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(N. Thornton) writes:

> I used to sucessfully make speciality rice apple cakes in the zapper.
> Made from powdered rice (no wheat), apple chunks, baking powder and
> water. I dont think there was anything else in them. Water content was
> critical, I would certainly add some fat if trying that recipe now.

Is "powdered rice" the same as rice flour?

It's good to know it will also work without fat, since I'm trying not
to use it in my cooking.

> These were 1 roll sized things, made serially. I tried bigger items
> but a zapper really cant heat anything larger with sufficient
> evenness.
> I'm trying to remember the cook time, something like 2 minutes on
> full, or thereabouts.

What was the wattage of the microwave and the power level you used?

> Finally theres one last option. If youve got a ring/hob you can put a
> wire tray in a metal biscuit tin, sit it on the gas and youve got
> yourself an oven. With trial you can find a heat setting that bakes
> well. This was done more often in the early 20th century, with
> paraffin cookers etc. Overdo the heat and your oven melts

I'm not sure I understand. First, I don't know what a ring/hob is.
It suggests to me something like the thing a wok rests on while you
are cooking with it. Second, I don't understand what a wire tray is.
I've never seen one.

If I were going to improvise an oven, and I've done so on occasion for
other purposes, I would just take a frying pan and the lid of a sauce
pan, put whatever I'm cooking in the frying pan and cover it with the
lid to hold the heat in. I can't let it get too hot because the plastic
handle of the lid will melt or burn. I considered that for making
bread or rolls but I think the dough would be in too direct thermal
contact with the flame. Maybe what you are saying about the wire screen
simply refers to a platform that the dough can sit on inside the "oven",
such as I described it, and such that the part it is actually sitting on
is a wire mesh, so that direct thermal conduction is minimized and instead
the hot air cooks the dough.

> If youre doing all this because of budget, dont make the wire tray
> from copper wire, it reacts with the bread to form toxic green copper
> compounds.

Thanks for pointing that out. I noticed from your other posting that you are
alert to the ways people can accidentally poison themselves while cooking.
Maybe someone should write a cookbook full of such recipes, entitled "The
Lucrezia Borgia Cookbook".

I once talked to a chemist who showed me an article on some culinary
benefits to beating eggs in a copper bowl. Something about Cu++.

I'm not planning to make my own wire platform, although I'm interested
in metal work (but only a beginner). Where does one purchase stuff like that?

I did make something using wire mesh for sifting sand for casting metal.
It used, I think, aluminum mesh, with holes about a half an inch
square or less, and nailed it to a wooden frame. I don't know if it would
be ok to use the same kind of mesh for supporting dough.

Ignorantly,
Allan Adler

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