[Avodah] induction cooking

[Mike Miller]

On Wed, Sep 24, 2008 at 8:00 PM, Menachem Posner <menachemp at juno.com> wrote:
> Does anyone know of any information concerning this increasingly popular
> form of cooking where electromagnetism causes the food to heat up without
> heating the pot or range?

I'm afraid you're misunderstanding induction heating. In this method,
the _pot_ (which must be made of a conducting material such as metal,
not glass) is heated via induction, instead of being heated by a coil.
The pot then heats the food.

A microwave, OTOH, heats the food directly (more precisely, heats the
water molecules within the food).

Based on this, you may need to reconsider your questions.

A microwave "oven" would apply to your questions, however, for safety
reasons, a microwave over must be enclosed to prevent microwaves from
escaping. The metal mesh on the glass door serves this purpose (look
up a farady cage for more info), but even if you were to put the
actual magnetron (the microwave generator) on a timer, I don't think
you'd want to use one without a proper safety interlock to prevent it
from turning on with the door open. This would present many of the
same shailos as a refrigerator or stove door switch

-- Mike Miler
Ramat Bet Shemesh