Today every kitchen would seem “under-equipped” without a microwave, with its efficient ability to cook, defrost and reheat a variety of different foods. The handy appliance uses microwave radiation to do so. This is a type of electromagnetic radiation similar to radio waves and infrared light.

Although generally recognised as safe, the internet is awash with articles about the dangers microwave radiation poses to your food. Some claim using microwaves can cause “cataracts and cancer”. Other posts says it “zaps the nutrients right out of your food”.

There seems to be a lot of pressure on the home cook these days. It isn't enough to feed your family chicken breasts -- one should be feeding them free-range, organic, perfectly juicy chicken breasts that were cooked sous vide and served with vegetables you regrew from a curated selection of kitchen scraps. This perfectionist vibe is permeating food writing and the culture of home cooking, with everyone striving to churn out consistently perfect meals, night after night.

If you don't knead your bread dough enough, your bread will lack an airy, light texture. Over-kneaded dough gives you bread that breaks teeth. You don't want either, so the windowpane test is one good indicator for whether your dough is ready to become warm, delicious bread.

Boiling your potatoes with salt or vinegar before you roast them can help make your roasted potatoes come out crispier, but there's an even better way. All it takes is a little bicarbonate of soda.

Lots of people consume cheese and wine in concert, but science has now substantiated what we have always seemed to know in our guts: Cheese actually makes wine taste better.

If you are a lover of tomato sauce, you have no doubt had to deal with the very real struggle of trying to get it out of the bottle, particularly if that bottle is glass. If you've ever wondered why you must suffer at the hands of this stubborn condiment, there is an answer: Tomato sauce is a non-Newtonian fluid.

When it comes to long-term food storage, the freezer is one of the most useful tools in your kitchen, but it's not as simple as throwing food in a container and letting it chill. To make sure your food freezes fast with minimal damage, freeze it flat.

Greetings and salutations, and welcome back to another exciting instalment of Will it Sous Vide?, a column where you tell me what to cook with my Anova. This week, we will be testing it out on pizza pockets.