That somewhat unpromising line comes from the beginning of Microwaving Meats (Barbara Methven, 1979), yet another 1970s cookbook that simultaneously insisted a microwave could, in fact, do everything while secretly admitting that no, it actually couldn't.
Without extraordinary measures, the meat will not brown. It will, perhaps, turn rubbery. But you've got a microwave, dammit, so of course the microwave is the best tool for making meat. If you've got a microwave, then every problem looks like a bag of microwaveable popcorn... or something like that.
Methven's favorite method of drawing people's attention away from the browning issue seems to be cooking by stuffing things into other things.
If you're mesmerized by the "G" in the middle of the ham, cheese, and asparagus loaf, then maybe you won't notice the spongy texture.
Yep, stuffing will cause enough distraction that people won't notice the smooth, tilting-toward-slimy finish on the main attraction, which is why the method for filling the ham, cheese, and asparagus loaf is shared with another loaf.
Meatloaf!
And if making great big microwaved loaves of meat seems too time consuming, there's always the alternative of little stuffed meats.
My favorite recipe is, of course, the ring mold! Why have a plain old microwaved stuffed meatloaf when you can have a microwaved ring-shaped stuffed meatloaf?
Just layer it all up...
It's full of old favorites: ground beef, stuffing mix, canned mushrooms, and onion.
And then microwave into this glorious layer cake of meaty weirdness:
One that looks kind of like some FFA project about ways to enrich the soil...
If you take nothing else from today's microwave lesson, at least remember this: Barbara Methven wants you to stuff it!
I keep imagining someone recreating these horrors in an instant pot since they are the big, new kitchen gadget (based on an old method of cooking).
ReplyDeleteThat's true! There are a lot of "do it all in an Instant Pot!" cookbooks now.
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