Kenmore 721.80522 Use & Care Manual

Also see for 721.80522: Installation instructions

Kenmore 721.80522 Use & Care Manual Manual pdf 11 page image

11ENGLISHMICROWAVE COOKING TIPSMICROWAVE COOKING TIPSAmount of food• If you increase or decrease the amount of foodyou prepare, the time it takes to cook that food willalso change. For example, if you double a recipe,add a little more than half the original cooking time.Check for doneness and, if necessary, add moretime in small increments.Starting temperature of food• The lower the temperature of the food being putinto the microwave oven, the longer it takes to cook.Food at room temperature will be re-heated morequickly than food at refrigerator temperature.Composition of food• Food with a lot of fat and sugar will be heatedfaster than food containing a lot of water. Fat andsugar will also reach a higher temperature thanwater in the cooking process.• The more dense the food, the longer it takes toheat. “Very dense” food like meat takes longer toheat than lighter, more porous food like spongecakes.Size and shape• Smaller pieces of food will cook faster than largerpieces. Also, same-shaped pieces cook moreevenly than different-shaped pieces.• With foods that have different thicknesses, thethinner parts will cook faster than the thicker parts.Place the thinner parts of chicken wings and legs inthe center of the dish.Stirring, turning foods• Stirring and turning foods spreads heat quickly tothe center of the dish and avoids overcooking at theouter edges of the food.Covering foodCover food to:• Reduce splattering• Shorten cooking times• Keep food moistYou can use any covering that lets microwaves passthrough. See “Getting to Know Your MicrowaveOven” for materials that microwaves will passthrough. If you are using the Sensor function, be sureto vent.Releasing pressure in foods• Several foods (for example: baked potatoes, sausages,egg yolks, and some fruits) are tightly covered by a skin ormembrane. Steam can build up under the membraneduring cooking, causing the food to burst. To relieve thepressure and to prevent bursting, pierce these foodsbefore cooking with a fork, cocktail pick, or toothpick.Using standing time• Always allow food to stand either in or out of the ovenafter cooking power stops. Standing time after defrostingand cooking allows the temperature to evenly spreadthroughout the food, improving the cooking results. Forinside oven standing time, you can program a " 0 " powersecond stage of the cooking cycle. See Two-StageCooking.• The length of the standing time depends on how muchfood you are cooking and how dense it is. Sometimes itcan be as short as the time it takes you to remove thefood from the oven and take it to the serving table.However, with larger, denser food item, the standing timemay be as long as 10 minutes.Arranging foodFor best results, place food evenly on the plate. You can dothis in several ways:• If you are cooking several items of the same food,such as baked potatoes, place them in a ring pattern foruniform cooking.• When cooking foods of uneven shapes or thickness,such as chicken breasts, place the smaller or thinnerarea of the food towards the center of the dish where it willbe heated last.• Layer thin slices of meat on top of each other.• When you cook or reheat whole fish, score the skin –this prevents cracking.• Do not let food or a container touch the top or sides of theoven. This will prevent possible arcing.Using aluminum foilMetal containers should not be used in a microwave oven.There are, however, some exceptions. If you havepurchased food which is prepackaged in an aluminum foilcontainer, refer to the instructions on the package. Whenusing aluminum foil containers, cooking times may belonger because microwaves will only penetrate the exposedtop of the food and not the bottom or the sides. If you usealuminum containers without package instructions, followthese guidelines: