cooking

[Jay]

Heh. And here I thought the microwave was a glorified way to heat a cup of water.

We have a microwave, I use it to heat water and to heat up canned (jared actually) foods and leftovers. I have never actually cooked anything in it.

The purpose of Marinating is usually two fold, one is to season (flavor) the meat, the other is to tenderize the meat. Any marinade that has an acid in it (vinegar, lemon juice, tomato juice, many various fruit juices, etc) is for the purpose of tenderizing - which is a tasty way of saying 'breaking down the cellular matter'.

'Soaking' a bit of meat at room temperature in a herb and spice (no acids added) coating or bath allows the meat to age. Aging meat is basically allowing the meat to rot a tad. Again its to allow the cells to break down a bit, making the meat a bit more tender.

Time is the only real ingredient that tenderizes, there is no way to speed up the process of marinading.

The difference in taste will be subtle for most people. However for others there is a distinct taste difference between a bit of fresh meat covered in herbs and spices and one that has been allowed to sit for several hours to a day stewing in its own juices.

I prefer to cook with stove and oven. When I have the time. But due to the nature of my job, I have to be hmm...what's the word, creative? I needed to find a way to cut down/shorten the time to cook. I then started to dab my cooking skill with a microwave. Hence why I can also cook and eat fresh 'homemade' cook in my office too.

I know microwave can't beat a stove and oven. I can't cook every recipe with a microwave. But considering that I can't bring a stove to office, cooking with a microwave isn't so bad.

But yeah, the original recipe requires marinade so that the salmon can absorb the herbs, olive oil and lemon. It gives the salmon more hmm, oomph?