Two recent developments in cooking are explained as follows;
Microwave Cooking : Today almost every home has a microwave oven that is used frequently to thaw, reheat, and cook food. It is efficient, cost effective and convenient. Using microwave oven is of recent origin. Here, food is heated and cooked by electromagnetic waves. It can be used for cooking rice, vegetables, flesh etc. But food like cakes and pastries do not bake easily in microwave ovens.
Advantages:
1. Microwave oven cooks a variety of food in about l/4th of the time required on a gas burner. Thus, it saves energy and fuel.
2. It saves time in heating frozen foods. Thawing can be done in minutes or seconds.
3. The oven or the utensil does not get heated along with the food inside it except, under prolonged heating periods.
4. Flavor and texture do not change when reheated in a microwave oven.
5. Loss of nutrients is minimized. ((3-carotene and vitamin C are better retained by microwave cooking as compared to pressure cooking and saucepan cooking.)
6. After cooking in a microwave oven, washing dishes is much easier as food does not stick to the sides of the vessels.
7. Food gets cooked uniformly.
8. It preserves the natural color of vegetables and fruits.
9. No fat or low-fat cooking can be done easily.
Solar Cooking : Solar cooking is a form of outdoor cooking and is often used in . situations where the danger of accidental fires is high or minimal fuel consumption is important. At a basic level, solar cooking relies on the principle of concentrating sunlight, converting light to heat and then trapping it. Food is prepared in the same way as in an oven or a stove top. However, food placed inside a solar cooker is usually cut into smaller pieces, because food cooks faster when it is in smaller pieces, For very simple cooking, a lid may not be needed and the food may be placed on an uncovered tray or in a bowl. If several foods are to be cooked simultaneously, then they are placed in different containers.
Food that cooks quickly can be added to the solar cooker later. Depending on the size of the solar cooker and the quantity of cooked food, a family may use one or more solar cookers. A solar oven is turned towards the sun and left until the food is cooked. Unlike cooking on a stove or over a fire, which may require more than an hour of constant supervision, food in a solar oven is generally not stirred or turned over, both because it is unnecessary and because opening the solar oven allows the trapped heat to escape and thereby slows the cooking process. The cooking time depends primarily on the equipment being used, the amount of sunlight at the time and the quantity of food that needs to be cooked. Air temperature, wind, and latitude also affect the performance of a solar cooker.
Advantages :
1. High-performance parabolic solar cookers can be used to grill meats, stir-fry vegetables, make soup, bake bread, and boil water in minutes.
2. Conventional solar box cookers can sterilise water or prepare most foods that can be made in a conventional oven or stove, including bread, vegetables and meat over a period of hours.
3. Solar cookers use no fuel. This saves cost as well as reduce environmental damage caused by fuel use.
4. Solar cookers have large economic and environmental benefits by reducing deforestation.
5. Any type of cooking may evaporate grease, oil and other material into the air, hence requiring less cleaning.
