Microwave ovens have been common place in kitchens around the world since the 1970’s or so and can now be relied upon to do a range of cooking tasks in the kitchen.
But if you’ve never used one before or are considering buying one you may be wondering what are the uses of microwaves?
Below we will take a look at some of the most common uses of microwaves in homes, offices and businesses around the world to give you an idea of how they may be useful.
Note: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This does not affect how much you pay for the product.
What Are The Uses of Microwaves?
Contents
Reheating Food
One of the biggest uses of microwaves is for simply reheating cold food. It’s been found that the majority of microwave users simply make use of their machines for reheating last night’s leftovers. This is a great way to make sure that you don’t waste food and is also very handy for foods that may not do so well with being reheated on the stove.
Another very good application when it comes to reheating food is doing so for things that would otherwise need the main conventional oven to be switched on just for reheating which can be time consuming and expensive. For example if you have leftover cheesey lasgna but you don’t want to reheat it in the oven, you can use a microwave.
Indeed there are some microwaves that also have an oven setting in addition to the classic magnetron microwaves.
Cooking Food
As well as simply reheating food, microwave ovens can also be used to cook food from start to finish. Some of the most popular foods to cook in the microwave include potatoes, rice and pasta.
With domestic microwaves ranging typically from 600 to 1200 watts of power, they can do an excellent job of cooking food in a quick and efficient manner.
There are a number of microwave models that come with auto programmes that will automatically choose the best settings for cooking certain types of food. These can be very useful as they take out the guessing game when trying to find the best settings.
Grilling Food
As well as just essentially boiling food via the classic microwave setting, microwave ovens can also be used to grill food. There are a number of models available on the market that combine a classic microwave with a grill function and in some cases as a convection oven as well.
The grill function on a microwave can allow you to brown your food after it’s been microwaved or simply grill it from start to finish. They’re usually fitted with quartz heating elements.
Roasting/Baking Food
As mentioned above there are many microwave models that also have convection ovens in addition the microwave and grill setting. These can be used to roast or bake your food. In some cases you may even opt to go for a convection microwave oven in place of a conventional oven especially if your home is tight on space.
Slow Cooking
There are some microwaves that can be set to cook for as long as 99 minutes. This can be quite a useful feature if you need to do some slow cooking. Though of course dedicated slow cookers can be set to cook for 5/6 hours plus if needed, microwaves can still give you the option of cooking for long periods of time at low heat levels.
Clocks and Timers
An often understated use of domestic microwaves is the fact they can actually be used as kitchen clocks. A lot of microwaves will have a digital display that stays on even when not in use and that displays the time of day. This can be quite handy when you’re in the kitchen and need to mintor the time.
The other function this allows is to use the microwave digital display as a timer which would once again when it comes to making food.
Conclusion: What Are The Uses Of Microwaves?
As we can see there are a number of potential uses of microwaves around the home. Microwaves can make a great addition to the kitchen as they are so versatile and can help with a number of different tasks.
What are the uses of microwaves?: Tell us your thoughts.