Do You Need Any of These Microwave Cooking Gadgets? — The Kitchen Gadget Test Show

- So I don't know about you, but for me the

microwave

has always been for popcorn or reheating something, or steaming something, etc. I never knew you could cook in the

microwave

. Until today. So we'll go over the four products that have unique microwave features and see if any of this impresses me. First, we're

test

ing the microwave-safe sandwich grill. I'm very curious because I didn't know that you can get something crunchy in the microwave. But we'll see if that works. And then we have the microwave rice cooker. It will steam the rice in about 10 to 15 minutes, which is half the time a rice cooker takes, which could be fantastic.

We'll see. Next we have a microwave safe grill, which honestly I'm very, I won't say skeptical, I'm just curious how it will work. But this is supposed to be for roasting meat in the microwave. Yes, I know, but you know what? We could be very surprised. And this costs about $15 to $20, which, I mean, is a good deal if it works. And last but not least, we have a microwave pressure cooker, which scares me a little but I don't know, maybe it's worth it. Let's do it! First, sandwich time. The way this works is to preheat it for two minutes.

Then you put the assembled sandwich in there and then you put it in the microwave for another five. That's all, very, very simple logic. You're just heating up the metal plates to make it crispy, so we'll do that. In the meantime, I'll make my grilled cheese real quick. A little butter; make sure the butter is soft. Don't stare at the microwave because it will start flashing strangely. Three seconds left! You can see the heat coming out of the device. Be careful when handling this, because the metal plate is obviously very hot. Makes it pretty easy to handle.

Hear it? Nice! This is really promising. Assembled, it has a strange smell, I don't know. Here we go. Five minutes. If all this works, I'll probably be surprised. Oh, wow! Wait. You know what, I won't even judge it until I take it out of the microwave. Don't touch the plate. It's still very hot. Ta-da! That was pretty good, I don't know. Crunchy. I mean, it's a little uneven, but I don't care because it's super crispy. Hey, I'm so surprised right now! Yes, it worked! Nice! If I had to be really critical, it's a bit of a stretch, so I probably would have done it for two minutes instead of three.

But hey, that reduces the time even more, so it's four minutes. Two minutes of preheating, two minutes of

cooking

and voila, perfectly grilled cheese. Drug. So I thought nothing could be made crispy in the microwave, but I guess I was wrong. Forward. Into the microwave rice cooker, which is pretty simple. It's just this silicone lid that has these little holes in it for some steam to escape. This is just a plastic container. Add the rice, add the water and cover. So in theory, I think you could probably use it like a regular container with plastic wrap and poke some holes.

Did you know? It's good to have something that serves a purpose. So, the rice is in, add the water. This is just the standard ratio, regardless of what the package says. And then you put the silicone lid on it. Put it in the microwave. And it will cook for 12 minutes. That's it, then you get rice. Okay guys, 12 minutes, that's it. Take out the rice. Now the definitive

test

: the flavor. It's a little undersized, but if it rests for maybe a few more minutes, I think it will be perfect. All in all, pretty impressed. Yes, this is honestly so easy, it was super quick, and honestly, if you don't really know how to cook rice on the stove, this is your perfect option.

Forward. So, let's grill the steak in the microwave. I know what you're thinking. But hey, you gotta give him a fighting chance. This cooks the steak in less than ten minutes. It's super fast. Same thing with the sandwich grill, you're going to preheat this guy because you want the pan to be hot, right? That's where you'll get the bail. So I'm going to preheat it for three minutes and in the meantime I'm going to season the steak. Okay guys, my grill is preheated and I can feel the radiant heat. So I expect to hear a nice sizzle.

Okay guys, I hear a sizzling sound. Do you hear that? Maybe this has a fighting chance. Back there. Three minutes. Alright guys, that's it. I hear it sizzling, I'll let it sit here for four more minutes. Would you eat a steak in the microwave? Very good, you've rested enough. Do you hear that? It's still sizzling. So, it looks like there might be color in the steak, which is what I'm hoping for. So, we have some color but it's like a weird crust. I'm not even going to say anything because I think you guys know how I feel right now.

Look, on this side. So, for very obvious reasons, I don't recommend

cooking

a steak in the microwave. You see, one side says, okay, maybe there was a chance to fight. But then you turn it around and say, what (bleep)? I mean, if you're going to cook a steak, don't microwave it. You know what I mean? If you're going to spend money on a fancy piece of meat, you're not going to microwave it. So I'm sorry, but this doesn't work for me. So Daniel, my producer, is making me eat this. I'm going to open it up and we'll see what it looks like inside.

I mean, it's not overcooked, but it just doesn't brown and it's like, I just don't know. It's very sad for me. It's like a steamed steak. Yes, definitely, do not microwave a steak. This is just sad. It breaks my heart that we cooked a steak like this. Last but not least, this is another way to cook meat in the microwave. You can use the microwave pressure cooker. We're excited because this is a very safe way to pressure cook and some people are a little afraid to do it on the stove. The InstaPot also takes a lot longer and will do it in half the time, so if it works, maybe we have a good device here.

We'll see. Okay, we have some ribs, we just make a very basic recipe. Onion, garlic, chicken broth, because obviously you

need

some moisture. Obviously, this is a very basic recipe. We just want to test that the meat will cook slowly, pressurized in the microwave. There are these little arrows that you want to put together. That's it, make sure the cap doesn't come loose. So we'll do this for 30 minutes. I've never done 30 minutes in the microwave before. There we have it. We'll wait half an hour, see what happens. (hold the music) Okay guys, it's been 30 minutes. According to the recipe book, we'll do it for an additional eight minutes on high, and I'm assuming this is to caramelize the meat, or whatever you

need

to do.

Just in case we haven't bombed it long enough. Eight more minutes. See you soon. Dude, it's been 40 minutes. Long waited. If this meat isn't tender I'm going to get really angry because we waited a long time. But really, I think if this didn't work and the meat isn't tender, it means the device is (bleep) because obviously there are plenty of other ways to make ribs tender. But let me hold that thought, because we don't know what's going to happen. Alright. Okay, obviously you have to release the pressure. Oh, that wasn't so exciting. That was weird, because usually when you let out the steam and pressure, it's like shoooo!

But that didn't do that. There we go, there we go. I have it. Hmm. Did you know? I'll try it. It's cooked, it's like it's almost there, but it's not there. He needs about ten more minutes. But it's already been 40 minutes there, so there are other ways to cook the ribs for about 40 minutes and make them soft and tender. And also, what happened is that I feel like the juices didn't set, so it lost all its flavor. Yeah, I just don't think you should microwave meat. Maybe just don't do that; maybe make that little effort and cook it well, when it's meat.

But what about you? Is there a favorite microwave appliance that you love? Leave a comment, let me know. For more episodes like this, click here.