Information about microwaves
Page EN-15
What are microwaves?
Microwaves are electromagnetic waves such
as radio and television waves; just like these,
they are not visible or palpable.
Microwaves
– are reflected by all metals,
– can penetrate glass, porcelain, plastic and
paper,
– are absorbed by foodstuffs.
What effect do microwaves have
on foodstuffs?
– The microwaves penetrate foodstuffs to a
depth of approximately 3 cm.
– The water, fat and sugar molecules are
heated up (dishes with a high water con-
tent are heated up most quickly).
– This heat then slowly penetrates the entire
dish and leads to the dish being defrosted,
heated and cooked.
– Due to the fact that the individual elements
of the dish are heated unevenly, it is impor-
tant to stir or turn the dish over to ensure
that it is cooked through evenly.
– Heating the liquid can cause so-called
“delayed boiling”. The liquid then reaches
boiling temperature without any outward
visible sign of boiling. Even a small vibra-
tion may cause the liquid to suddenly spray
out, for example when removing it from the
microwave oven.
– The cooking compartment and the air
in this compartment are not heated. The
food container is primarily heated by the
hot food itself.
– Every dish requires a certain amount of en-
ergy for cooking or defrosting – a good rule
of thumb is “high power, short time” or “low
power, long time”.
How does a microwave oven
work?
– A microwave generator, the so-called
“magnetron”, generates microwaves and
passes them into the cooking compart-
ment.
– The cooking chamber walls and inner
screen reflect microwaves, preventing
them from being emitted out of the cook-
ing chamber.
– The turntable ensures that the microwaves
are distributed evenly to the food.
– The microwave power can be set to sev-
eral levels.
– The appliance switches off
– after the selected time has elapsed,
– when opening the cooking chamber
door (5),
– when the “Stop/Delete” button (12) is
pressed.
Information about microwaves