Plastic wrap for Microwave Parsley, etc.

[Anonymous Modernist 15765]

I have tried Glad, and a generic plastic wrap at 800W and Premium Saran at 500W for the Microwave Parsley recipe. In all cases the wrap melted through, at 800W much faster than 500W. While I have been successful using parchment paper and a careful eye, the plastic wrap would be much easier. In a brief look at commercial wraps, none seemed suited for the microwave.

Any suggestions on a wrap? The generic wrap description in MCAH hasn't been sufficient.

-Steve

[Anonymous Modernist 19094]

I haven't found anything that works yet either. I recently picked up some Press N Seal to see if that holds up better, but even it says not to let food touch the wrap directly. Sad to see no one has responded to your post, this recipe might turn out to be the most difficult recipes to pull off because MCAH doesn't tell us exactly which wrap to use.

[calf]

I tried making Crystallized Mint today, from the Eleven Madison Park cookbook. It's the same technique as in MCaH.

 

Strange that I did used to be able to successfully do this, about 10 years ago, but now with the Glad wrap--which I swear seems to be made thinner than it used to be??--it also melts through. I tried 1200 W at 100%, 80%, 50% settings. Maybe a 10%-30% power level could help, but I gave up...

 

What DID work, to an approximation, was silicone baking mats. I put one silpat directly on the microwave glass. I did the oiled mint leaves, then overlaid another piece of silicone (I only had a Stasher silicon bag so I put that over the 8 tiny leaves).

 

Then I had to microwave repeatedly 80%, 30 s at a time, for about 3 minutes? Multiple times. It was nearly all nice and crispy, but a few bigger leaves tended to have some moisture near the stem. 

 

For the crystallized mint the fine grain sugar seemed enough to deal with the residual water.

 

After some re-reading, some ideas I'd like to throw out there for anyone interested:

• Use only heavy-weight commercial microwaveable plastic wrap
• Use a inverter microwave, to get true fractional % power levels, many microwaves are now inverter but my old one is not

 

Meanwhile the silpat sandwich does work. I also forget, there are other ways to make crispy herb leaves so in absence of the right plastic wrap and/or microwave, maybe one has to make it the normal (more tedious) way by dehydrating or frying the leaves.

Edited August 24, 2023 by calf (log)

[TdeV]

Not a Modernist person, but I would be interested in knowing more about this technique. Some explanation perhaps? 🙏

[calf]

Oh for sure! Basically you can use the microwave to fry to a crisp small quantities of herb leaves or even baby spinach leaves. The method is to stretch plastic wrap over a plate, then lay herbs and some oil on top, optionally wrapping a second sheet over that to make a sandwich. Then microwave on high, checking every 30 s, until the leaves are crispy.

 

Here's a video showing the original technique:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h88-vgHqyB4

 

Here's a modified technique for home cooks that adds parchment paper:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHF6ZHG2cYc

 

It makes a cute garnish but I couldn't get it to work this time, it kept melting through the plastic wrap!

Edited August 26, 2023 by calf (log)

[TdeV]

9 hours ago, calf said:

lay herbs and some oil on top

 

I read that as "lay some herbs with some soil on top"

(which I thought was pretty weird . . . and I might investigate it MUCH later)

🤣 🤣

 

 

[FeChef]

Why exactly do you need to use wrap or paper? Why not just put directly on a flat plate? 

[btbyrd]

The MC folks recommended that you avoid PVC based plastic wrap in favor of polyethylene, but I've always had problems. The ATK crowd came up with a workaround back in the day, which was to make a parchment sandwich with the herbs inside and then place that between two layers of plastic wrap. Seems like the added protection of the parchment would help solve the melting problem.