Microwave oven is a versatile appliance that can be used for varies cooking purposes – warm, disinfecting, roasting, grilling, etc. but still finds a very limited use in Indian kitchen. It was during the first decade of the 20th century when Indian household started feeling warm towards including microwave oven as their kitchen appliance especially due to the advent of millennium generation that has varied exposure to the western lifestyle including food, all thanks to the globalization.
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Unlike in western countries where food is primarily baked, Indian cuisine despite adapting to many of the western food and Indianizing their cooking techniques, still has more spices and hence require deep cooking and frying. Hence, despite the slow receptivity of Microwave ovens in urban kitchen, its acceptance has been negligible in rural segment where it fails to prove its relevance. Urban households, with exposure to western food and their styles do tend to accept and adapt those techniques but that is occasional. A daily routine inculcates the traditional form of cooking with use of vegetable oil, use of pressure cookers, etc. The style of cooking is inevitably associated with steam, humidity, oil vapors that despite being exhausted, still find place to accumulate on the kitchen shelves and other kitchenware. Microwave ovens, with the advent of modular kitchens, have also shifted from the dinning area to the kitchen, and hence are not spared from these oil vapors and humidity.
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The frequent and prolonged exposure to the steam, moisture, oil vapors, etc. get accumulated on and around the microwave oven and hence forming a thick grease that blocks the air vents and restricts the microwave oven’s heat to escape. This causes to build pressure and eventually heating up the microwave thus reducing its performance and making it more prone to breakdown.
Microwave Oven cover provides breathable protective layer around microwave oven that allows the heat from the vents to dissipate but does not allow the humidity, steam and oil vapors to penetrate and get accumulated around the vents forming a grease. Even with time the little grease that gets accumulated on the cover can easily be wiped clean using a dry and / or moist cloth that restore the cover back to its original sheen.
