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I know it's heresy to the British, but you can heat water for tea in the microwave just fine. And at least in my European imagination, every American has a micr
by sltkr 4y ago
I know it's heresy to the British, but you can heat water for tea in the microwave just fine. And at least in my European imagination, every American has a microwave in their home.
- wintermutestwin 4y ago>every American has a microwave in their home Of course we do! Europeans don't all have microwave ovens? How do you warm up leftovers? And yes, I drink tea daily with microwaved water.
- asveikau 4y agoI'm American, and I often heat up leftovers with a toaster oven or on the stove. For some foods it gets better results.
- eru 4y agoThere's also steamers. They are especially popular in Asia.
- drdrey 4y agoIsn’t it problematic to heat water in a microwave?
- EricE 4y agoOnly if you overheat it. Drives all the gas out and makes the water off/flat.
- dragonwriter 4y agoIts possible to superheat water in a microwave so that it will explosively boil when disturbed, but it is fairly easy to safeguard against, as well.
- mprovost 4y agoMy microwave has a picture of a cup with a spoon in it, this stops superheating.
- benj111 4y agoHow?
- briHass 4y agoIt provides a non-smooth surface to induce steam bubbles to form. I know in chem labs we used to use little chunks of ceramic for test tubes, but those aren't desirable in your tea.
- benj111 4y ago>My microwave has a picture of a cup with a spoon in it, this stops superheating. This appears to be a microwave setting. I don't see how that would provide a non smooth surface
- dragonwriter 4y ago“My microwave has a picture on it” is what was said; graphic instructions are common.
- a2tech 4y agoI don't heat up leftovers, I just eat them cold. But we do have a microwave (we bought it at the beginning of the pandemic so we could heat up frozen meals--we didn't have one before). I had cold leftover pasta for lunch today. My wife turns up her nose at cold leftovers but I'm not picky.
- Fezzik 4y agoAnecdote of one: I am an American that does not own a microwave and does own an electric kettle. We are legion.
- chillwaves 4y agoYou can end up superheating the water that way and scalding yourself. I also prefer to control the temperature of my water which you cannot do in a microwave. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/boil-on-troubled-waters/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/boil-on-troubled-waters/
- sltkr 4y agoIt's something to be aware of, but in practice it's very difficult to superheat water at home. For superheating to occur, you need very pure water in a smooth container with no imperfections. Tap water in most places cannot be superheated because it contains too many minerals, and most ceramic cups aren't smooth enough to prevent boiling. If you're making tea, an easy way to prevent superheating is to drop the bag in the water before you heat it. Another way is to put a wooden stirrer in the cup. There's a mythbuster video here where they show water being superheated: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_OXM4mr_i0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_OXM4mr_i0, but note that they use distilled water (which nobody drinks) in a Pyrex container (which nobody uses). And they actually use a mug of tap water as a control.
- rootw0rm 4y agothat's not really true. i've superheated tap water at least a dozen times. never had a negative consequence from it, besides having to clean up some water, so it's also not something that really bothers me. from my experience the superheated state can be surprisingly stable, a couple times only explosively boiling over while being poured, instead of the moment I grab the container. edit: as far as 'nobody' using Pyrex, my preferred container for heating water is a big Pyrex measuring cup.
- mprovost 4y agoMy microwave has a picture of a cup with a spoon in it to warn you to only boil water with something in it. Despite being warned for years not to put anything metal in a microwave it's actually fine to leave a metal spoon in water to stop it from superheating.
- valarauko 4y ago