Unevenly cooked food may be a result of using inappropriate cookware that is either too large or too small for the quantities being cooked. Also remember to stir food during cooking to promote uniform cooking / heating. Always thaw food completely before you begin to cook it.

Use the grilling rack supplied with your microwave oven while using the grill, combination and convection mode to bring food closer to the heat source (grill element) located on the top of the oven cavity. Also use the crisp plate / crusty plate supplied with your microwave oven while using the crisp / crusty function in your microwave oven (for bottom heat) for cooking foods that require a crisp base like pizzas.

Overcooking may be a result of prolonged cooking times that may dry out certain foods and make them inedible. Also check that the cookware being used is small enough / large enough to hold the food. While following a recipe, ensure that the cooking times and power levels have been correctly entered.

While boiling, frying or poaching eggs the yolk may pop due to steam built up inside the yolk’s membrane. To prevent this, simply pierce the egg yolks before cooking. Never boil eggs in their shells in the microwave oven as they may burst.

After microwave cooking, food continues to cook for a short time, due to the heat present in it. It is therefore important to allow standing time to finish the cooking process and distribute the heat evenly throughout the food mass. The amount of standing time depends on the density of the food product.

Yes it is possible. Either use a commercially packaged microwave popcorn available in special microwave popcorn bags or use specially designed microwave popping cookware. Do not leave the microwave oven unattended while popping popcorn. In case the popcorn fails to pop after the suggested time given by the manufacturer, discontinue cooking as overcooking of corn may result in it catching fire. Also do not use a brown paper bag for popping popcorn and do not attempt to pop the leftover kernels.

Check your recipe book again to make sure that you have followed the instructions carefully to ascertain the causes for variations in cooking times. The cookbook times and power suggestions are suggestive to help prevent overcooking. The most common problem faced is getting used to a microwave oven. Incorrect measurement of main ingredients, variations in size, shape, height and dimensions of food as given in a recipe could affect their cooking times. Even voltage fluctuations and changes in ambient temperatures might be responsible. Use your own judgment along with the recipe book suggestions to cook food as per your taste just like you would in gas stove cooking.

Often the dish used to store food in the refrigerator is used for reheating in a microwave oven. So the cold dish also absorbs some of the heat from the food. It may therefore be necessary to heat the food a little longer.

Yes. It is possible to bake pizzas in a microwave oven using the convection mode. Place the pizza on the grilling rack provided with your microwave oven or use the crusty plate (if supplied with your microwave oven). You may even place a metal baking tray / plate on the grilling rack for better bottom browning. The crisp tray (if supplied with your oven) however must be placed directly on the turntable and preheated before use.

Yes but the crust will be formed only on top of the cake. However this is possible only in convection models.

Dish size is very important in microwave cooking. If the dish used for cooking is too large the food will spread out and may get overcooked at the edges before the centre is completely cooked. On the other hand, if the dish is too small or narrow, the food may bubble over the top or be squeezed into a dense mass and may not cook through to the centre. Always use the dish size recommended for best results.

Dishes frequently become hot due to the conduction of heat from hot food. As long as the food in the dish is cooking in the times specified in a recipe, it simply means that hot food is heating the dish. However if the food is taking much longer than the recipe states then test the dish to make sure it is suitable.

Frying is not recommended in a microwave oven since it is not possible to control the temperature of heated oil in a microwave oven. This could be extremely dangerous particularly while deep frying where a large quantity of oil is used. It may catch fire.

Yes. It is the perfect way to cook vegetables as it keeps vitamin loss to a minimum. Water soluble vitamins such as vitamin C are easily lost in cooking water. Since very little (often nil) water is required in microwave cooking, this loss is kept to a minimum. Faster cooking times also mean that vegetables retain their bright colours and natural crunchy textures. Prepare vegetables just before you want to serve them. Foods cooked in a microwave oven require less / no fat for cooking. Since microwaved vegetables retain more natural flavours, also less salt is required to be added.

It depends on the food product being defrosted. For many products the auto defrost power levels are low enough to ensure gentle defrosting without switching off the machine during defrosting time. But with a dense food product like whole chicken, it is better to allow some standing time during defrosting. This helps in defrosting the centre without overcooking the edges.

Aluminium foil is used in very small quantities for shielding. The amount of food that is not shielded must be greater than the amount covered with foil so that there is plenty of food to absorb the microwave energy. This is not the case when metal dishes are used as the microwave energy does not even reach the food but gets reflected off the food by the metal dish.

When you microwave liquids in a confined space, particularly those with a high milk content, the temperature of the liquid above the surface is much higher than it is below. Therefore, when you stir this liquid the gasses produced by the heating process escape and spill over the edge. To overcome this problem, never allow a liquid to fill a container more than three quarters and stir at least once halfway through heating / cooking time.

Drying and hardening of cakes is a result of overcooking. The cake should still look moist when removed from the microwave oven as it will cook through during standing time. Always aim to undercook rather than overcook in a microwave oven. Remember do not expect food cooked in a microwave oven to look cooked until after their recommended standing time. A cake is ready to come out of the microwave oven when the sides come away from the edge of the dish and a wooden cocktail skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Microwaves only penetrate food upto a depth of 3 cm (1.5 inches) so foods / cuts thicker than 1.5 inches become hot on the surface while their centre remains cold / undercooked. During standing time the heat is conducted to the centre of the food and cooks it through.

This could be due to overbeating while mixing the cake. Too much air is trapped in the mixture causing it to rise well in the oven but then the cake sinks on being heated as the trapped air is released during cooking.

When microwaves penetrate the food, they have to spread themselves throughout the total mass of food required to be cooked. Therefore larger quantities of food would require larger amount of microwave energy to cook, thus increasing their cooking time. It is however recommended that microwave ovens should be used to cook moderate quantities i.e. 4 – 6 portions of food at a time.

Since food cooks very quickly in a microwave oven it is always better to undercook the food rather than overcook it. However overcooked vegetables can be liquidized to make soups; fruits can be liquidized and strained to make purees and sauces; sponge cakes can be used for trifles; plain biscuits for biscuit crumbs etc.