I don’t use microwave ovens a lot, but in a recent Saveur it was noted that on October 25th, it was the birthday of the introduction of the home mircrowave oven. The Tappan Stove Company using Raytheon military microwave technology introduced the first home unit in 1955. It retailed for $1,295.
Ten years later, Raytheon acquired Amana and put out the popular Radarange. I still remember those old microwave TV commercials where a large steel ball on a chain would crash into the door of the Amana radarange thus proving its strength and durability. I’m not sure how that related to cooking food, but I still remember the commercial at least.
The model above is what I had as a child in the 70s, and you can buy it on eBay for $150. From what I remember these units weigh a ton, so expect to pay a lot in shipping too.
I you don’t use your microwave that often, Real Simple listed 14 ’surprising’ uses for a microwave. This includes disinfecting sponges, softening brown sugar, roasting garlic, and cooking vegetables. Following that line of thought, in the New York Times there is an article by Mark Bittman on how to better use your microwave oven. Basically, if you would steam a vegetable, you can use the microwave instead. It saves time, dishes, and some say it retains more vitamins.
If you are looking at upgrading from your current model, Food & Wine in February 2009 listed some breakthroughs. Microwaves now have sensor cooking that automatically adjust cooking time, for instance the Panasonic Genius Prestige
As far as tips, Cook’s Illustrated says that using plastic wrap when cooking in a microwave can trap food-scorching steam and passed on a reader tip of using inverted glass bowls instead of plastic wrap. The magazine also gave the tip of using basket-style coffee filters to prevent splatters.
