jacket potatoes in microwave

You can cut oven cooking time in half by cutting potato in two and cross hatching it. Painting with oil or butter before cooking gives a pretty,crispy cut surface too.

Microwaves do adversely affect the vitamin content of foods, but no more so, and possibly less so, than conventional ovens.

Before cooking potato in microwave I slit skin all round -then place in paper bag .So no chance of splattering .
No comparison to potatoes baked in oven but much quicker and cheaper on electricity

I didn't think microwaving vegetables destroyed vitamins any more than conventional methods, which of course do destroy some vitamin C. But so much more convenient!

Personally I do not use a microwave and no longer have one - a friend who is a nutritionist told me that they are banned in Russia because of the adverse effects on food and since she saw results from experiments in a Scandinavian country she has never used one either.
I simply never liked using them and found I resented the precious worktop space that an underused item took up. I find a halogen oven useful and again although it is said you can cook almost anything in them I do not like them for cooking things such as cakes/scones etc but do like mine for cooking meat when I need extra oven space and jacket potatoes are not bad either. I believe they are quite cheap to use and they are certainly cheap to buy.

I love my jacket spuds done in the oven, preferably until the skins are very crispy.

I always use my Remoska or main oven for jacket potatoes. I find they cook more quickly if I bake them with a skewer through the centre.

I'm pretty sure it's only vit C which is spoiled by heat and as microwaves do the job quicker that must be good. Use minimum water so no vits leach out into water.

Just looked up the adverse effects of microwaving and frightened myself to death! I never realised there were any! For the record, I pirece potatoes first - I also like microwaved sweet potatoes. Yum!

I do jackets in the main oven, don't like them microwaved. I use the microwave to warm up milk for my coffee, make porridge, and re-heat food for folks who missed meal times. Occasionally I'll microwave frozen vegetables.
I'm off to google the adverse effects of microwaving, I expect I'll frighten myself to death (thanks rockgran)

Interesting. I googled "microwave vitamins" and got mostly accounts of how the shorter cooking times and smaller amounts of water (or none) actually preserve more vitamins than cooking them in a pan of water. Nearer to steaming results.

There were some anti, but they did sound rather . . . ermm . . mystic. One person blamed the obesity epidemic on the introduction of the microwave (the "it started about the same time, therefore must be connected" argument) claiming "The microwave is the appliance of the living dead. People who use the microwave on a regular basis are walking down a path towards degenerative disease and a lifelong battle with obesity" No bias there, then!

It is, of course, much easier to heat something up in the microwave than to cook it properly, so there is a temptation to eat rubbish. But used sensibly, to cook fresh food for a minimum time, and remembering to eat enough uncooked fruit and vegetables too, it is not going to deprive you of nutrition. Eating a few ready meals when you don't have time or inclination to cook won't send you straight to the incurables ward with degenerative dieases either.

If it did I would be obese and unhealthy. I am a bit overweight, but a lot healthier than the average for my age. Take a pinch of salt with the diet nazis (but not too big a pinch, think of your blood pressure)

As I have said before, I have got three microwaves. I am an expert microwave cooker. (not all Waitrose' Love Life best either)

I am clearly deprived Jings. I only have two. We did at one time have three, but one of them was in a holiday home and stayed there when we sold the house with all contents.

My new(er) one is in the kitchen and has some automatic modes which are very useful (put veg into pyrex dish with a couple of tablespoons of water, press "veg" and it does the timing itself - I think it calculates it by how long it takes for steam to start to appear, so the amount of water is critical)

The old one is in the cellar, where it heats water for fly cuppas while in the workshop, or for dissolving stuff for the garden. I have also used it for dying batches of fleece for spinning and for tie-dying silk hankies. Not all at once.

I only have one microwave, and, as I have a tiny kitchen, it doubles up as a bread bin!

I do have a microwave, but it's main use is to re-warm cold cups of tea!

I had a largish microwaved jacket potato as part of my supper last night. I pierced it in several places, wrapped it in paper towel, set timer for 6 minutes and 20 seconds and after taking it out of microwave, wrapped it in tin foil for 5 minutes to continue cooking and keep its heat. Perfect.

I always do mine in the microwave find it's quicker and easier. It all depends on the potato as well how they come out. Iceland baking potatoes are the fav at the moment

I push mine onto a metal skewer, leaving about an inch or more between potatoes. Use more skewers if necessary. Then I rub a little olive oil, salt and pepper onto the skins and put the skewered potatoes onto a baking tray (to save any bits that might drop into the oven bottom). Bake for about 30 mins in main oven at about 200C.The metal skewers conduct the heat through the middle of the potato, so they cook more quickly, and the middles are well done, with crispy skins.
Save energy by putting some jam tarts (or mince pies at this time of year) in the oven at the same time. Use ready made pastry so this isn't a chore.

We do like jacket potatoes so we pierce them and pop them into the microwave until they're soft and then grill them on both sides until nicely brown. Almost as good as done in the oven but much quicker - 20 minutes or so.

I cook them in the microwave (stab with a skewer first) then in a hot oven for a short while with a skewer stuck through so that the heat goes right through to the middle.

I have a combination micro/oven but they seem to take ages to brown if I microwave then finish in the combi.

I put nuts and seeds on my weetabix and on my salad. Also eat them strait off the spoon for a snack. Sesame seeds on chicken. I know some people put seeds in the pan when roasting veggies

Veggie main meal. Root vegatables tossed in olive oil seasoned and put into a roasting pan. Half way through cooking and large chestnut mushrooms and red and yellow peppers, sunflower seeds and a little butter. Leave as is, or add a sauce of your choice. Serve with rice or stir fried bean shoots. Also goes well with pasta, but I don't eat pasta so only going on what I am told.

Our microwave died earlier this week and we are thinking of a combination one. They make a great selling point of the jacket potato facility. It is a shame that it will be larger than the previous one and we'll have to move things around to fit it in.

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I like the skin more than the middle so it has to be crisp. Plus one for five minutes in the micro and then into a hot oven. We mostly have them stuffed with cheese, onion and smoked bacon.