Radio-cooked Toast Never Tastes Burned, Even If Black (Dec, 1933)
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Dec, 1933
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Radio-cooked Toast Never Tastes Burned, Even If Black
RADIO cooking is the latest stunt developed by broadcast engineers. If a hot lunch is wanted by the operators in a transmitting station, all they have to do is place their food between the electrodes of the transmitter. In a few moments it will be done to a turn. Bread may be toasted in six seconds, but steak and potatoes take several minutes. Oddly enough, food overdone by cooking on the radio transmitter does not have a burned taste. Toast can be charred black without tasting in any way different from the kind a cook would be proud to serve. Engineers are not quite sure just why this is so, but believe it is because the cooking is done by the electric discharge and the electrodes get only slightly warm.
Doesn’t this pre-date the accepted story of how radio waves were discovered to heat food? 1933 vs. 1945?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Spencer
Comment by georgelazenby — October 13, 2008 @ 3:36 am
George - I think the method used here is different than discovered by Percy Spencer. Since the article talks about them placing the food to be cooked “between electrodes” I think the food is actually being cooked by high-speed electrons traveling between the plates smashing into the food, rather than by electromagnetic radiation. Kind of like the way it’s possible to cook a hot dog by running an electric current through it, but in this case the plates are at such high potentials to each other that the food doesn’t have to make physical contact with them.
Comment by Matt — October 13, 2008 @ 4:54 am
Will they invent TV-dinner next?
Comment by Tõnu — October 13, 2008 @ 7:08 am
How many fingers were burned off before they thought this wasn’t such a good idea?
I worked at a TV station, if you opened the cabinet the transmitter was in, the transmitter shut off.
Comment by Mike — October 13, 2008 @ 10:18 am
Makes sense, Matt. Wouldn’t toast microwaved until it turns black be
almostunchewable?Comment by nlpnt — October 13, 2008 @ 7:12 pm
Wow, Fifi D’Orsay. She shows up in the oddest places.
Comment by Torgo — October 13, 2008 @ 10:04 pm
If it was actually heated by current passing through, I wouldn’t eat anything of it. Electrolysis might have created dangerous chemicals.
Comment by Casandro — October 14, 2008 @ 1:07 am
Engineers are not quite sure just why this is
Crazy know nuthin’ Engineers!
Comment by Al Bear — October 14, 2008 @ 2:23 am
It works fine in practice. Cost me a bit but it worked out OK. I wouldn’t want to try to cook anything too big with my setup but it does work great for grilled cheese.
Comment by Portacaro — October 16, 2008 @ 1:20 am