Panasonic NN-H624BF Operating Instructions Manual

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Panasonic NN-H624BF Operating Instructions Manual Manual pdf 23 page image

21Food Characteristics Cooking TechniquesBone and FatBoth bone and fat affect cook-ing. Bones may cause irregu-lar cooking. Meat next to thetips of bones may overcookwhile meat positioned under a large bone,such as a ham bone, may be under-cooked. Large amounts of fat absorbmicrowave energy and the meat next tothese areas may overcook.DensityPorous, airy foods such asbreads, cakes or rolls takeless time to cook thanheavy, dense foods such aspotatoes and roasts. Whenreheating donuts or otherfoods with different centers be very care-ful. Certain foods have centers made withsugar, water, or fat and these centersattract microwaves (For example, jellydonuts). When a jelly donut is heated, thejelly can become extremely hot while theexterior remains warm to the touch. Thiscould result in a burn if the food is notallowed to cool properly in the center.QuantityTwo potatoes take longer to cookthan one potato. As the quantity ofthe food decreases so does thecooking time. Overcooking willcause the moisture content in thefood to decrease and a fire could result.Never leave microwave unattended whilein use.ShapeUniform sizes heat moreevenly. The thin end of adrumstick will cook morequickly than the meatyend. To compensate for irregular shapes,place thin parts toward the center of thedish and thick pieces toward the edge.SizeThin pieces cook morequickly than thick pieces.Starting TemperatureFoods that are at room temperaturetake less time to cook than if theyare chilled, refrigerated, or frozen.PiercingFoods with skins or mem-branes must be piercedscored or have a strip ofskin peeled before cook-ing to allow steam toescape. Pierce clams,oysters, chicken livers, whole potatoesand whole vegetables. Whole apples ornew potatoes should have a 1-inch stripof skin peeled before cooking. Scoresausages and frankfurters. Do notCook/Reheat whole eggs with or withoutthe shell. Steam build up in whole eggsmay cause them to explode, and possiblydamage the oven or cause injury.Reheating SLICED hard-boiled eggs andcooking SCRAMBLED eggs is safe.BrowningFoods will not have thesame brown appearance asconventionally cooked foodsor those foods which arecooked utilizing a browningfeature. Meats and poultrymay be coated with browning sauce,Worcestershire sauce, barbecue sauce orshake-on browning sauce. To use, com-bine browning sauce with melted butter ormargarine and brush on before cooking.For quick breads or muffins, brown sugarcan be used in the recipe in place ofgranulated sugar, or the surface can besprinkled with dark spices before baking.SpacingIndividual foods, such asbaked potatoes, cupcakesand appetizers, will cook moreevenly if placed in the ovenequal distances apart. Whenpossible, arrange foods in a circular pattern.