, I gave his away. The kitchen had limited work-surface space and it took up a lot of room for something that was (in my eyes) a glorified milk heater. On top of that, I like to fiddle with my food – stir it, prod it, smell it. Watching it spin through a glass screen seemed soul-destroying. The children felt differently. When, a decade later, we bought a new one – I was researching the brief fad for mug cakes – my daughter looked at it in delight. 'Now,' she said, 'it's like we are a normal family.' She's right. Although domestic microwaves weren't sold in the UK until 1974, by 1994, two-thirds of households in the UK had a microwave, and by 2018, that number had increased to 93 per cent. Now, a Waitrose survey has revealed that a microwave is the nation's number one must-have kitchen gadget , outdoing air fryers thanks, largely, to better quality ready meals and concerns over energy costs. While my microwave is never going to replace the hob as my most-used cooking tool, it's earned its place. There's nothing like it for heating up leftovers without drying them out. It helps out with culinary irritations – a quick blast softens hard lumps of muscovado sugar, and brings crystallised honey back to its runny state. But it's also great for some of the kitchen chores that otherwise take hours or are frustratingly fiddly. I'm still working on full-dish cooking: the bible in this respect is the late Barbara Kafka's Microwave Gourmet . The former Vogue columnist includes recipes from risotto to fillet of sole with almonds – and they work. As for the sense of disconnection with the food, in that respect it's much the same, minus the rotation, as those ul){kind=link}
The nation’s number one must-have kitchen gadget has earned a place in my heart, but it wasn’t always so
Why do people who love food hate microwaves? Ask a food lover about one of these super-fast cookers, and the chances are their nostrils will flare disparagingly as they say dismissively, “Oh, I never use mine,” or even, “I don’t have one of those.”
I was one of those people – when I moved in with my boyfriend (now husband), I gave his away. The kitchen had limited work-surface space and it took up a lot of room for something that was (in my eyes) a glorified milk heater. On top of that, I like to fiddle with my food – stir it, prod it, smell it. Watching it spin through a glass screen seemed soul-destroying. The children felt differently. When, a decade later, we bought a new one – I was researching the brief fad for mug cakes – my daughter looked at it in delight. “Now,” she said, “it’s like we are a normal family.”
She’s right. Although domestic microwaves weren’t sold in the UK until 1974, by 1994, two-thirds of households in the UK had a microwave, and by 2018, that number had increased to 93 per cent. Now, a Waitrose survey has revealed that a microwave is the nation’s number one must-have kitchen gadget, outdoing air fryers thanks, largely, to better quality ready meals and concerns over energy costs.
While my microwave is never going to replace the hob as my most-used cooking tool, it’s earned its place. There’s nothing like it for heating up leftovers without drying them out. It helps out with culinary irritations – a quick blast softens hard lumps of muscovado sugar, and brings crystallised honey back to its runny state. But it’s also great for some of the kitchen chores that otherwise take hours or are frustratingly fiddly. I’m still working on full-dish cooking: the bible in this respect is the late Barbara Kafka’s Microwave Gourmet. The former Vogue columnist includes recipes from risotto to fillet of sole with almonds – and they work.