Watt's Watt With Your Microwave Oven

By Gini Zemo, Lifestyle Editor, Asbury Park Press, October 15, 1986

It's a paradox. Although microwave ovens are so very simple to use, microwave cooking is often a disaster.

Usually the fault is not with the oven, the cook or the recipes. The buck stops with the lack of knowledge of power levels in the ovens.

Because microwave oven manufacturers and cookbook authors have done little if anything to enlighten consumers about power levels, cooks sometimes become disenchanted with their often expensive appliances.

Former Monmouth County resident Marie T Smith, now of Lakeland, Florida, has made a career for herself trying to sort out power levels. She has written a cookbook and developed a free microwave cooking conversion chart which tells how to adapt cooking times in recipes written for standard 700-watt ovens to ovens of lesser wattages of 650, 500 and 350.

"Not knowing the wattage of your oven causes the most problems," said Mrs. Smith. "Most consumers don't know the wattage of their ovens, and if the recipe says cook two to four minutes, the two minutes is for a 700-watt and four minutes is probably for a 350-watt oven. The industry is shooting itself in the foot by not standardizing wattage.

"The industry keeps turning out ovens with low wattages, and cookbook authors and the microwavable products people can't tell you exactly how long to microwave a certain product or recipe. Remember, microwave cooking is basically cooking by time. Old time cooking (in conventional oven) was done by sight — when it looked good it was done."

If you don't know the wattage of your oven, how do you find out?

"The number can be found on the back plate (of the oven) or in the manual that comes with it," Mrs. Smith said.

"Wattage is lower on cheapies," she continued, "but size, or price is not always an indicator. You can pay $350 for a 700-watt oven or $500 with lesser watts. It's all very confusing."

If you're thinking about buying a microwave oven, Mrs. Smith says, "all you need look for is the wattage and touch pads. The latter allows for better accuracy in timing. A dial can't calibrate accurately."

She says that there are pros and cons on oven turntables.

"Many home economists dislike them because space is limited since the dish needs to fit the turntable."

On a probe: "Use it carefully. If it touches bone or a grease pocket, there will be an incorrect reading. It's OK if used with a timer."

Earlier this year, Mrs. Smith published Microwave Cooking for One. She began writing the book 10 years ago when she discovered there wasn't a microwave cookbook for busy people or singles.

In the introduction, Mrs. Smith writes: "When a woman finds her children grown and her husband away often on business trips, she continues to cook large meals because practice has become indelible routine.

"Shortly after purchasing my microwave" — she's worn out five in 10 years — "I cleaned up my conventional oven — the housekeeping job I hated most — for the last time and have not used or cleaned it since.

"I eagerly set about adapting my favorite recipes to the new oven and experimenting with many foods that I had given up cooking at home" such as liver, cabbage and shrimp.

The result of all this is a volume of 300 recipes that, according to the author, were meticulously tested and tasted over a ten-year period.

Fast, easy and economical, the recipes are ideal for people who live alone or who share busy households. From breakfast through dinner, meals can be prepared to satisfy personal tastes without wasted food, overheated kitchens or messy clean up.

In her book, Mrs. Smith emphasizes the importance of carefully measured portions, careful timing and the right utensils. For instance, a food scale assures the success of the recipes and also is helpful to those watching their food intake.

Mrs. Smith's parents moved from Jersey City to Ocean County in 1958. Her late mother, Elvira Caroselli, cooked for 12 every day, Mrs. Smith said.

"The recipes in the book with the word 'Momma' in the title are her recipes."

Of her mother-in-law, Anna Smith, Red Bank, the author says, "She has been a living example of someone who has benefited from the book. At 71 years of age, she cooks entirely in her microwave oven and finds the recipes so low in salt and fat she has no difficulty maintaining her low as ordered by her doctor."

Mrs. Smith and her husband, Hugh, have several other relatives living in the Shore area, including her husband's sister, Dolores, and her husband, George Yetka of Shrewsbury, and their nine children. One of the children recently opened the Navesink Café, which specializes in cheesecake.

"It was Dolores," Mrs. Smith said, "who after visiting us and delighting in the dishes I cooked in the oven, asked for a copy of the manuscript to take home so that when one of her children asked for a special dish, she could reply, 'there is the book. Cook it for yourself.' She convinced me that the book had a purpose beyond the single householder for whom it had been written."

"We lived in and around Eatontown when my husband (an engineer) was stationed with the military at Fort Monmouth," Mrs. Smith said. "We were always on the move. The last time we lived (in Monmouth County) was in the '60s. But we have many relatives and friends in Manasquan, Point Pleasant and Toms River. I always loved the shore."

For a free microwave conversion chart, write to: [address removed because Conversion Charts are available online at this site]. A stamped, self-addressed envelope should accompany the request.

Most any bookstore will order the cookbook, she said.

Recipes in the book were developed for 700-watt ovens.