Food Theory: You've Been Using the Microwave WRONG...

Spam 🍿 in the comments if you only use the :30 sec button

ABOUT TIME THE MICROWAVE EPISODE

It blew my mind when the popcorn bag said don't use the popcorn button I've been lied to by my microwave for years

When Matpat originally revealed Food Theory, I thought the concept was kind of ridiculous, but I genuinely think I look forward to these videos more than the other channels now.

When I make popcorn, I initially listened for the popping, but then I looked at how long the time had gone for. Now i just put it in for that time and its perfect every time

You missed an incredibly important fact about microwaves and power level. You see... most microwaves do NOT scale power, at all. They just turn the magnetron on and off. For example at 50% power, they microwave cooks at full power half the time, and is actually off half the time. Enter the Inverter Microwave, they can actually scale power, so cooking at 50% is actually half power for the entire time. This difference between microwaves leads to extremely different cooking, and honestly, as a user of Inverter Microwaves for over a decade now, they are really so much better. And honestly, your results for this entire episode would be drastically different with an Inverter Microwave included.

As someone who has experimented with the power level button for years, lower settings are WAY MORE USEFUL than just in niche cases. Maybe this is applicable to only my microwave (Panasonic Inverter 1200W, w/ rotator), but I figured I'd share my findings with my fellow theorists. Do you suffer from cold spots after nuking it on high, and end up having to microwave it more anyway? Double the time and cut the power level in half. Once it's done, you can just eat. Do you suffer from steam mushifying your leftovers on high for 1.5 minutes? Set power level to 1 and microwave for about 10x as long (15 minutes). It's slow compared to microwaves on high, but it's still faster than using an oven. The goal is to gradually heat it up without letting it steam too much. The steam is what mushifies everything. Edit: I have only used these methods for precooked foods. Also, I have received two replies which seem to be blocked. I'll copy them below: Pedro Franca replied: "High power also makes the middle of whatever you're doing get dry, and it destroys any mozzarella I place on it for more than 15s, making it crispy and not melty. Low power is a tool I should... [YouTube cuts off the preview]" V L replied: "To me, varying the power level is the most game-changing pro-tip and I am surprised the video did not mention it at all! To reheat meat, I use power level 5 to 8 depending on how delicate it is, ... [YouTube cuts off the preview]"

One of the things I learned from my dad, who was in appliance repair for 30 years, you do not put your items in the dead center. Put them closer to one edge or the other. My frozen stuff has turned out much better using this method

Prolife tip: When you throw away the box your food is in, throw it in the trash in a manner that the cooking instructions are facing upward. Now you won't need to dig through the trash when you forget the cook time.

That intro with Santi pulling us out of the microwave got me I have not seen an express option or a turn-knob thing for power level on any of my microwaves

Definitely use the hearing method for your popcorn, but also make a note of how long it took, because there's a good chance that you can find find a reliable time that works almost perfectly every time, without having to focus on the microwave the entire time. It helps a lot when you wanna grab a drink or something while it pops.

Back in the mid 2000s, one of my friends mom gave me an old microwave from the 70s, came with a metal rack and thorough instructions. The usable metal rack blew my mind. The recipe for a whole turkey in the instruction & recipe book shattered reality as I knew it, it worked, and it was pretty tasty. Broke my heart when that apartment flooded and killed the microwave. I still use the tricks I learned from cooking with it.

There's one important reason for using low power settings that you didn't mention: Ice absorbs microwaves significantly worse than liquid water. So if you dump heat very quickly into your frozen meal, then the anti-nodes will heat up (and soon melt) only some spots. But as soon as you have molten spots, most microwaves pass straight through the ice and get absorbed by mostly only the spots that are already molten. Generally, using full power is fine if you want to heat up something where it's fine if the heat gets dumped into some parts and is then allowed to spread, or if it's fine for the hot parts to get so hot that some of the power is lost to generating steam. (Liquids and things that are already defrosted most importantly.) While lower power settings are good for when you don't want any part of your food to get too hot, since it gives every batch of heat time to spread before adding more (literally; most microwaves simply switch on and off repeatedly). Getting butter soft and heating up cheese (where you want to avoid the melting) are indeed good examples, but also defrosting things that aren't supposed to get to "steaming hot" temperatures.

You just solved a decade long family feud. Popcorn button vs. listening to the pop! Thank you

Suggestion: Best types of chocolate to use in cooking and those to eat on their own 🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫

Rotating tables in microwaves were once rare. You moved the food yourself halfway through.

Also Air popper has always been my number 1 for popcorn

There are a couple more microwave tips I can think of that I am surprised did not make the episode. 1. 10-15 secs (depending on your unit) can quickly bring a pastry or muffin back to life. I use this all the time to buy day old donuts and I can pretty consistently bring them back to near fresh for up to about 4 days. 2. Steam is your friend. This trick works best for pasta and rice leftovers. Before reheating in your microwave splash a little water inside the container. Then loosely put the lid on top (for like a Tupperware container). Them reheat. Leftover pasta and rive tend to dry out a little in the fridge so splashing a little water in and putting the lid on top effectively makes a diy steamer. The steam also helps to make sure to even out any uneven cooking on your microwave, like Santi pointed out. This will get you perfectly reheated pasta and rice everytime.

I'm sad that the power button was glossed over, when I believe that is one of the most important buttons on a microwave that most people don't know how to use. Changing the power level to 50% doesn't change the wattage for a 1100W microwave to 550w, rather the heating is on only 50% of the time. Why is this useful? Microwaves only heat up the top layer of your food. Ever wonder why sometimes your food comes out melting lava on top and frozen inside? That's why. How do you fix that? Power levels. By setting the power to 50%, your microwave will cycle heat on and off in equal amounts of time. This let's the heat in your food travel from the top to cooler regions, and then repeats the process. It's actually very useful, not just for heating soups, but other larger peices of food. Would love a follow up to try using power levels to cook hot pockets, you might find that reducing the power might not make it melt your tongue like you're used to.

Glad to see y'all are getting a good amount of views. I was worried a bunch of people would leave when Mat Pat stepped back. Good luck y'all!