Monday, April 8, 2013

Hot/Cold Packs in the Oven

A friend of mine does not own a microwave. Unheard of, I know. She, very reasonably, assumed that she would not be able to make use of the rice heat packs I recently started making. Then, I had this crazy idea to try heating it in the oven. Sounds like a bad idea? I had visions of the thing spontaneously combusting. I don't know why, but people now (including myself) seem to have an unreasonable fear of conventional ovens. I always forget that, 60 years ago, people managed to heat everything either on the stove top or in the oven. Keeping this in mind, I tried testing the old-fashioned method.

Though the microwave is certainly the easiest and quickest option, my regular gas oven worked just as well. To be safe, I wrapped one of the small packs in foil, preheated the oven to 300° F, and warmed it up for 15 minutes. (Note: the larger ones will need more time.) Not only did it not catch on fire, the heat actually lasted a bit longer than one that I microwaved at the same time. The downside is it takes a lot longer to heat the thing up. At least we all know it's an option if the microwave is out of commission.

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