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> microwave covered by a plate to contain the inevitable food explosion The default (maximum) power setting dumps so much energy so fast into the water in your
by throwanem 3y ago
> microwave covered by a plate to contain the inevitable food explosion
The default (maximum) power setting dumps so much energy so fast into the water in your food that some of it boils, and the expanding steam spatters food everywhere. This is also what causes the "burned on the outside, still cold in the middle" effect with leftovers, which aren't engineered to be microwaved on high the way most frozen packaged meals are.
Use a lower power setting for longer, and pause to stir if possible. That way there's more time for the heat to dissipate into the bulk of whatever you're microwaving, and few to no tiny, messy steam explosions.
- close04 3y agoI actually use lower power in multiple shorter “sessions” with some minutes in between, which even without stirring lets the heat transfer more uniformly through the food - almost exclusively leftovers. I discovered this accidentally since usually I go about other stuff while heating the food in the microwave (not the stove) and more often than not I completely forget about it even with the “ding”. Putting it though another session at low power, I noticed, makes the food very uniformly heated. But ever so often after a while heating there’ll be the random drop of water under some fat or something like that, and without a lid it will paint the inside of the oven a lovely shade of splatter. No downside with covering the food.