King Krinkz

One fast food chain won't even make you get in the car to enjoy fried fare.

Burger King announced Tuesday that it is teaming up with ConAgra Foods Lamb Weston to launch a line of microwaveable Burger King-branded crinkle-cut french fries nationwide this fall. It seems now, you can "have it your way" in the comfort of your own home.

Burger King's microwaveable seasoned crinkle-cut fries, dubbed "King Krinkz" will be the first product in the line to hit stores, including Wal-Mart, in early September. King Kolossalz extra-large crinkle-cut fries and King Wedgez seasoned potato wedges will be released shortly after the King Krinkz hit stores.

A curious thing happened Tuesday in New York City. A Michelin-starred chef fiddled with a microwave.

It might not be considered so odd as the chef in question was culinary experimenter Wylie Dufresne, who took to the dining room of his restaurant, WD-50, to make an egg dish with a microwave.

"I think microwaves are pretty neat," Dufresne said before his demonstration. The chef uses three standard microwaves in his kitchen and has been testing out this new model for the last three weeks.

"We realized we could poach in the microwave," he said. But it takes time ... 29 minutes to be precise.

Hear how he uses metal in the microwave after the jump.

My mom likes to tell stories about how, when she was pregnant, she would always put her food in the microwave, press the "start" button, and run away as fast as she could so as to not irradiate the fetus.

Of course microwaves do not actually irradiate anything (even my mom knew that, on a rational level), but a lot of people still consider them vaguely evil. At the very least they don't enjoy the best reputation for producing healthy or delicious food.

But they may be better for the environment, at least in certain circumstances. As an interesting Slate story found, using a microwave for cooking small portions is much more energy efficient than using an oven. Making a single baked potato in an oven took 9.5 times as much energy as it did in a microwave; making four portions of baked potato in a microwave took 2.5 times the energy. The efficiency ratios are skewed depending on whether you have a gas or electric oven -- gas ovens produce fewer carbon emissions per units of heat than electric ovens.

Good to know, though until they make microwaves that can brown the top of a half-eaten casserole, I'm going to have to stick to my oven for certain reheating jobs.

How often do you use your microwave versus your oven?

Great news! Here's a kitchen gadget everyone can afford. Your popcorn just got way more awesome.

The Nordic Ware Microwave Corn Popper comes highly recommended by my very practical friend Shannon, who reports that it's really fast, doesn't need oil, and is a snap to clean. Sounds good to me!

This thing is $8.99 from The Kitchen Store, and microwave and dishwasher safe. You just put in the corn, put it in the microwave, and perfect, fluffy popcorn comes out. It's a stroke of Nordic genius.

I only wish it were pretty, so I could pass it off as a holiday gift. Guess I'll just have to get one for myself!

I hate when odors become a problem in the kitchen, especially when they've become attached to containers and the microwave. Here are a couple of deodorizing tips.

I know there's a race to make electronics smaller, but this is this a little ridiculous. Inventorspot reported today on the world's smallest microwave, which made its debut at this springs Chicago International Home and Hardware Show.

The IWaveCube is so named because of its dimensions: about one cubic foot. That doesn't leave a lot of cooking space. I mean, what are you going to cook in it? The only place where I can see this being useful is in an office break room. I gather that people in an office setting generally only need to heat up small portions of food or cups of coffee, and the IWaveCube could handle that without taking up too much space.

No word on when it'll be available, if it's not already. Do you see this being a useful new kitchen tool?

Bread is a miraculous thing. It's delicious, it gives you energy, it softens your cookies, and it can help you de-clump your brown sugar.

Simply put your sugar in a microwavable container (read: NOT plastic) and place a slice of bread on top. Seal the container and pop in the microwave for 15 seconds.

Voila. The moisture from the bread and the resulting steam will make the sugar softer and more pliable, allowing you to work on the clumps (as seen in the highly scientific "cookie osmosis" chart above).

via [lifehacker]

You're baking cookies and you reach to the back of your cabinet only to find that your brown sugar is hard as a rock. Don't head to the grocery store just yet.

The Minimalist suggest new ways to use your microwave - chocolate pudding, parboiling vegetables, baked apples.

The Curious Cook, Harold McGee, follows, explaining the science behind the microwave. You can put aluminum foil in the microwave! Hear that, mom?

Why higher food prices could be a good thing (less cheap junk food; better for small farmers, etc.).

Chatham cod have disappeared from off the coast of Massachusetts. But not from menus.

Wine critic Eric Asimov taste-tests California Pinot Noir.

What to do with tough old birds? Stew! Braise! Slow-cooked rooster with mushrooms and scallions, anyone?

The Minimalist is back, with a video on cooking clams.

As Joni Mitchell so eloquently put it, "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone."

I think she was talking about my stove.

You see, earlier this week, the gas line to my stove developed a leak. The good news? The gas company responded promptly to my frantic phone call, and switched off the gas. The bad news? Until my landlord returns from the country to inspect the site (long story), I'm stuck without a working stove.

My point in telling you all of this? I've become a slave to my Foreman grill. Salads and hummus-on-cold-tortillas only get you so far before you're craving decent, warm food.

In case any of you are ever stuck in a similar predicament, I've decided to list some of the conclusions I have come to during The Week Without A Stove:

• You can successfully cook the following vegetarian-friendly foods on a Foreman grill: tofu, polenta, onions/zucchini/eggplant, veggie patties and virtually any type of imitation meat product, toasted sandwiches
• It is impossible to cook decent pasta in a microwave
  
• The following food/imitation food products have started to appeal to me solely for their ability to heat quickly without the use of a stove/oven: Easy Mac; toaster pastries; those soups in cardboard containers; individual, microwavable oatmeal packets; 90-second rice
  

Potato chips are, as a general rule, fried, greasy and unfortunately addictive, as illustrated by the longtime Lay's slogan "bet you can't eat just one. All these traits make them the bane of many health food activists' existences, but those same activists might go a little easier on the popular snack food if they knew you can easily make a non-fried, fat free version that is just as crispy as the "real" thing at home All you need is a microwave.

This Japanese potato chip maker allows you to make chips in the microwave. All you need to do is slice up a potato into fine rounds and place in the stand, then microwave until crisp.

It sounds implausible, but microwaving chips really does work. I've done it myself with great success thanks to the recipe for Uncle Bill's Microwave Potato Chips, which doesn't require a potato chip stand to work. The chips actually do crisp up well, especially if you take care to slice them thinly and evenly. In the photo above, the chips that I made are on the left, while the chips made with the chip-maker (not made by me) are on the right. I cut my potatoes freehand with a sharp knife, but using a mandoline will produce results even faster and guarantee consistency. Make sure to season your chips with salt and pepper or seasoning salt before microwaving them, as it is difficult to get the salt to adhere to already crisp chips.

There is more than one way to cook a turkey, just as there is more than one way to cook just about every other type of meat, but because there is some pressure on Thanksgiving to produce a big, beautiful bird for family and friends, it's hard to know whose advice to take when prepping the turkey for the big day. If you roast it, should you brine if first? Should it be braised? Can you cook it in the microwave?

To answer these questions, you can take a look at the Turkey for the Holidays guide from the University of Illinois. They cover everything from turkey-cooking techniques, which includes guides on eleven good techniques and reasons to avoid a few bad ones, to turkey nutritional information and turkey history and trivia. Aside from the cooking techniques, which might be the most useful tips on the site for cooks, the turkey carving instructions are going to be helpful even if you buy your bird. The site seems to be a great Thanksgiving resource overall, and anything that helps decrease holiday stress really is something to be thankful for

So you dreamt about what you'd like to see in the kitchen of the future, right? Well, if it included being able to tell a machine to cook something without having to get up from in front of the tv, you don't have to wait for the future. You can do it now! I said now!

Daewoo's new microwave oven can hear me loud and clear. The countertop microwave oven has a brushed aluminum finish, and though it has a full keypad, it doesn't need it because this baby is voice-activated. It stores 40 commands and responds to anyone who speaks to it. Not only is it voice-activated, but it also has the ability to automatically determine the cooking time with 95% accuracy. Just hope that it's not popcorn in there the other 5% of the time (unless you're like me, who kind of likes the smell of burnt popcorn).

We already know that not all prepackaged food combinations are a good idea (like the hot dogs with microwaveable buns), but manufacturers cannot resist trying to come up with new ones anyway. Pancakes & Sausage on a Stick is a frozen breakfast food, an all-in-one breakfast that is ready after just two minutes in the microwave. As good as chocolate chip pancakes are, the idea of a frozen chocolate chip pancake wrapped around a sausage just doesn't sound all that tempting. Possibly even less tempting is the blueberry pancake variety that is listed on the Jimmy Dean site.

This is one food that sounds as if it would have a better reception at a state fair, with other foods on sticks, where it can be with its own kind.

I like my hamburger and hot dog buns to be lightly toasted when possible. Usually, I will simply open them up and toss them onto the grill while the dogs cook. If I'm not grilling, I just eat the buns plain. I have never put a hot dog bun into the microwave to attempt to achieve a "bakery-fresh" texture and, even if I did so, I would certainly not put the hot dog in the bun before microwaving it. In my experience, microwaving does nothing to improve the texture of bread and having an unheated hot dog in it would help even less.

As such, I fail to see the appeal of Oscar Meyer's newest product: Fast Franks. Three hot dogs are packaged in buns and, when you're read to eat, you just put the whole thing in the microwave. Oscar Meyer says that Fast Franks are "mouthwatering to imagine." I'm imagining, and I have to disagree.