HOW MICR- | OVENS WORK |
Microwave ovens are safe. Microwave energy is not hot. It causes food to make its own heat, and it’s this heat that cooks the food.
Ceramic Bottom
Microwaves are like TV waves or light waves. You can’t see them, but you can see what they do.
Microwaves pass through glass, paper and plastic without heating them so food absorbs the energy. Micro- waves bounce off metal pans so food does not absorb the energy.
Oven’Cavity
A magnetron in the micro- wave oven produces microwaves. The microwaves move into the oven where they are scattered or stirred by a mode mixer(like a fan]. Microwaves bounce off metal oven walls and are absorbed by food.
Microwaves may not reach the center of a roast. The heat around the outside is what cooks the roast all the way through. This is one of the reasons for letting some foods (roasts, baked pota- toes) stand for a while after cooking, or for stirring some foods during the cooking time.
Metal Floor
The ceramic bottom of your microwave oven lets micro- waves through. Then they bounce off a metal floor, back through the ceramic bottom and are absorbed by the food.
The microwaves | disturb | |
water | molecules | in the food. |
As the | molecules | bounce |
around | bumping | into each |
other, heat is made, like rub- bing your hands together. This is the heat that cooks.
