About Your Microwave Oven - Tesco MC209 User Manual

About Your Microwave Oven

Microwave cooking is very quick and efficient. Microwave
cooking can also help preserve the minerals and vitamins in
many foods.
The microwave power output of your oven is 800 watts.
Because the temperature in a microwave oven is relatively cool
(unlike a normal oven) you have to remember that the food can
be extremely hot. Always take precautions when handling
containers.
Radio Interference:
Operation of the microwave oven can cause interference to your
radio, TV or similar equipment. When there is interference, it may
be reduced or eliminated by taking the following measures:
Clean the door and sealing surface of the oven.
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Reorient the receiving antenna of radio or television.
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Relocate the microwave oven with respect to the receiver.
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Move the microwave oven away from the receiver.
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Suitable and unsuitable containers:
Use heat resistant porcelain, glass or plastic containers made for
microwave ovens, otherwise there is a risk of shrinking,
deforming or burning. Metal containers, or containers having
metal decoration or trim are not suitable for use with your
microwave oven.
When you are combination cooking, the container must be fully
heatproof as well as suitable for microwave cooking.
Avoid containers which narrow at the top as these may cause the
contents to erupt when removed from the oven.
Cooking In your Oven
Your oven can carry out a number of cooking processes.
Basic Microwave Cooking
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Basic Grilling
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Convection Cooking ( standard convection oven)
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Microwave/Grill combination cooking
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Microwave/Convection combination cooking
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In these above two processes, food is partially cooked by
microwaves and then finished by either grilling or oven cooking.
This accelerates the cooking process whilst maintaining the finish
and texture of traditionally cooked foods. There is also a programme
that enables you to defrost frozen food and then combination cook
it thus completing the entire cooking process in one operation.
Preset cooking programmes
Your oven has 8 preset programmes. These programmes allow
you to automate the cooking of a range of standard foods for
greater convenience. Some programmes use one cooking
method, others use combination cooking. So you can just select
the programme, dial in the amount of food you want to cook and
the oven will do the rest!
Tips for good microwave cooking
Arrange food in the dish so that the thicker part is on the outside
and the thinner part inside for more even cooking. Fold under the
thin edges of fish fillets and other tapered foods. Where it is
possible to control the shape, e.g. by tying a meat roast into a
cylinder, more uniform results will be obtained.
5-6 minutes per 500 g. will cook most diced foods including
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meat, poultry fruit and vegetables. Seafood takes less time.
Different foods require different temperatures to cook
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Some basic guidelines are given in the table below.
(*Combination refers to microwave + grill and microwave +
convection cooking)
Cookware
Heat–Resistant Glass
Non Heat–Resistant Glass
Heat–Resistant Ceramics
Microwave–Safe Plastics
Kitchen Paper
Metal Trays / Metal Racks
Aluminium Foil
Metal Foil Containers
Tesco stores stock a wide range of microwave containers and
wraps designed for microwave ovens. Plastic films should not
touch food as they may gas, melt or break down when hot and
contaminate food.
Wax paper, oven cooking bags, parchment paper and white
microwave paper towels are safe for microwave use. Wooden
objects may catch fire - so avoid their use.
Do not use aluminium foil for microwave cooking unless the
recipe requires it. Keep foil at least 25mm away from the oven
walls. Metal skewers, ties, etc. should be removed from food
before cooking.
properly. Add more minutes as you drop the power.
About 20% of the cooking takes place after the oven turns off
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so your food will continue cooking after you've removed it.
Food that takes an hour in to cook in a regular oven should
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take around15 minutes in the microwave.
Foods such as cakes with baking powder should stand a few
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minutes before cooking to allow the leavening agents to
work.
If a recipe calls for milk and water, reduce the water.
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Stir liquids and purees before during and after cooking.
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Rotate large items of food occasionally during cooking to
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encourage even heat distribution.
Food cooks better in a dish with round or curved sides.
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Salt attracts microwaves. Don't just sprinkle it on food before
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cooking, stir it in or add it later.
To ensure better distribution of heat when cooking large
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pieces of meat in the microwave, remove the bone, cook on
medium power for longer periods of time, rotate twice
during cooking .
Stuffing in poultry does not have an opportunity to
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completely cook, because the meat outside is heated
quickly. Stuffing for poultry should be cooked beforehand
and inserted later.
Fats and sugars attract microwaves - thoroughly mix sugar
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with other ingredients. Take care when cooking foods with
high sugar or fat contents as they can reach very high
temperatures.
Handle pastry-wrapped foods like mince pies carefully as the
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filling gets hotter than the pastry.
Always follow the advice in the Safety Guide on Page 2 for
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safe, effective cooking procedures.
Page 3
Microwave Grill Convection Combination*