With some foods, I have better luck microwaving at half power for twice as long.
this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2023
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This is the correct answer. Full power is fine for liquids, but for solid food, twice the time at half the power. Perfectly heated food.
I microwave at lower power settings for longer times, and I stop to stir and taste at regular intervals. My microwaved food is usually the temperature I want it to be.
Using low power on a microwave almost feels like cheating. For anyone unaware, a microwave can only be on or off, so setting a microwave to 50% power really just makes the microwave run for only half of the total runtime. A minute at 50% will be on for 10s, off for ten, etc.
It cooks way better, especially things like stews or other semi-liquidy things that tend to get hot and cold spots.
Edit: looks like my info is old considering my microwave is from 2004, lol. In 2006, LG patented using an inverter to drive the magnetron. The main benefit (according to the patent documentation) is that it's cheaper to produce. A secondary benefit is that you can, in fact, provide lower power to the magnetron. Seems like a handful of producers must be paying LG to use that method, but probably more will start when the patent expires next year.
I haven't seen one in the wild, but they are out there.
That used to be correct. I bought a microwave with an inverter and it can actually heat constantly at different power levels. Curiously, it has a 0 Watt power level as well 🤷🏻♂️
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No, pretty much any microwave by Panasonic actually lowers the power. The difference is dramatic. Look for their "Inverter" logo. I'm not sure about other brands.
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Same.
Sometimes the plate is burning hot and the food is cold. Best of both worlds.
Guess what, that plate is not microwave safe.
I use ceramic plates. But TIL pores or microscopic cracks could be the reason for hot plates. Or my microwave hates me.
oh is that what that means? literally all of my Tupperware and bowls do that 😂
Yea my dude. If your food containers get hot in a microwave, they are not microwave safe. Could melt your plastics or shatter your earthenware. Or just burn the shit out of you too I guess.
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Having to wait is correct. That's not stopping too late. That's doing it right.
Of course, EVERYONE thinks that they do it right, but I want to take a moment to explain why morphballganon actually IS right.
A major purpose of heating the food is to kill bacteria, and most bacteria die at a temperature that is too hot to put in your mouth. If it's "just the right temperature to eat" you're gambling with food poisoning.
If you're depending on your microwave to sterilize your leftovers they are too far gone and should be disposed of.
Neither, I always microwave precisely when I mean to.
Cook for half the time and stir. One stir is a minimum.
Stirring helps to distribute the heat better and avoid this dilemma
(Depending on the model) if you microwave, for example, on 50% power for 2 minutes, it will alternate 10 sec of cooking and 10 sec of not cooking for 2 minutes, so in the end neither of your scenarios come to fruition
This is for the "cheap" microwaves. They cannot operate the magnetron at partial power, it's all or nothing, so it actually powers off for a period to compensate for that.
Inverters however can operate at partial power levels. This means more consistent cooking power and better efficiency. But inverters are more expensive and most people never change the power level, so the cheaper microwaves don't use them.
Double the time, half the power. It works so well. The difference between 1 minute and 2 doesn't bother me, I'm off doing something else.
I know how my microwave works and so can time it.
At work it's usually outside lava and inside arctic.
At work double the time and halve the power, it will cook more evenly for you. Even cheap microwaves normally have a power setting.
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First the one, then the other.
I find it disgusting when something is not at the right temp. So I'd rather wait and have it heated thoroughly.
I use Sensor Reheat. 😎
Hey now, not everyone can afford the Jaguar of microwaves
I usually start with too cold and when I put it in for a bit more, I get it lava hot.
The reheat function on my microwave does a shockingly good job on uncovered foods. Tends to stop a bit early with an error when the food is covered
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Put it on level 5 or 6 and microwave it for 5 minutes
I've never seen a microwave with levels before, is it a fancy one or are they just not popular in the UK?
Pretty standard feature in every microwave I've ever seen
Every microwave I think I've ever used here in the US has some form of power setting.
The problem is that it's completely nonstandardized, so saying "power level 6" can't be applied to arbitrary other microwaves to get a comparable effect.
I think that it's rarely useful, because generally you might as well just run at full power for less time and then wait afterwards for heat to spread.
What I really wish we had would be at least semi-standard settings across microwaves. Like, instead of a time setting -- microwaves apply energy at different rates -- the base unit should be a number of watt-hours to be applied, something like that.
not popular in the UK
Trivia: the UK invented the gizmo that can output that shit-ton of power in the form of microwave radiation in a microwave. It was an absolutely critical technical development in World War II -- it let radars be vastly more powerful then they had been, and it was a "Eureka" moment, a major nonobvious breakthrough that other countries wouldn't have just gotten iteratively shortly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavity_magnetron
The cavity magnetron is a high-power vacuum tube used in early radar systems and subsequently in microwave ovens and in linear particle accelerators.
The cavity magnetron was a radical improvement introduced by John Randall and Harry Boot at the University of Birmingham, England in 1940. Their first working example produced hundreds of watts at 10 cm wavelength, an unprecedented achievement. Within weeks, engineers at GEC had improved this to well over a kilowatt, and within months 25 kilowatts, over 100 kW by 1941 and pushing towards a megawatt by 1943. The high power pulses were generated from a device the size of a small book and transmitted from an antenna only centimeters long, reducing the size of practical radar systems by orders of magnitude. New radars appeared for night-fighters, anti-submarine aircraft and even the smallest escort ships, and from that point on the Allies of World War II held a lead in radar that their counterparts in Germany and Japan were never able to close. By the end of the war, practically every Allied radar was based on a magnetron.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tizard_Mission
The Tizard Mission, officially the British Technical and Scientific Mission, was a British delegation that visited the United States during World War II to share secret research and development (R&D) work that had military applications. It received its popular name from the programme's instigator, Henry Tizard, a British scientist and chairman of the Aeronautical Research Committee which had orchestrated the development of radar.
The mission travelled to the U.S. in September 1940 during the Battle of Britain. They conveyed a number of technical and scientific secrets with the objective of securing U.S. assistance in sustaining the war effort and obtaining the industrial resources to exploit the military potential of these technologies, which Britain itself could not due to the immediate demands of other war-related production. American historian James Phinney Baxter III later said "When the members of the Tizard Mission brought one cavity magnetron to America in 1940, they carried the most valuable cargo ever brought to our shores."
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I wait for it to beep then I burn my mouth until I get to the middle that is still frozen to cool it off.
Is that not how microwaved food is meant to be enjoyed?
I got a steam owen, and it's a game changer. The reheat setting is 10 minutes at 120 C, the food comes out tasting as if freshly made, evenly hot, but almost ready to eat. If I wait for 2 minutes after I pull it out (make a coffee for after-lunch dessert), the food is just right.
Cold, everytime. Eating something cool or at room temp - when that thing was at one time perfectly delicious before being chilled - means the flavour is still delicious, just not the right temp. You are never getting that steak back to medium rare after a 2 minute nuke. Plus you can eat it without the fear of burning your mouth.
I leave it in for too long because you're supposed to let it sit and warm the whole thing evenly.
Then I forget about it until it's a little too cold.
Neither. I put a wet paper towel over the food. The water in the towel gets REALLY hot and helps distribute the heat better
I intentionally heat my food way beyond the temperature that it should be. I often take a while to eat, and I want my food to stay hot the whole time. I think my (suspected) OCD also plays a part in why I feel it needs to be so hot.
Figured it was better to use the unfreeze mode instead. Or use a very low wattage like 250watts for longer. That way food doesn't loose all it moisture.
Too hot and let it cool off.
Also, if you make an empty spot in the middle of the plate it heats more evenly.
I use sensor reheat. Perfect every time
I'm impatient. I usually eat it still half frozen. The outside gets warm enough for the cheese to melt, but the core is still usually frozen and covered in ice.
For context, due to histamine intolerance severely limiting my food choices, I've given up and just eat the same frozen meal prepped lunch every day. It'd have lost its flavor by now due to repetition, even if I hadn't gotten bored of waiting for it to fully cook.
both. too long, then i forget about it and it's cold again.
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