Taking Heat

Taking “Culinary Creeps” for 400, Alex.

“This much maligned meal machine masters magnetron motions to make mushy messes”

“What is a … Microwave?”

Today I asked my students a simple question – if Escoffier had had a Microwave at his disposition, would we find French dishes prepared in it? The answers were split along the same lines I expected them – from holy outrage over the suggestion to contemplative nods.

“I only use one to soften butter,” seems to be a common response to the question. Microwaves, for better or worse, have gotten a really bad rap. Most people equate them with re-heaters and therefore with frozen, pre-made, foods. And freezing, re-heating, and pre-made are cursewords in French cuisine. Which, to a large extent, isn’t their fault. Considering Escoffier’s times, even sophisticated freezers were little more than large stacks of ice – a surefire way to ruin even the most resilient food.

Today we don’t think twice about it. Stock goes in the freezer. So does anything else that doesn’t suffer from ice crystals piercing its innards. Once it’s out, we toss it into a sauce pan, rewarm, and use. Why not use a mirowave? Because microwaves are for ready meals, not for fine dining.

I make food in the microwave. I make Vauquelin (link is to a PDF file of the Nature Magazine article by Herve This), Brioche bread using all the ingredients I’d use if I made it in an oven and noting extra but in three minutes, sauces, soufflé, and more.

Would Escoffier use microwaves? My take is a resounding “yes”. By all accounts, his goals for publishing Le Guide Culinaire were two-fold, first to create an easy compendium to hand to new chefs and cooks and secondly to shill his own wares (owners of older GC editions might still find “Sauce [saucename] Escoffier” addenda to most sauces in the book, offering Escoffier’s own creations in easy to handle pre-made packages).

Aiming to streamline the operations in the back of the house, he did away with many of Antoine Carême’s more lofty approaches (Carême started as a pastry chef, it’s no wonder he had a flair for the overly dramatic) and replaced even golden French recipe cows with simpler recipes.

It’s not hard to imagine Microwaves and stick blenders in his recipes if one considers the time- and effort-saving effects of such tools.

Microwave cooking, creating resonant heat, is a method all of its own. Bad things happen if they are used as substitute for stovetop or oven cooking. They do, for example, negatively affect Vitamin B12, which isn’t good. At the same time, spinach retains more folate when heated in a microwave than when prepared on stovetop (that’s a good thing) and bacon doesn’t develop as much nitrosamines (that’s a very good thing, they’re suspected to cause cancer) when cooked in a microwave oven (see also this NYT article).

To conclude: you don’t have to become a slave to the TV dinner shilling overlords to appreciate the magnetron. In culinary circles, microwaves got the bum end of the stick. Being hated not for what they are but what people tend to shove into them, makes them a hard sell even in modern professional kitchens. Maybe this will help:

Making Brioche In The Microwave – a surefire way to upset your local pastry chef, get declared crazy, and make some darn tootn’ good food in the process.

• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon hot milk
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour (sift before measuring)
• 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch slices and well softened

We don’t need the yeast as you’ll see in a second, and we don’t need to make a starter or add sugar as feed for the yeast.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix with a stick blender (or table blender, if so inclined) until well combined and smooth. Fill into a restaurant grade siphon (I use a Mastrad .7l) no more than half of the actual volume of the siphon. Charge with two nitrous oxide capsules, shake well.

In the mean time prepare the vessel. I use a small vented cup for this, but in a pinch and to get the hang of it you might as well just go ahead and punch a few cuts (small, just vents, the brioche foam should stay inside) into it. Use the charged siphon and fill the cup about 2/3 up. Place in Microwave. Microwave for 2 minutes. Let stand for another minute. Turn over, remove brioche. Serve warm.

Total time: 3 minutes. Total time for “traditional” brioche: 13 hours (the dough has to rest). Changes to the original: No yeast, no sugar, nothing added.

Of course this isn’t a complete replacement. The magnetron’s rays can not create an appealing crust and I wouldn’t serve it as a side-dish or in place of my six loaves I get every afternoon before service. I use it, however, in dishes and as a fun little starter with oil and balsamic vinegar.

To each its place. And there’s definitely a place for the microwave in modern kitchens.