especially after studying the techniques and recipes from
Rita Marie Schneider, the home economist who developed the
majority of the Perdue microwave recipes, I'm a convert
now. I've come to appreciate the versatility of the
microwave as well as the speed.
There's a reason I happen to have spent time with the
Perdue experts. Once when Frank was microwaving nuggets for
himself at HIGH, he found that by the time all of them were
heated, one of them was badly overcooked and therefore,
dried out and$what a dirty word this is in the Perdue
household!$tough. Frank didn't know that the microwave was
the problem and instead assumed it was his product that was
at fault.
How can I even tell you about the crisis that one
tough "tender" caused! Frank didn't seem as upset when a
whole processing plant burned down the year before. Because
of that one tough tender, he called the plant manager, the
quality control people, the packaging people, the man who
wrote the cooking directions, the food technologists, the
woman who runs the tasting lab, and probably half a dozen
other people as well. It didn't matter that it was the
weekend$the situation had to be addressed immediately! He
kept repeating disconsolately, "I have no right to sell a
product like this."
Eventually, one of the Perdue food technicians came
out to our house and checked the microwave and suggested
that we'd get more even cooking if we used MEDIUM HIGH. She
said that at this setting, the microwaves reach an
equilibrium so heating is much more even. And when there
are no hot spots and no cold spots, the chicken gets