From: John De Armond
Subject: Re: Inverter question
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1999 19:43:08 EDT
Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.rv-travel

"G. Schnauzer" wrote:

> 
> 1000 watt microwaves don't pull 2500 watts  and even if they did they would
> not be approved to run on 15 amp or 20 amp breakers.

Just bought my annual supply of microwave ovens for the restaurant
(12 of 'em).  These are 1100 watt Whirlpools.  Label sez 13.3 amps.
That's 1596 VA.  My wattmeter sez 1500 watts in with a quart of
water as the load.  I run two of 'em on each 30 amp branch.  Looks
like they've done a damn good job of correcting the power factor. 
This current draw is about the same as some 3 year old 800 watt
ovens I had.  The difference is the old ovens are low power factor. 
In an RV, the inverter still has to supply the amps and may not like
the wattless current floating around so an old low power oven may be
worse than a new moderate power oven.  Reading the labels and/or
testing is required.

PS:  One of my little restaurant secrets.  How to rapidly cook a
baked potato.  For the 40 count (1.25 lbs) 'taters we use, nuke the
tater for 11 minutes in a 1000 watt oven.  Then wrap in foil and
either stick it in an insulated cooler or the oven at 250 (we use a
steam table) and allow to soak for 15 minutes.  This gives the
starches time to convert and the tater to get creamy.  The taste is
indistinguishable from one that has been baked for a couple of
hours.  
John

From: John De Armond
Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.rv-travel
Subject: Re: Silicone bakeware safe?
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 20:59:39 -0400
Message-ID: <aosui2tl9qcs14ohki03o16vmrpdu9128s@4ax.com>

On Thu, 12 Oct 2006 21:43:59 -0400, Steve Calvin
<calvins@optonline.net> wrote:


>Wondering the same thing myself. Why in the world would you
>need anything to bake a potato.

I cooked a few tens of thousands of spuds in the restaurant's
microwaves bare.  Just toss in a 1 lb spud, give it 9 minutes, let it
soak on the steam table for 15 minutes or so to finish converting some
of the starch and you can't tell it from an oven-baked one.

However.  Cueing on the Wallyworld "bakers" that come shrink-wrapped,
I tried baking one after wrapping it in saran wrap.  It cooked a
couple minutes faster and was significantly more moist.  The saran
held in the steam, at least partially.

To the OP.  I have a set of silicone ware that I got at Wallyworld.
Corning, I think.  I like it.  Silicone oven mitts are good to 500
degs so these should be too.  I can tell you that I could reach down
into 400 deg fryer oil to retrieve stuff wearing the mitt that Sam's
sells.

John