I’ve seen them put in a special cubby in a lower cabinet, as well.
Which strikes me as about the worst possible place - you cannot see the controls without bending to a painful level.
Our house was equipped with the “over the stove” built-in sort, which failed within a year of our moving in (it was about 5 years old at the time). An expensive repair, and it lasted less than another year. We eventually replaced it, and THAT one failed in about 5 years. We’ve since replaced it with a stove hood, giving a LOT more vertical space above the cooktop, and set up shelves in another part of the room, which hold a countertop-style microwave. The whole setup (shelves and microwave) cost less than a replacement built-in would have.
Back to the OP’s question: Yeah, I remember when the microwaves CAME with a cookbook. A friend once actually prepared dinner for us (parmesan chicken, IIRC) using her microwave. I’ve never actually prepared a meal using ours; I tried making a beef stew recipe once, and it took longer and came out worse than doing it on the stovetop. We do use it extensively for heating leftovers, cooking veggies, and the like. We used to use it to heat water for tea/coffee but since we got the induction cooktop, that does water so much faster.
If you’re just scrambling one or two eggs, using the microwave is faster, easier, and less “fussy” than cooking them in a pan on the stove. The more eggs you want to cook, the less of an advantage the microwave is.
We’re also in the defrosting/reheating/steaming camp. The closest I come to cooking in it is to start the cooking process for baked potatoes (we finish them in the oven to crisp up the skins), but I use that sucker throughout the day.
I make a lot of things ahead and freeze them, so I’m frequently making dinner in there, but it’s something I cooked in bulk a month ago. Marinara, chili, soups and stews - I even make a chicken soup base with stewed chicken and carrots and then add noodles or dumplings or more vegetables and finish it on the stove.
To me … having to open/close the microwave door repeatedly, remove the bowl, stir the eggs, replace the bowl, etc. is significant overhead. Others’ MMV.
I’ve done them without stirring at all, and while edible … I wasn’t satisfied with the results. The eggs basically puffed up like a soufflé, and then settle back down into an overly-dry mass. Might have overcooked them, though the color was right (no scorching).
I’ll try them with just one stir as an experiment, though I’m not particularly hopeful. I’m now kind of wondering, though, if different microwaves render different results. Not merely differences in wattage or having a turntable but … something else?
Well, you yourself said “You have to stop the microwave every 30-45 second or so.” In my microwave (1100 watts IIRC), that comes out to one stir. For two eggses: nuke 45 second, stir, nuke 30 seconds more, and they’re done.
I do three at a time, and I don’t do it on full power. About three minutes on 50% power. Actually, the first 60-75 seconds I can let them ride. After that, I need to keep them moving. But I do get them to a just-so doneness and consistency. I may not be able to get the exact same results cooking them at full power. But maybe so.
One of the keys for the way I like them is that I try to avoid the eggs puffing up, soufflé-style, at all. I mean, yeah, they puff up a bit during cooking … but I try to interrupt that rise, get the eggs stirred and “calmed back down”, and then resume cooking.
To be honest, it’s never occurred to me to do it in the microwave because it’s so quick on the stovetop (at least how I make it, which is high heat, and two eggs will cook up in about 45 seconds. None of this 20-minute Gordon Ramsay shit.)
I would never try to brown ground meat in the microwave oven… now. But when I was a kid in the '70s they sold ‘browning seasoning’ that would season the meat and allow it to brown in the microwave oven.
I do too. I’ll use the microwave oven to reheat leftovers, warm up coffee, heat frozen foods and other foods (‘steam in the bag’) that are intended to be heated with microwaves, and that sort of thing. I don’t actually cook in the microwave oven. Not even bacon, as it’s easier and less messy to bake bacon (that’s why they call it bakin’) in a cast-iron frying pan in the conventional oven. I have ‘baked’ potatoes, but I can just put them into the toaster oven while the main course is cooking.
I recall early microwaves came with recipes for making cakes and muffins, but with the warning that they won’t get very brown. There were even microwave (plastic) cookware pans that promised better browning, but didn’t really work better than baking in a conventional oven.
Besides frozen vegetables in a bag, bacon, and corn-on-the-cob, we don’t use the microwave for cooking, just for reheating and defrosting (and popcorn). I read directions on pasta packaging that include microwave directions that are longer than just using a pot and boiling water.
One thing that I do, which I know is a little controversial, is precook meats just a bit. You’re supposed to let steaks come to room temperature before grilling, for example, but there have been times they I forget to do that; a 30-second zap takes the chill off the meat.
Oh, actually that reminds me. I sometimes make rice in my microwave when I’m just making a cup of it. I throw it in a container with a lid, 1 cup dry rice, ~1 2/3 - 1 3/4 cup water. Five minutes full power. 15 minutes at 50% power. (I have a 700 watt oven). And it works fine. Or I sometimes even halve the recipe, but I typically do a cup of rice. When I make such small amounts, I don’t feel like dealing with the stove for whatever reason. Or sometimes I want to make some rice without cluttering up the stove or using up another burner or whatnot.
I too remember when microwaves were starting to become ubiquitous and there were microwave cookbooks and articles in the newspaper Cooking section with recipes to make all kinds of shit including entire Thanksgiving dinners. We all quickly realized that most of those recipes ending up being complete shit. In the intervening decades I supposed a few hacks were developed (like maybe the bacon recipe above) but unless you don’t have access to a real oven or cooktop, just about everyone uses it for frozen meals, reheating leftovers or heating water.
When I had my kitchen remodeled last year, they made a little alcove above a counter and below a cabinet for the microwave. It’s much more handy. They wanted to do a built-in thing and I had them change it. It doesn’t look quite as neat but I know I am saving my future self a lot of heart ache.
Except for cooking ground meat which sounds like a strange use for a microwave, that’s pretty much how I use mine. I don’t often use it for boiling water, though, unless it’s a very small amount, and for larger amounts the stove top is almost as fast (but the microwave is great for heating small cups of sake!). Since a microwave works by energizing the water molecules in whatever is in there, the results it produces are somewhat analogous to steaming. This makes it excellent for quick reheating without drying out and preparing vegetables, fresh or frozen, but is also why it’s generally a crappy device for actual cooking.
As for counter space, yes, it can be a counter space hog, but I use it so much that it’s worth it. In any case, my kitchen layout has a counter than runs into the wall right beside the fridge. That section of counter is a perfect place for the microwave as it would otherwise be pretty useless space.
I cooked eggs exclusively in the microwave until I was in my 20s or so. It’s how my mom taught me to do it. We would use a Corningware cereal/soup bowl, spray with Pam, crack in 2 eggs, add milk or water, scramble, cover with wax paper and go. Come to think of it, it’s been too long now and I don’t remember if I started/stopped the cooking but that sounds kind of familiar. I don’t think they took longer than a minute total.
Perhaps adding some cooking spray to your vessel would stop the souffle-ness?
I like this method for making perfectly round eggs to place on a lovely bagel sandwich.
I had the same experience. The only good thing I ever found in the cookbook we got for our first microwave was eggs in a cup. Which was not good enough to keep beyond novelty value.
They are great for frozen veggies - in the bag or not, some of the better insta-meals, like Rana pasta, quick breakfasts and of course coffee and leftovers. I prefer bacon on the stove but the microwave will do and is better since you don’t have to watch it.
We stayed at an AirBnB for 3 weeks once without one, and we felt the lack.
