Microwave ovens and methods of cooking food

Abstract

A portable microwave oven is designed to be powered from a domestic power socket having a standard maximum power rating. The oven has two side walls, a base, a top wall, a rear wall and a closable front door together defining an oven cavity, a magnetron for supply microwave power to the cavity of the oven, a blower motor for generating a flow of cooling air for the magnetron, a rotatable turntable on the base of the cavity for supporting food thereon, a port in one of the side walls of the cavity, a vent in the rear wall of said vent leading to a vent outlet at the rear of the oven, a shutter mounted adjacent the port and movable between an open position in which the port is open and air is blown through the port and into the cavity by the blower motor and a closed position in which the port is closed by the shutter which prevents air delivered by the blower motor from reaching said cavity. Continuous microwave power is supplied to the cavity simultaneously with the supply of thermal power delivered by a fan forcing air over an electrical resistance heating element. The shutter is in the closed position when the electrical heating element is energized and in the open position to vent the cavity when the electrical heating element is de-energized, the blower motor being energized so long as the oven is switched on and a bypass duct being provided to direct at least some of the air delivered by the blower motor to a region adjacent the vent outlet to prevent condensation in this region.