Some folks think they're unsafe; others associate them with convenience foods and laziness.

有些人認為它們不安全，其他人則把它們與方便食品和懶惰聯繫在一起。

And finally, there are some folks who just think they're unnecessary.

最後，有些人認為他們沒有必要。

My team and I are here to tell you, microwaves are great.

我和我的團隊要告訴大家，微波爐是個好東西。

Now, you can't believe the infomercials because this, it can't do everything, but it can do a whole lot more than reheating or defrosting.

現在你不能再相信廣告了，因為這不可能面面俱到，但它能做的遠不止加熱或解凍。

When I develop recipes, there are so many times where I call for a microwave, because it's so good at heating small amounts of food.

當我制定食譜時，很多時候，我都需要微波爐，因為它非常適合加熱少量食物。

Who wants to dig out a pot to bring a quarter cup of water to a boil or turn on the oven to toast a tablespoon of nuts?

誰會想要挖出一個鍋子來將四分之一杯水煮沸或打開烤箱來烤一湯匙堅果？

There are right ways and wrong ways to use a microwave and in order to make the most of this appliance, we really need to understand how they work.

使用微波爐有正確的方法和錯誤的方法，為了充分利用這種設備，我們確實需要了解它們的工作原理。

Be sure to hit that like button and let's dive in.

請務必按讚這部影片，接著讓我們一起深入瞭解。

Microwave ovens contain a device called a magnetron and that magnetron, it generates microwaves.

微波爐包含一個稱為磁控管的裝置，磁控管會產生微波。

Those are the things that are heating up your food.

就是這些東西在加熱你的食物。

Microwaves are a part of the electromagnetic spectrum and when you think about that spectrum, you should know it has two sides.

微波是電磁波譜的一部分，當你想到這個光譜時 你應該知道它有兩面性。

There's a safe side, and then there's like the scary side.

有安全的一面，也有可怕的一面。

On that safe side, you're gonna find things like visible light, radio waves and microwaves.

在安全方面，你會發現一些像可見光、無線電波和微波等東西。

There's squarely on the safe side.

這就是安全的一面。

Manufacturers have designed these to keep the microwaves on the inside.

製造商設計這些設備的目的是讓微波在裡面。

Why would you want them on the inside if they're safe?

如果他們安全的話你為什麼要把他們留在裡面？

You want those microwaves heating up the food that's inside the cavity, not whatever's out here.

你希望這些微波爐加熱內部的食物，而不是外面的任何食物。

Now microwaves can pass through glass, and so in order to allow you to see what's going on in the oven, they will put a mesh on that door. That mesh has holes that are small enough that the microwaves just can't pass through.

微波可以穿過玻璃，以便讓你看到烤箱中的情況，他們會在門上裝上網罩，這種網眼的孔足夠小，微波根本無法通過。

Obviously, you can't see microwaves but you can hear when a magnetron is generating them.

顯然，你看不到微波，但你可以聽到磁控管產生微波的聲音。

Magnetrons don't generate microwaves of various power levels.

磁控管不會產生各種功率等級的微波。

Instead they're just on or off.

只有開或關。

So when you go to adjust the power level of your microwave what you're doing is telling it how long to be on and how long to be off.

因此，當你調整微波爐的功率等級時，你所做的就是告訴它打開多長時間和關閉多長時間。

Microwaves only act on the surface of the food.

微波只作用於食物表面。

Their heating may be the top quarter half inch of the food.

它們的加熱部位可能是食物的上半部分。

When you run a microwave at full power, you're bombarding the surface of your food with heat.

當你以全功率運行微波爐時，熱量會轟擊食物表面。

By reducing the power level, you're giving it a little break.

透過降低功率，你可以讓它稍微休息一下。

During that break, heat in the surface, it'll have time to move towards the center.

在此期間，表面受熱，它將有時間向中心移動。

The result is more evenly heated food.

這樣的結果是食物受熱更加均勻。

I'm gonna demonstrate how useful that power button is with this stick of butter.

我將用這塊奶油展示電源按鈕有多有用。

My goal is just to soften it, not to melt it.

我的目標只是軟化它，而不是融化它。

I am gonna microwave this for 45 seconds at 50% power.

我準備用微波爐以 50% 的功率加熱 45 秒。

And if you're listening carefully, you'll hear that magnetron flip off right around 30 seconds and it'll come back on right around 11 seconds.

如果你仔細聆聽，你會聽到磁控管在 30 秒左右關閉，並在 11 秒左右重新開啟。

(magnetron whirring)

（磁控管啟動的聲音）

And there it came back on. Got that?

然後它又啟動了。明白了嗎？

This looks great.

這看起來很棒。

This is nice and uniformly softened.

這樣的軟化效果很好，也很均勻。

If I had microwaved this at full power I would get hotspots where the butter is fully melted and cool spots where it's pretty solid.

如果我用微波爐以全功率加熱，會出現黃油完全融化的熱點和相對較硬的地方。

Reducing the power level is one way to help food heat more evenly.

降低功率等級是幫助食物更均勻加熱的一種方法。

Another way is to just move that food around.

另一種方法就是把食物換邊。

Annie Potatoes, best baked sweet potatoes use this method really effectively.

安妮烤馬鈴薯使用這種方法烤紅薯效果非常好。

It would normally take about three hours to get the level of sweetness that she achieves in an hour and a half and it all starts in the microwave.

通常需要約三小時才能在一個半小時內達到她所實現的甜度，而這一切都始於微波爐。

She puts her sweet potatoes in there and they microwave for six to nine minutes.

她把她的地瓜放進微波爐，微波加熱六至九分鐘。

Every three minutes they get flipped and that helps them heat up to 200 degrees really evenly.

每三分鐘翻動一次，這有助於它們均勻地升溫到攝氏200度。

They'll spend an hour in a 425 degree oven before they come out.

他們會在 425 度的烤箱裡待一個小時才會出來。

We slit 'em open, give 'em a quick squeeze and garnish.

我們將它們切開，快速擠壓並裝飾。

If your microwaves are only penetrating a quarter of an inch and your food is only a quarter of an inch thick there's no center that's not being heated.

如果你的微波爐只能穿透四分之一英寸，而你的食物只有四分之一英寸厚，那麼所有中心都會加熱。

Take beets for example.

以甜菜為例。

These dense vegetables can take a while to cook, but when you microwave them, after cutting them into quarter inch pieces, they cook through quickly and evenly.

這些濃稠的蔬菜可能需要一段時間才能煮熟，但是當你用微波爐加熱它們時，將它們切成四分之一英寸的塊後，它們會快速均勻地煮熟。

So we've established that microwaves are acting on the surface of the food.

所以我們已經確定微波作用於食物的表面。

But what's happening at a molecular level?

但在分子層面上發生了什麼事？

Unlike you're your oven which heats whatever you put inside, microwaves, they only heat certain components of food.

不像你的烤箱它可以加熱你放在裡面的任何東西，微波爐它們只加熱食物的某些成分。

Specifically, we're talking about the water and to a lesser extent, oils, sugars and fats.

具體來說，我們說的是水其次是油、糖和脂肪。

Microwaves will cause those molecules to vibrate and that vibration, it translates to heat.

微波會引起這些分子振動這，種振動會轉化為熱量。

Molecules that don't vibrate, they can't be heated.

不振動的分子無法被加熱。

Why does this matter?

這有什麼關係？

Well, when you take water and you freeze it, in order to get solid blocks of ice, those water molecules, they get locked into place and once they are locked into place, microwaves can't interact with them.

當你把水冷凍起來時為了得到堅固的冰塊，這些水分子 它們會被鎖定，一旦被鎖住，微波無法與它們發生作用。

Microwaves don't do anything to ice.

微波爐對冰沒有任何作用。

Let's do an experiment.

我們來做個實驗。

I've got an ice block here.

我這有塊冰。

I've put a hole in the top and I'll put this whole thing in the microwave.

我在頂部開了個洞，然後我就把整個東西放進微波爐裡。

After that, I'll use this pipette to fill that hole with this blue water.

之後，我將用這個移液管用藍色的水填滿那個洞。

Then we'll turn this microwave on and let it run for about two minutes.

然後打開微波爐並讓其運作約兩分鐘。

What we wanna see is how the microwaves interact with ice and water.

我們想看到的是微波如何與冰和水相互作用。

Yikes.

呀。

What happened here, besides me spilling some of the water onto the plate, you can see that the ice block, it's still pretty much the same.

這裡發生了什麼，除了我把一些水灑到盤子上之外，你可以看到冰塊，還是差不多的。

It hasn't changed.

這一點沒變。

What has changed is the water in our little hole

改變的是我們小洞裡的水

it got hotter and it melted the ice around it.

溫度升高，把周圍的冰融化了。

This is what happens when you try to microwave frozen food at full power.

當您嘗試用微波爐全功率加熱冷凍食品時就會發生這種情況。

What little bit of water is there it'll heat up and it'll melt the surrounding ice.

僅有的一點水它會升溫，融化周圍的冰層。

But everything else where there is no water nothing happens.

但其他沒有水的地方什麼也沒發生。

Now, you've probably experienced this, if you've tried to reheat frozen super stock, some parts boiling hot, other parts ice cold.

現在，如果你嘗試重新加熱冷凍的超級原料，某些部分滾燙，其他部分冰冷，您可能已經經歷過這種情況。

How do we do this properly?

我們該如何做好這項工作？

I have some frozen creamy white bean soup here.

我這裡有一些冷凍的奶油白豆湯。

It's one of my favorite Cook's Illustrated soups, and I'm gonna microwave it at 50% power for eight minutes.

這是我最喜歡的《Cook's Illustrated》湯之一，我要用微波爐以 50% 的功率加熱八分鐘。

Nice and creamy, hot all the way through. I did it.

口感細膩，熱氣騰騰。我做到了。

I reheated frozen soup.

我重新加熱了冷凍湯。

Microwaves are for more than just defrosting and reheating.

微波爐的作用不僅僅是解凍和加熱。

In fact, I can use this microwave to take this soup to the next level.

事實上，我可以用這個微波爐來把這個湯弄的更上一層樓。

Let's talk garnishes.

讓我們來談談配菜。

One thing that distinguishes restaurant dishes from so much home cooking is the garnishes.

餐廳菜餚與許多家庭烹飪的區別之一是裝飾配菜。

They can add pops of color, flavor, texture to the simplest of dishes.

它們可以增添色彩、風味和質感到最簡單的菜餚。

When I was a restaurant cook, I would make garnishes by the bucket full and some of my favorites:

當我是餐廳廚師時，我會用裝滿桶子的東西來製作裝飾配菜和一些我最喜歡的東西：

They were fried, fried shallot, fried ginger, fried garlic, fried leeks. They were delicious.

都是炸的，炸蔥，炸薑，炸蒜，炸韭菜。 它們很好吃。

Now, when I want them at home, I use my microwave.

現在，我在家想吃的時候，就用微波爐。

I can make a reasonable amount, and when I'm done, I don't have a gallon of oil that I have to deal with.

我可以製作合理的數量，完成後，我也不用處理一加侖的油。

To garnish this soup, I'm gonna make microwave fried capers.

為了裝飾這道湯，我要做微波爐炸刺山柑。

I've got a third of a cup of extra virgin olive oil here and to that I'm adding some capers.

我這裡有三分之一杯特級初榨橄欖油，我還要加一些酸豆。

This is a quarter cup of capers that have been rinsed and padded dry.

這是四分之一杯已沖洗並墊乾的刺山柑。

Just gonna give this a quick shake to make sure they're submerged.

快速搖一搖以確保它們被淹沒。

They'll go right in.

他們會馬上進去。

And I'm gonna microwave for five minutes.

我要用微波爐加熱五分鐘

I'll stop halfway through to give them a stir.

我會中途停下來給它們攪拌一下。

When you're microwaving a liquid, you don't need to reduce the power because heat transfers through liquids much more efficiently than it does through solids.

用微波爐加熱液體時，你不需要降低功率，因為比起固體，熱量通過液體傳遞的效率更高。

Whatever it is, your microwave frying.

不管是什麼，你的微波爐在煎炸。

It's really important to use a big bowl.

用一個大碗真的很重要。

When you're frying, you're turning the water that's in the food into steam, and that can create a lot of bubbling and boiling, and you don't want that bubbling and boiling to overflow your bowl.

在煎炸時，你要把水中的將食物中的熱量轉化為蒸汽，就會產生大量的冒泡和沸騰，而你不想那冒泡和沸騰會溢出你的碗。

So I'm looking for these to darken in color and for them to shrink slightly.

所以我想讓這些顏色變深顏色，並略微收縮。

Awesome.

棒極了。

These are gonna come out of the oil.

這些會從油裡出來。

One other thing to keep in mind: whether you are frying on the stove or with your microwave, don't put wet utensils in.

另一件要記住的事情是：無論你是在爐子上還是用微波爐煎炸，都不要放入潮濕的器具。

You'll cause more of that boiling over action and it could get dangerous.

你會引發更多激烈的行動，這可能會變得危險。

These capers are looking really crispy.

這些刺山柑看起來真的很脆。

I'll let them finish draining and cool slightly, get this soup into a bowl and have a taste.

我會讓它們瀝乾水分並稍稍冷卻、把湯盛到碗裡，嘗一嘗。

I have my fried capers here and I also have some of that oil.

我這裡有炸刺山柑，還有一些油。

When you fry garnishes, a lot of their flavors will infuse into that oil, and it's great for finishing a dish.

當你煎炸裝飾配菜時，它們的許多味道都會融入油中，這非常適合完成一道菜。

So I'm gonna give this a quick drizzle and a nice little sprinkle.

所以，我要給它澆點水再灑上一小點。

This is so good.

太好吃了。

The white beans are creamy and smooth and just subtly earthy.

白豆口感細膩口感順滑，帶著微妙的泥土氣息。

And then right on top is this punchy oil and these crisp briny capers.

然後最上面的就是這種濃烈的油和這些脆鹹刺山柑。

Now of course, fried capers aren't the only thing you can make in your microwave.

當然，炸刺山柑並不是微波爐唯一可以做的東西。

Here at Cook's Illustrated, we make a lot of garnishes in the microwave.

我們《Cook's Illustrated》用微波爐做了很多配菜。

For fried shallots who want a thinly slice about three shallots, add 'em to your oil.

對於炸青蔥，如果想要切成大約三片青蔥的薄片，請將它們添加到油中。

Make sure you use a large bowl and just microwave that at full power for about five minutes.

確保使用一個大碗，並用微波爐全功率加熱約五分鐘。

You're gonna get in there and stir occasionally to help them brown evenly, and when they come out, you'll transfer them to a towel-lined plate.

你要進去並偶爾攪拌以幫助它們均勻地變成棕色，當它們出來時，你將它們轉移到襯有毛巾的盤子上。

Season them up while they're hot, they're delicious.

趁熱調味，非常美味。

For frico, you're gonna wanna use a hard cheese and grate it.

至於 frico，你需要使用硬質奶酪然後磨碎。

Spread one tablespoon of cheese onto your plate into a little disc.

塗抹一湯匙奶酪在盤子裡做成一個小圓盤。

Pop that sucker in the microwave and let it go until they're light golden brown.

把它放進微波爐直到它們變成淺金黃色。

After they come out, you're gonna wanna transfer them to a cooling rack where they will crisp up as they cool.

它們出來後，你會想把它們轉移走放在冷卻架上，冷卻後會變脆。

Frico are great crumbled over a super salad or just eat 'em outta hand.

在超級沙拉上碾碎的 Frico 非常好吃或者直接吃掉。

One of my favorite compound butters starts in the microwave.

我最喜歡用微波爐加熱複合奶油。

A quarter of a stick of butter is melted, and then to that you stir in orange zest, honey, almond extract and salt along with the rest of that stick of butter.

融化四分之一棒奶油，然後然後再加入橙子皮、 蜂蜜、杏仁提取物和鹽還有剩下的奶油。

Give that a quick stir and then let it rest for two minutes.

快速攪拌，然後靜置兩分鐘。

At that point, your butter should be softened enough that you can whisk everything together.

此時，奶油應該足夠軟化，這樣你就可以把所有東西攪拌在一起了。

This orange almond compound butter it's great on toasted English muffins, waffles, or pancakes.

這款橙色杏仁複合黃油在烤英式鬆餅、華夫餅或煎餅上食用也很不錯。

We even have a recipe for caramel sauce in the microwave.

我們甚至還有用微波爐做焦糖醬的食譜。

Great for ice cream.

非常適合製作冰淇淋。

You're gonna need granulated sugar, water, corn syrup and lemon juice.

你需要砂糖、水、玉米糖漿和檸檬汁。

Microwave that mixture until it's pale, golden brown.

將混合物放入微波爐加熱，直至呈淺金黃色。

Let it hang on the counter until it's amber colored.

讓它掛在櫃檯上，直到呈琥珀色。

Then just whisk in heavy cream a little bit at a time because it's gonna bubble vigorously.

然後加入少許鮮奶油攪拌均勻即可，因為會劇烈起泡。

Once all that cream is in, add a tablespoon of butter and you're done.

一旦所有奶油加入一湯匙黃油，就大功告成了。

If you feel like you need to jumpstart your cooking and save some time or you just wanna whip up some toppings to punch up a meal, a microwave might be your best bet.

如果您覺得需要快速開始烹飪並節省一些時間，或者您只是想攪拌一些食材來佐餐，那麼微波爐可能是您的最佳選擇。

I'm hungry. I love soup.

我餓了。我喜歡喝湯。

What's your favorite microwave technique?

你最喜歡的微波爐技術是什麼？

Let me know in the comments below.

請在下方評論中告訴我。

Be sure to like this video, subscribe and check out more great recipes and techniques at cooksillustrated.com.

一定要喜歡這段影片。訂閱並查看更多精彩食譜和技巧，請訪問 cooksillustrated.com。