Microwave oven Poppadom test

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MartinGZ

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#289928 9-Oct-2021 18:39

Never been very happy with our microwave oven, heating seems to be pretty uneven (10+ year old Panasonic inverter). But some of the photos in this article suggest that maybe, mine is not unusual. The science of microwaves.

Now microwaves are great places to puff up a poppadom or two - if you have even heating. The following photo shows what I get after 30 secs with mine using the rotating turntable. It will cook fully if I rearrange the poppadom about 4 times, but it's a bit hit and miss.

Has anyone tried it in their oven to see what happens? I'd be interested to see if anyone finds more even heating.

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MadEngineer

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#2792382 9-Oct-2021 19:39

15 year Panasonic genius here still going strong and cooks everything we throw at it perfectly. I can put a little sweet bread roll my wife makes anywhere on the plate, nuke it for 10 seconds and it’s hot goodness

Don’t have any popadoms for testing sorry.

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jonathan18

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#2792388 9-Oct-2021 19:59

Yeah, our microwave (a recent LG) cooks papad pretty evenly without having to reposition them, nothing like your result! Definitely something not right there.

Sorry, on holiday so can't post an example at the moment...

pgs2050

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#2792389 9-Oct-2021 20:05

I first came across preparing poppadoms in the microwave on one of Jamie Oliver's shows. His method is to put them upright in a bowl, 3-4 at a time.

Couldn't find the show, but found something related: https://www.cookipedia.co.uk/recipes_wiki/Microwave_poppadoms

I have tried this method (in a now 17 year old microwave) with good results.

Gurezaemon

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#2792459 9-Oct-2021 21:36

I get a similar result when heating up cheese on toast for the kids. Two pieces of toast side by side on one plate end up with the outside third well melted, with the middle less so.

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1101

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#2792989 11-Oct-2021 09:27

Its a standing wave . Physics :-)
the poppadom was probably rotating through a single standing wave hotspot
Try again , but raise it up from the glass table .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FhwTelc5Tg

Fred99

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#2794022 12-Oct-2021 15:04

Microwave poppadom test:

25 seconds at full power on a Panasonic flatbed microwave (these are definitely not the best for even distribution of mw energy - but fine for reheating etc). Placed on sheet of baking paper to minimise heat loss against cold plate.

Poppadom - $2 pack of probably about 50 plain poppadoms from local Indian supermarket. These are very good quality if fried in a pan. Also very easy - if you're cooking lots of them, they only take about 5 seconds each.

Appearance : Not very good. Pan fried ones look much better.

Texture/Mouthfeel/Flavour : Not very good. Tasted dry and floury. Pan fried ones taste much better.

Annoyances: Microwave has 10 second minimum timer increments - at 30 seconds the poppadoms were starting to scorch, at 20 seconds - they had uncooked patches.

Fred99

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#2794030 12-Oct-2021 15:17

Attempt #2 - the Jamie Oliver method as suggested by @pgs2050 :

Appearance much better - but not as good as fried. 4 placed upright in noodle bowl for 40 seconds. Taste is still pretty ordinary and they lack the light texture of pan fried - but OK.

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networkn

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#2794033 12-Oct-2021 15:20

I've never been happy with a any microwave we have purchased in the last 10 years. We have got uneven heating and food seems to cool down quicker than with any other type of heating, though it's hard to be scientific about that.

Fred99

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#2794038 12-Oct-2021 15:40

I only ever use our MW for reheating or sometimes for defrosting. Although my second attempt with poppadoms was almost okay, I'd give them a pass. I'd rather not bother with second-rate poppadoms.

I used to make poori (/puri) after an Indian friend showed me how. Now they were nice - a bit too nice maybe - we'd have ended up looking like Hugo and Holly from the KFC ad.

jonathan18

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#2794159 12-Oct-2021 18:20

20 seconds in our LG microwave - all cooked, with a little bit overdone.

We'll do it via this method if in a hurry or not wanting to fry them. If using the microwave, I'll fit about seven around the outside of the turntable. Pausing it halfway though and rotating them a bit helps for more even cooking, but overall our microwave does a pretty good job. If being used with dahl or similar they taste fine...

MartinGZ

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#2794162 12-Oct-2021 18:23

Interesting feedback - thanks for all the home testing.

I've done some limited retesting (ran out of poppadoms ☹ ), haven't tried the vertical method yet.

The video suggested by @1101 was interesting, but the main tests were done with no turntable to show the standing waves. The last part of the film was shot with the turntable working and shows even heating (apart from the outside annulus) at the same vertical level my poppadom was. So it should be possible.

As suggested I raised the poppadom by placing it on top of a takeaway container - Indian of course. This gave better converage at the centre of the turntable but no additional cooking on the outer edge at 30 secs cooking. Using the same method on a new one for 1 min 30 secs, most of the poppadom was cooked, but it was definately over brown. Not only that, the plastic tub was deforming and the turntable was too hot to lift out without a cloth. Hmmm, not enough energy being absorbed by the food. As microwave penetrates 1 cm or so, must try stacking a few on top of each other.

@jonathan18 - I'd be interested to know your model. LG does reasonably well in the recent Consumer tests, but then so did mine some years ago.

Fred99:

Texture/Mouthfeel/Flavour : Not very good. Tasted dry and floury. Pan fried ones taste much better.

Each to their own of course, but I find the fried ones a bit oily. The Indian restaurants I frequent seem to dry cook them these days.

Fred99

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#2794194 12-Oct-2021 19:00

MartinGZ:

Each to their own of course, but I find the fried ones a bit oily. The Indian restaurants I frequent seem to dry cook them these days.

They don't at any Indian restaurant I go to. Shouldn't be too oily if you stack them hot in a colander with paper towels. People eat KFC or smother a salad with aioli, a few drops of oil won't hurt you.

jonathan18

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#2794244 12-Oct-2021 20:15

MartinGZ:

@jonathan18 - I'd be interested to know your model. LG does reasonably well in the recent Consumer tests, but then so did mine some years ago.

Our specific model is the LG MS4296OMBS, but those letters at the end just indicate the finish, and I assume all with the same main model number are otherwise the same machine underneath.

TBH, I'm really happy with this microwave - it's pretty large internally (42 l) but doesn't have huge external measurements (still fitted in the shelf). Powerful (1200w), cooks/heats fairly evenly; inverter works really well to soften/melt stuff like butter and chocolate. We've previously mostly owned Sharp inverter models, but they don't just last; also couldn't go back to Panasonic, given their lack of an instant start (interesting to see that modern microwaves like this one have a 30 sec one-button start, as the previous timing of 1 min is often too much for many short-term needs.)

Goosey

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#2794289 12-Oct-2021 21:50

Not all popadoms are created equal.

:-)

Sometimes depending on how well the mix of oil and pre steamed flour mix is done, the subsequent rolling and then dry curing will create some spots. areas that even when deep fried...the poppadom wont puff.

I dont doubt your microwave might have issues, but popadoms are best heated on top of an element using a wire rack or deep fried.

(even heat distribution, which a microwave cant really justice too).

Disclosure.... ive watched my mum and family members make all types of these from scratch for my entire life.... :-)

MartinGZ

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#2817819 23-Nov-2021 15:28

Problem solved - new microwave 😀

Thanks @jonathan18, went for the LG NeoChef, 42L Smart Inverter Microwave Oven MS4296OSS

Panasonic may make reasonable ovens, but there website made it just impossible to compare models so I gave up. Each model seems to have a different layout and there is no comparison selection available. LG, on the other hand, made everything so simple and even their model numbers are easy to figure out the coding (to an english speaker.)

Thanks everyone.