Re: Taste: Microwave Heating vs Boiling

[brian whatcott <inet@INTELLISYS.NET>]

At 09:18 2/15/01 -0500, you wrote:
> Does anyone know of a reason (other than psychological) why water boiled in
> a tea kettle on a range  might taste differently than water boiled in cup
> in a microwave?  Thanks in advance for your input.
>
> Greg
> *************************************************************
> Gregory Puskar                      gpuskar@wvu.edu
> Academic Laboratory Manager                  (304)293-3422 x 1455
> Physics Department                           (304)293-5732 (fax)
> West Virginia University
> PO Box 6315
> Morgantown, WV 26506
> *************************************************************


This is a question at which to look askance....
Have you stopped beating your wife yet? ...sort of thing.
It is not established (as far as I know) by blind trials,
that this question is not hypothetical.
(Double negative = incomprehensibility factor way high!)


[substitute the word work for heat, heating for heat, to taste,
in the following]

There undoubtedly *are* reasons to distinguish between the
long wave coherent IR heat .er. energy ..er.. work.. from a
microwave, and the broad band incoherent IR heat from a gas stove.

1) Some hospitals alert nurses to the need to boil water fresh
from the supply for baby feed to avoid concentrating minerals
from a simmering kettle.

Microwave thermal excitations are typically of shorter duration
than the gas driven version, and this would help keep the
cogeners dilute.

2) Microwaves encourage the use of plastic containers
(because you can...)
Plastic material evolves volatiles when heated.

3) The narrow band coherent quality of the magnetron's output
can excite susceptible [hydrocarbon] molecules differentially
and selectively.
The broad band gas heating does not.


It is established that microwave enhances the rate of some
chemical processes otherwise excited by regular heating.


brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>  Altus OK
                Eureka!