employing enough oil to immerse the food
altogether. As a technique, it resembles
boiling more than pan frying, with the
essential difference that the oil is heated far
above the boiling point of water, and so will
dehydrate the food surface and brown it.
Microwaving:
Microwave Radiation
Microwave ovens transfer heat via
electromagnetic radiation, but with waves that
carry only a ten-thousandth the energy of
infrared radiation from glowing coals. This
shift makes for a unique heating effect.
Whereas infrared waves are energetic enough
to increase the vibratory movement of nearly
all molecules, microwaves tend to affect only
polar molecules (p. 793), whose electrical
imbalance gives the radiation a kind of handle
with which to move them. So foods that
contain water are heated directly and rapidly