat evenly, but I suspect this is only partially effective.

Thanks for this thread.

I use the microwave......mostly because I am lazy....and mostly to cook broccoli for Emily, our Husky.
Also to carefully reheat some leftovers......doesn't seem to alter taste too much.
Works great to "steam" hotdog buns.

Really, though.....I crave a small over/toaster oven thingy.....but we lack counter space.....SIGH

Toaster ovens are awesome... Microwave for me is just to quickly reheat something, but to prep a frozen meal .. it just falls flat against conventional cooking as far as I'm concerned.