Least favorite - and this has happened to my current one and the previous shared family one, don't remember/know if it happened to earlier ones as well - is that they rust themselves out from the inside. That steam has nowhere to go, so damages the interior (namely the roof) of the microwave. I have to cover everything to keep the steam contained so it doesn't make it worse (and to avoid the possibility of rust/paint flecks falling on my food)...and the disrupted structural integrity makes the microwave less effective. Making kale chips would be impossible, since it's not safe to let that steam escape into the body of my microwave. Maybe a healthy one that was dried out thoroughly between uses...but not THIS one. The damage has already been done.
Least favorite - They are less than 70% efficient at converting electrical energy to microwave energy. Over 30% is dissipated as waste heat, mostly in the Magnetron.
The fact that it can make plasma when I put a lit candle in it althought my mum say I shouldn't do it anymore because it's the 3rd microwave we burn in the family
I once drunkenly tried to explain the standing waves in a microwave to my housemates by squiggling lines in whiteboard marker on the fridge and waving my arms about. This video is infinitely more effective at relaying that information
Don't talk to Bob Marley fans that much. Did they keep their clothes on? Have you done bloodwork since then? Was there a camera in the residence to protect you from being scalped and there being insufficient evidence to make a conviction? We know you've dedicated your own life to science, but it's because we love science in a way which Harmonizes with your love of science that we're talking this way. You know how Bill Gates wears a camera necklace? Do that. Please see a doctor.
A metal bowl, and a hair dryer is how I dehydrate tobacco leaves. Also, put them in a glass jar on the dryer, and dry some clothes. Back in the day, we had a cable box. That worked extremely well for drying tobacco. I also put seeds in a wet bag on it. After two days, the seeds were ready to plant.
I remember the first time that I *actually* followed the instruction shared by almost all frozen microwave food: "Let sit 1-2 minutes in the microwave before eating". It really does make an enourmous difference. I used to always think that I needed to go an extra minute or two on top of the reccomended time becasue there would still be cold spots, but if you just let it sit a minute, the heat does actually spread out, and the food is actually cooked the right amount. It's almost like the team of professional food scientists specifically hired by the multinational food corporation to find the optimal microwave instructions knows what they're talking about :)
My high school had an old, but surprisingly advanced, Sharp microwave. When you used the sensor reheat function, the display would flash "LET STAND COVERED" for a certain amount of time (likely determined by the same artificial intelligence that determined how long to cook) after the food was finished. I always wondered what that meant.
@@aspecreviews Does it happen to be this one? If so then it's primarily using a humidity sensor for just about all of the smart stuff. ruclips.net/video/UiS27feX8o0/видео.html
@@1224chrisng Hmm skeptical about this, i’ve seen people melt glass inside of microwave on high power using kiln for art projects. They weren’t melted before it was put in. Im guessing it was the additives inside the glass for lowering the melting point responsible for the heat. Feel free to add more information since i’m really curious of how it works
As a Radio engineer, I can say theses animations really made it simpler to explain stuff to people. Was not expecting this to be a science channel with such technically accurate animations. Good job!
I remember my physics teacher in highschool explained to us how microwaves worked. He took out the spinning wheel and lined up a bunch of marshmellows in a straight line, and after nuking, completely melted marshmellows and still normal marshmellows alternated each other perfectly. All these years later, it still sticks with me. He also put in a lit match for a few seconds and somehow it created plasma. It was so cool! (Don't try this at home, kids.)
You can make plasma with a grape as well. Cut it in half but leave a little bit of the skin at the end of the cut still attached. If done right, it'll glow like a mini sun for a few seconds.
Random microwave discovery: I recently made a batch of custard-based ice cream in my new ice cream maker. In the freezer, it froze EXTREMELY HARD. So I decided to try microwaving it to thaw it, something I hadn't done before. Since then, I've read that regular ice cream usually goes all soupy on the outside if you do this. But for some reason, my homemade custard ice cream kept looking like it hadn't thawed much, so I did it a couple more times. Finally I tried it... and it scooped out easy because I had thawed it quite a bit. But the wildest part was that somehow it still held together, in this consistency that was more mousse-like. It wasn't perfect, there were areas of colder and harder ice cream in there too, but now I have a goal to make custard ice cream again and try a variety of microwaving approaches to see what I can come up with - maybe there's some potentially amazing, creamy, fluffy desert option awaiting me!
It may be because of the air bubbles inside of the ice cream, and the texture being already less watery than regular icecream means that the microwave only heats up the small amount of water that is frozen on the outside while the air bubbles and the texture manage to keep a good consistency
@@immkk1125 i think he just kept making it thicker by losing the already small amount of water, concentrating it to a glob of (probably extremely delicious) proteins, sugars and fats.
I've found some tips and tricks to reheating food. My first is set the item off center, microwaves always carry the same waveform roughly which causes the hot and cold spots. Offset your food and that problem is solved. You can increase the microwave time and lower the power to half power and it will more evenly heat it as the magnatron rules at full blast. But it allows the heat to disperse throughout the food. As for the water problem don't put a lid on the food at first, wait till the end when you need to trap steam.
@Wesley Kirkland I always offset my food in the microwave in addition to using a lower power setting (such as defrost). This also prevents areas in some foods from getting seriously overcooked in spots, such as reheating meats. The combination may take a bit longer, but for heating simple foods this method is hard to beat. Glad to see that I'm not the only one who uses these techniques together.
If the food you are reheating allows it, make a donut shape of the food on the plate and then microwave it. That way you don't have areas that stay cold compared to the rest.
Another fun fact: The microwave window isn't some special material that blocks microwaves. The circles you see though are smaller than the height of a microwave. So it's just physically blocking them.
I have a microwave cookbook from back when they were still a novelty and it has helped me so much to understand how they work and how to use them correctly. It's like a superpower when you can prepare whole meals perfectly and quickly with just a microwave oven!
I have one of those cookbooks because in the early 70s my parents bought one of the original carousel microwaves when it came down in price. My dad had worked with microwaves in the USN. It was a tank and lasted about 35 years. I wish I had repaired it because it was probably a control issue. I don't think the newer ones emit the microwaves in the same pattern as that one. My most recent microwave actually doesn't cook the food as well as the cheaper one that melted it's inside panel.
I remember one time i was telling my dad how a microwave worked(there is context that makes it make sense but it isnt relevent) and he made fun of me in front of the rest of my family because he didnt think a magnetron was a real thing and made fun of me like "what like transformers?" Very hurtful childhood memory a specific line in the video brought up lol
Especially ironic considering a transformer is also real, and likely mounted on a pole visible from his kitchen window. (Converting distribution voltage at around 7.5kV down to 120V and -120V which can be subtracted from eachother to make 240V, we call it split phase and i find it really clever for how simple it actually is.)
I use the microwave oven at half the power for more time. The way it works is it send waves in 30 seconds intervals on and off and lets the heat parts of the food share their heat with the rest of the food.
If you have a microwave with an inverter you'll be able to run the microwave at an actual reduced power state. When such a microwave runs at a reduced power, you'll will not hear that clicking sound when the power to the magnetron is being turned on and off.. and the food, gets even more evenly heated!
@Ithecastic panasonic have an inverter based microwave oven with a moving magnetron, very much better than the standard ones. not so expensive but again they dont explain so its still a niche product
This is exactly how I reheat my leftovers. Even though our microwave has a rotating dish, using a lower power level helps prevent overheating stuff and lets the heat flow throughout the whole container. Alas, our microwave uses the duty-cycling version of power level.
I love this channel. I'm a chemist who had no food science experience and basically had to figure it out on the job (lol). Many times I've been thinking about a project and remember something you discussed in your videos. Takes a really good communicator to get technical concepts through so well. A bonus thing about the microwave vs. conventional heating when it comes to sogginess: When heating from surface in, the water evaporating into steam also absorbs a lot of heat (same thing which makes sweat so good at cooling you down), so the heat needs to deplete some water from the surface before it can go further down. Because the microwave penetrates a bit and delivers heat below the surface, expansion and evaporation can also happen further below the surface. So the outside will be less dry, meanwhile the percent loss of water is actually higher, it's just that more was taken from the middle instead of the outside. Source: I did R&D/troubleshooting for ways to accelerate drying of certain types of candy and this is one I tried.
Never realised the ice thing. I always just sort of took it for granted that ice takes weirdly long in the microwave to melt, because, well, it's quite cold. So next time, maybe I'll melt ice in a pan. (and yes, I do melt ice in the microwave; frozen homemade vegetable stock is one example)
Add just a little bit of water. The water will heat, which will melt the ice next to it, which is now water, and so on. This will also help it melt more uniformly, since otherwise it's quite dependent on what parts melt first.
I learned from a technology connections video that microwaves could be used to cook potatoes and ever since i havent looked back, 15min (bc i cook on low settings) and theyre always perfect, no poking no boiling just heat
I've only ever used a microwave for potatoes. But I do poke them with a fork to facilitate the steam moving out from the middle as once or twice they've gone kaboom and I had a steel box filled with fluffy starch.
I feel obliged to say how my experiment went: I used peeled potatoes, no poking, cut in quarts , I microwaved them for 2x5mins +2mins while shuffling them around in between and they came out pretty good, 2x7.5 mins should be enough for the first time I guess.
🇨🇱 For me, it's about 1 minute per potato. If Y put in 5 potato's, it's 5 minutes timing. And as someone said, poking with a fork helps avoiding eventually exploding Saludos de 🇨🇱
@@EthanWinter-…no….every thought causes a head ache….these last 10 months have taken a serious toll on my health. “2 more months.” I tell myself. Or maybe it’s the voices from the shadowy figures. But I need to make this record. If not there shadow men said they will kill the rest of my family. They make me do things, I killed little Billy…… but making kale chips with the microwave has really helped.
The fact that it creates resonant standing waves on purpose is the most revelatory information I’ve ever heard about an appliance. It instantly gives me information to use when heating and placing food, and why stirring is so crucial. Amazing.
how to reheat old rice in a microwave: 1. put in your bowl of leftover rice 2. put in a shot glass of water next to the bowl 3. set the timer for one minute 4. enjoy moist, like-new rice I've never had any luck with the damp-paper-towel thing, but this is foolproof.
I just sprinkle water over my rice before microwaving with a lid. The little drops of water turn to steam fairly easily and steams the rice, more or less.
This video proves the value in understanding your equipment and the saying "a bad workman blames his tools". It's really important to thoroughly understand the tools you are working with and be aware of their limitations. This helps you get the most of out them.
That's the wrong way around. Microwaves don't heat bowls - put a dry empty bowl in a microwave & try to heat it - it doesn't heat up. But, a plate or bowl gets warm/hot if there's food in it - the food heats the plate/bowl which helps redistribute the heat to other parts of the food.
@@nightjarflying There's lots of less than optimal crockery that does directly heat up in a microwave - put some form of food in it that doesn't absorb microwaves as well (eg something frozen, something very dry etc) and you will find that the container is sometimes warmer than the food, or at least parts of the food.
Would love to see some recipes that combine what you show here about microwaves with other tools to get better results faster. Like how you did dehydrating, or combining the microwave with say a toaster oven to do French fries or something.
One example I have is Twice-Baked potatoes. I "bake" potatoes through in the microwave first, then scoop out the insides, mash, replace, and then for the second bake I use the oven to get nice crispy-ness.
We chemists actually use something really similar in the lab, called an IR spectrometer. It's basically a microwave, except it can tell us exactly in which wavelength the vibrations happen. So we can use it to characterize unknown molecules. For example a carbonyl group (C=O) will always have a strong absorption at 1700, so if we detect that then we can be sure it has a part with a carbon oxygen bond.
Breaking a bit more into the wave mechanics for anyone interested: When the waves bounce back from the wall, you essentially En up with two waves traveling the opposite way on the same path. Electromagnetic waves have two "peaks", the one looking up is the crest while the one looking down it a trough. Now, when two crests or troughs meet, their energy gets combined to make a "big peek", a crest or trough carrying the energy of both of the waves for that moment. However, if a crest and peek meet, they neutralize each other and the wave gets dampened in that point, essentially meaning there is little to no energy there. And that's why there are "deadspots" in the microwave. A good way to see this is to put a whole bar of chocolate in the microcawe. You will see a pattern of molten and solid chocolate.
@@Ceelvain it is very literally a particle accelerator. It produces microwaves by accelerating electrons, the same principal that a synchrotron lightsource operates on. Edit: I initially wrote photons when I meant electrons.
Microwaves are mostly used to heat food, and indeed one particular microwave I had once said "Your food is ready" when the time ran out, which I thought was pretty presumptuous in two ways: that's you're heating food, and that it's ready. We've also used microwaves to heat other things, such as heat sources for applying to injured areas. We had a bag of something or other that heated up really nice in the microwave that I used on my back, alternating with ice, when it was injured on a few occasions.
Excellent quality of vids....I knew how the microwave works at its core but never thought about how it would affect ice or moisture content of a food!! It's quite amazing that it can heat up water so fast but doesn't really work well on ice...... Also adorable animations as always.... :)
do not heat up water in the microwave, if you put in in too long and the water isn't disturbed in anyway it could explode when you try to take it out (super heated water). same reason you shouldn't put eggs of any kind in the microwave.
Cooking pasta in the microwave was an absolute revelation to me. In the past when I cooked pasta, I needed to get a pot, fill it with water and put it on the stove, turn on the stove and wait for the water to boil (staying near the stove for safety reasons), then _finally_ putting in the pasta and waiting another 10-ish mins for it to cook, then draining into a colander, and then serving in a bowl. Oh, and then having to wash a giant pot plus a colander afterwards. So, a lot of mental energy. In comparison, for pasta for one, tip about 1cm deep into a tupperware container, fill most of the way with water plus your pinch of salt, nuke in the microwave for 7-10 mins depending on the shape (do not need to stay in kitchen during this time), tip out the water using the tupperware lid against the tub as a strainer, and then tip into bowl. Oh, and small tupperware container and lid can easily just be slotted into the dishawasher afterwards, no dramas! As somebody who cooks for one, absolute game changer in the staying-reasonably-consistently-fed department!
Microwave is usually an element on my online or gaming handles, so l felt the need to learn as much about them as l can for consistency sake. A key tip about microwaving food is to avoid the center of the turntable if possible since the food in the axis of rotation is effectively stationary in the standing wave while the rim sweeps through the hot and cold spots. Also, don't just let frozen food stand when it's done cooking before eating, but in the middle of cooking as well. This gives the heat time to migrate deeper into the food and melt the ice so that it cooks more evenly.
Microwaves can unfreeze frozen food so then you can cook it, you put it to low (about 200 watts) for as long as you need, can be 20 seconds can be more, and once it's not frozen anymore heat it up. Also, the cold spots will heat up because the food is on a turn table, that's why the microwave turns the food. I never had any cold spots in my food when heating it in the microwave, but I don't use the microwave to cook food, just to heat it if it's cold.
As someone who loves cooking, I do use microwaves, but also despised them for most applications. You've given me a new appreciation for leveraging their strengths vs focusing on their weaknesses.
This has changed my view of microwaves. I’ll never look at it the same, I’ll only view it with admiration of how interesting and incredible this invention is
An important thing to remember when using a microwave, the center of your microwave is either a hot or a cold spot (can actually swap at different heights as well) so if you place something in the center of the turntable, it will be either really hot or uncooked. It is best to place stuff off center in the microwave to avoid this issue, though if the stuff is big it can be difficult, in those cases you might want to split up the cooking into a couple shorter periods where you adjust the position between them. Also if you are heating up a liquid, you should have no problems with using a microwave as the liquid will mix due to convection as it gets heated, eliminating nearly all downsides, making microwaves actually one of the most efficient methods of effectively heating liquids, though be careful with water as sometimes it can be overheated and explode after being taken out of the microwave.
The microave is the most underated kitchen appliance. Everyone says itmakes food bad or assoceiates it with leftovers or pre-cooked food. The microave is just AMAZING, I am alawys discover new ways to use. My best tip, its to not expect the same result as other apliances, and just try and see what happens. Plus, it is amazing at "pancake-fing" thing that do not wnat to join, or wil get distroid when fliping: make a low moisture oatmeal in the microave, but instead of puting in a bowl, use a plate, flip it half way trought cooking, andd you will end up with an oatmeal pancaka, that requiers only one plate. The same thing can be aplied to any thing that you cold imagine being a pancake.
Hi I am a microwave expert that has been microwaving since I was 7 years old...The best way to cook anything especially if it is frozen is to Select the power level button, then Select number 5 which will lower the power to 50% of the normal power. Make sure to extend the cooking time to make up for the lack of power, I typically go by around 75% extra time to what I would normally cook a specific food at. The reason why this works is the same as what the video shared, More time for the heat to get to the center of the food AND not destroying the food in the process by high heat.
The fact that ice doesn't melt in microwave 🧐 was new to me .very cool video and pretty cool channel top image (all those food and logo in the middle one ).
You can measure the speed of light with a microwave oven since the distance between the centres of the two high-temperature regions in 2:40 is the complete wavelength. Moreover, the long wavelength makes it challenging to heat food evenly. Having a halogen oven in your house can help you reheat or cook food quickly and evenly.
Getting the frequency is non trivial. Sometimes, it's in the fine print somewhere on the microwave, and sometimes not. Edit: it seems most microwaves operate at 2.45 GHz
@@pierrecurie Yes, there are several reasons. 2.45GHz is part of the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band that can be used without a license while bellowing a certain power. The magnetron that operates at 2.45GHz is considered technologically mature. This makes it easy to manufacture and its size is small enough for home use. Albeit 433Mhz & 915Mhz would have been a better option for heating depth, the cost of redesigning and licensing them is significant, so choosing 2.45GHz was more practical.
The funny thing is, the concept for microwaves came about in WWII when an engineer was fixing up one of the radar facilities in Britain, only to find out it was on the whole time because the chocolate bar in his pocket melted entirely.
A question I've been having lately, is, why does cheese seem to taste beter when it melts? I always thought it was purely a texture thing but I noticed even when cheese cools back down, it still tastes better than before. Might be a dumb question, I don't know, but may be a good idea for a video!
Is it pre-shredded cheese? There's a starchy layer on those to keep them from sticking. It's why Celiac's individuals cannot eat pre-shredded cheese unless it is gluten free. After it melts, that starchiness is browned and/or hidden in the cheese. Either way, it changes the taste. I have noticed a taste difference as well. But I don't see it in whole cubes of cheese like I do in melted shredded cheese.
Frozen fat doesn't taste like much, and a lot of the fats in cheese are completely solid (aka frozen) at room temp. Once you've melted it, it's possible to really taste everything that's there and not just the little bit of salt on the surface. I agree there's probably a cute video with animated fats waiting to be made about it.
This is genuinely one of the best explanations of how microwaves work for cooking. It even beats some I’ve seen by physics channels. And thank you for acknowledging that they don’t *just* heat up water!
Why nobody explains the stand function of microwave. 99% of the times, you can heat any food evenly and make it stay hot for longer if you let the food stand in the microwave after the timer runs out. It works even if you set the timer for less than 2 minutes but let it stand for 5 minutes. You can't get this result even if you set the time for 5 minutes or more but open the door immediately. Spray or keep some water too along with food to get even better results. As a good rule of thumb, just remember to do just the opposite of everything above if you want to make something crispy or dehydrated, like chips; but if not, then do exactly as above. It's worth it, and you'll actually start loving your microwave!
I like to set the power level low and increase the cook time. Gives food time to distribute the heat more evenly without being teased by food in front of me Feels like a lot less waiting having something in the microwave for 5 minutes on low than 1 minute on high and 4 minutes of food sitting in front of me before it's safe to eat Also fun fact, magnetrons don't have variable output. Lower power settings just cycle it on and off for varying lengths of time
Even better than having a turntable is if your microwave has a stirrer: a device that looks and spins like a fan but the goal is to move the microwaves around instead of air, as one (or more) of the blades is metal. The net effect is you're spinning the cold spots around instead of your food, and it can spin waaay faster than a turntable! Sadly, they've essentially disappeared from consumer microwaves these days and are basically only used in commercial units.
That was informative and enjoyable. By way of thanks, I watched the whole commercial promotion -- which is not my custom -- and I took it seriously. I'm not in the market right now, but I have some grandchildren, so I made notes. Crazy Aaron's seems like a sensible outfit.
Yay! It's the best when we're able to partner with brands we are personally really passionate about. Their stuff is seriously awesome (their new "liquid glass" putty is the current favorite in our house...)
I bought my first microwave in 1978 for $600. It had dials, not buttons. No turntable, but a temperature probe. And it was HUGE. I bought my first color TV at the same time. It was (of course) a cathode ray, 19" for $178. My first VCR in 1980 for $1,000 (the remote had a cord for pause/play) and my first VHS camcorder for $1,000. My first blank VHS tape was $65, and there were no video rental stores yet; you could only record broadcast tv. I bought all of these things at Shillito's (Macy's) and still retain the receipts.
I do this with oily foods like Pizza, frozen taquitos, burritos too. The issue is that sometimes the paper towel sticks to the food, and most of the time you get the taste of the paper towel on your food (wet paper with a hint of chemical). I still recommend this method, though. Worth using when preventing food sogginess is important.
You cover food in a paper towel to preserve texture, I cover food to avoid the _exploding pockets of gas that hurt like shit when they land on my skin_ while taking the plate out.
That was fanTASTIC. I always, "knew" how they worked, but after about two minutes was new info. I NEVER knew you could use them to dry out veggies and fruits.
I like using microwaves to heat up the inside of a food before turning to the air fryer to heat up the outside and crispify it. Speeds up the cooking process without too much sacrifice for some things.
So what's why some microwaves have the de-freeze option that turns it on and off at low power. It's just slowly trying to melt the ice without burning other parts. Always wondered why it's doing that rather than blasting at full power.
I love microwaves for the fast and easy convenience! I hate spending a lot of time cooking. I even got so good at making use of a microwave, I would joke I was a "gourmet microwave chef" lol Adding water to certain leftovers like spaghetti is def one of my fav tricks I use. Makes a HUUGE difference.
Thanks for the info about microwave oven basic principles. I hope you'll occasionally make more videos featuring microwave cooking tips. For instance, the effect of reducing the power and when to do so. Personally, I'm not finicky about food texture. (It's all good.) Nor blandness, because it's easy to add spices. My main concerns are nutritional value, avoiding toxins & carcinogens & excessive calories, and minimizing labor.
Okay to be Franklin Delano Rosevelt with you, you can get ice to melt as once the air causes some to melt into water, water will get heated and melt the ice and the more the ice melts, the faster the process will be.
What makes microwaves truly magical is learning to use the setting that allow you to change the power levels. This is really a time based on/off switch for the magnetron vs running it 50% power (on 50%, off 50%) but it allows food to be heated or cooked evenly, though it increases the time needed. Works by gently heating up the outside, but not too much, then stopping the magnetron to let that heat migrate to the center, heating up the outside, etc until you have uniform heat throughout. Bit of a learning curve but not terrible. Way better than the “food buttons” on the microwave that are supposed to be automatic.
What will really bake your cookie is the connection between how magnetron ovens (that's how we call them in Dutch) work and how soap and sauces work. Fats don't jiggle in the the flipping field; fats are a-polar. What you drew there were fatty acids. Fats are fatty acids bound to a backbone of glycerol. Neutral, a-polar. That's why they don't mix well with water. Unless you add an emulsifier. And fatty acids are emulsifiers; the "head" easily donates a H+ and is negatively charged, but the long long "tail" is so long that a-polar oils and fats can mix to that side of the molecule. When you make mayo, you surround the polar molecules in your splash vinaigre with emulsifier (traditionally egg yolk) and suspend them in the oil. When you do your dishes, you surround the a-polar molecules of the fats and oils on your dishes with emulsifier (traditionally dish soap) and suspend them in the dishwater. Same thing. That's why the merger of Margarine Unie (a margarine company) and the Lever Brothers (a soap company) was chemically not at all weird. Today they are Unilever, one of the giants in the food industry. When you take an oil or fat and break away the glycerol (by stirring it in a base like lye) you get soap or nasty tasting emulsifier. Potashes (why you guys call K, potassium and not Kalium), are basic too. So when you're out camping and don't want stir up the biome with a modern constructed detergent, you can rub your dishes with the ashes of your fire and turn some of the oils and fats into soap. It won't perform as well as a modern detergent but it wil work... 🤔 There's this other cool RUclipsr, MinuteEarth, this last nugget (and the history of phosphates that will come out when you pull this string in research) could be a nice collab video. 😘
fun fact: if you take our the turning plate, and put, say the thermal putty, in there, you can measure the distance between the cold spots. times that distance by 2 to get its wavelength, times this by the frequency labelled on the microwave specs and you can get an approximate value for the speed of light.
My favorite way to make scrambled eggs is in the microwave. It takes longer than doing it on the stove, but the consistency is always way more airy and fluffy than if I did it in a pan.
I've never tried this, but I heard you can use a microwave to make inside-out Baked Alaska. You mould the ice cream with a space in the middle, make sure it's frozen solid, then fill the space with meringue and cook the whole thing in a microwave oven. It cooks the meringue, but it doesn't heat the ice cream, (as you observed in the video.) Timing is very important, of course, since the meringue *will* melt the ice cream if it's not served quickly enough.
Nice job! You actually explained many things about microwaves that I feel like others don't touch on (not that I've seen many other explainers). The other cool thing about those standing waves is that they're 3-dimensional, which means they're likely to vary in the vertical direction as well. Also, your voice really reminds me of that automatic voice you hear in TikToks. Not an insult, just observing.
Here's a cool microwave trick I discovered that not a lot people know about: suppose you're making a dish like pasta on the stovetop that has a large surface area and cools off very quickly. Sometimes it can be frustrating that by the time you finish eating it it's already cold. Here's how you fix that. A couple minutes before it finishes, take your plate or bowl, put some water in it, and put it in the microwave for 2 minutes. Using oven gloves, take it out, pour off the water, and then quickly dry it with a paper towel to avoid evaporative cooling. Your plate/bowl is now piping hot and ready to keep your fresh pasta nice and warm while you eat it!
Thank you for effectively explaining what I was trying to explain to people for years: you are not irradiating food by using a microwave. I can't believe how many folks around me believe that.
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OK, let's hear it: what are your most (and least) favorite things about your microwave?
I like it because it's fast but it makes pizza soggy.
Least favorite - and this has happened to my current one and the previous shared family one, don't remember/know if it happened to earlier ones as well - is that they rust themselves out from the inside. That steam has nowhere to go, so damages the interior (namely the roof) of the microwave. I have to cover everything to keep the steam contained so it doesn't make it worse (and to avoid the possibility of rust/paint flecks falling on my food)...and the disrupted structural integrity makes the microwave less effective. Making kale chips would be impossible, since it's not safe to let that steam escape into the body of my microwave. Maybe a healthy one that was dried out thoroughly between uses...but not THIS one. The damage has already been done.
Least favorite - They are less than 70% efficient at converting electrical energy to microwave energy. Over 30% is dissipated as waste heat, mostly in the Magnetron.
The fact that it can make plasma when I put a lit candle in it althought my mum say I shouldn't do it anymore because it's the 3rd microwave we burn in the family
Least favorite: Cold foot and lava hot bowl/plate that burns your fingers.
I once drunkenly tried to explain the standing waves in a microwave to my housemates by squiggling lines in whiteboard marker on the fridge and waving my arms about. This video is infinitely more effective at relaying that information
Sounds like you might be qualified for the MinuteFood team; squiggly lines, wavy arms, and nerdy enthusiasm are basically our jam :)
Don't talk to Bob Marley fans that much. Did they keep their clothes on? Have you done bloodwork since then? Was there a camera in the residence to protect you from being scalped and there being insufficient evidence to make a conviction? We know you've dedicated your own life to science, but it's because we love science in a way which Harmonizes with your love of science that we're talking this way. You know how Bill Gates wears a camera necklace? Do that. Please see a doctor.
Well, you tried...😅👍
Every nerd has been there. Keep trying mate!
Huh same but we were all high lol
Using a microwave to dehydrate food is knowledge we all need to have
I want details on how to do this now
i made a sin by giving the poor microwave a job to dehydrate tobacco, works surprisingly well!
A metal bowl, and a hair dryer is how I dehydrate tobacco leaves. Also, put them in a glass jar on the dryer, and dry some clothes. Back in the day, we had a cable box. That worked extremely well for drying tobacco. I also put seeds in a wet bag on it. After two days, the seeds were ready to plant.
This is new for me too. Can I dehydrate parsley leaves? or orange peels?
So like, can we make jerky with a microwave?
I remember the first time that I *actually* followed the instruction shared by almost all frozen microwave food: "Let sit 1-2 minutes in the microwave before eating".
It really does make an enourmous difference. I used to always think that I needed to go an extra minute or two on top of the reccomended time becasue there would still be cold spots, but if you just let it sit a minute, the heat does actually spread out, and the food is actually cooked the right amount.
It's almost like the team of professional food scientists specifically hired by the multinational food corporation to find the optimal microwave instructions knows what they're talking about :)
fun fact, the same way a microwave can heat up molten ice, it can heat up molten glass, but only after it's already melted
My high school had an old, but surprisingly advanced, Sharp microwave. When you used the sensor reheat function, the display would flash "LET STAND COVERED" for a certain amount of time (likely determined by the same artificial intelligence that determined how long to cook) after the food was finished. I always wondered what that meant.
@@aspecreviews Does it happen to be this one? If so then it's primarily using a humidity sensor for just about all of the smart stuff.
ruclips.net/video/UiS27feX8o0/видео.html
@@1224chrisng Hmm skeptical about this, i’ve seen people melt glass inside of microwave on high power using kiln for art projects. They weren’t melted before it was put in. Im guessing it was the additives inside the glass for lowering the melting point responsible for the heat. Feel free to add more information since i’m really curious of how it works
It's the special kiln who transform microwaves into radiant heat
As a Radio engineer, I can say theses animations really made it simpler to explain stuff to people. Was not expecting this to be a science channel with such technically accurate animations. Good job!
@RedSaltMarine420 how do you know it's a guy? it's definitely multiple people working together. /Lh /nm
@@KCisScreaming "Dude" is generally accepted to be gender-neutral nowadays.
@@KCisScreaming Chillax dude, you're taking life WAY too seriously lmao
@@KCisScreaming have you considered the fact that ur mom gay
😂
I remember my physics teacher in highschool explained to us how microwaves worked. He took out the spinning wheel and lined up a bunch of marshmellows in a straight line, and after nuking, completely melted marshmellows and still normal marshmellows alternated each other perfectly. All these years later, it still sticks with me. He also put in a lit match for a few seconds and somehow it created plasma. It was so cool! (Don't try this at home, kids.)
I think Numberphile has a video about using Aero Bars in a microwave to get Error Bars on the speed of light
You can make plasma with a grape as well. Cut it in half but leave a little bit of the skin at the end of the cut still attached. If done right, it'll glow like a mini sun for a few seconds.
I have an over-the-range microwave with a turntable disable switch. At first I was puzzled why anyone would want that.
stuck with you like the melted marshmallows
@@NoName-ik2du I did that when I was about 7 with my aunt's microwave. I don't think it ever worked the same way after that...
Random microwave discovery: I recently made a batch of custard-based ice cream in my new ice cream maker. In the freezer, it froze EXTREMELY HARD. So I decided to try microwaving it to thaw it, something I hadn't done before. Since then, I've read that regular ice cream usually goes all soupy on the outside if you do this. But for some reason, my homemade custard ice cream kept looking like it hadn't thawed much, so I did it a couple more times. Finally I tried it... and it scooped out easy because I had thawed it quite a bit. But the wildest part was that somehow it still held together, in this consistency that was more mousse-like. It wasn't perfect, there were areas of colder and harder ice cream in there too, but now I have a goal to make custard ice cream again and try a variety of microwaving approaches to see what I can come up with - maybe there's some potentially amazing, creamy, fluffy desert option awaiting me!
It may be because of the air bubbles inside of the ice cream, and the texture being already less watery than regular icecream means that the microwave only heats up the small amount of water that is frozen on the outside while the air bubbles and the texture manage to keep a good consistency
@@immkk1125 i think he just kept making it thicker by losing the already small amount of water, concentrating it to a glob of (probably extremely delicious) proteins, sugars and fats.
Great Idea you should post the results as a fun study on your youtube channel cool idea i love custard!
oh wow that's interesting thanks for sharing!
I had this idea with ice cream as a kid and proudly proclaimed it to work for softening up but my mom wasn’t too enthused about my experiment.
I've found some tips and tricks to reheating food. My first is set the item off center, microwaves always carry the same waveform roughly which causes the hot and cold spots. Offset your food and that problem is solved. You can increase the microwave time and lower the power to half power and it will more evenly heat it as the magnatron rules at full blast. But it allows the heat to disperse throughout the food. As for the water problem don't put a lid on the food at first, wait till the end when you need to trap steam.
I add water and put the lid on but don't close it.
I, a random person on the Internet, second these suggestions.
@@themadsamplist That works to depending on what you're microwaving.
@Wesley Kirkland
I always offset my food in the microwave in addition to using a lower power setting (such as defrost). This also prevents areas in some foods from getting seriously overcooked in spots, such as reheating meats.
The combination may take a bit longer, but for heating simple foods this method is hard to beat.
Glad to see that I'm not the only one who uses these techniques together.
If the food you are reheating allows it, make a donut shape of the food on the plate and then microwave it. That way you don't have areas that stay cold compared to the rest.
Another fun fact:
The microwave window isn't some special material that blocks microwaves. The circles you see though are smaller than the height of a microwave. So it's just physically blocking them.
I have a microwave cookbook from back when they were still a novelty and it has helped me so much to understand how they work and how to use them correctly. It's like a superpower when you can prepare whole meals perfectly and quickly with just a microwave oven!
I have one of those cookbooks because in the early 70s my parents bought one of the original carousel microwaves when it came down in price. My dad had worked with microwaves in the USN. It was a tank and lasted about 35 years. I wish I had repaired it because it was probably a control issue. I don't think the newer ones emit the microwaves in the same pattern as that one. My most recent microwave actually doesn't cook the food as well as the cheaper one that melted it's inside panel.
I remember one time i was telling my dad how a microwave worked(there is context that makes it make sense but it isnt relevent) and he made fun of me in front of the rest of my family because he didnt think a magnetron was a real thing and made fun of me like "what like transformers?" Very hurtful childhood memory a specific line in the video brought up lol
nice, microwaved themed villain origin story
Especially ironic considering a transformer is also real, and likely mounted on a pole visible from his kitchen window. (Converting distribution voltage at around 7.5kV down to 120V and -120V which can be subtracted from eachother to make 240V, we call it split phase and i find it really clever for how simple it actually is.)
In Dutch, we actually call a microwave "magnetron".
can you please tell me the context i will not sleep until i know the context of this
@@smithwilliams5637 *could have
the words "of" and "have" do not mean the same thing.
I use the microwave oven at half the power for more time. The way it works is it send waves in 30 seconds intervals on and off and lets the heat parts of the food share their heat with the rest of the food.
If you have a microwave with an inverter you'll be able to run the microwave at an actual reduced power state. When such a microwave runs at a reduced power, you'll will not hear that clicking sound when the power to the magnetron is being turned on and off.. and the food, gets even more evenly heated!
@Ithecastic panasonic have an inverter based microwave oven with a moving magnetron, very much better than the standard ones. not so expensive but again they dont explain so its still a niche product
This is exactly how I reheat my leftovers. Even though our microwave has a rotating dish, using a lower power level helps prevent overheating stuff and lets the heat flow throughout the whole container. Alas, our microwave uses the duty-cycling version of power level.
I love this channel. I'm a chemist who had no food science experience and basically had to figure it out on the job (lol). Many times I've been thinking about a project and remember something you discussed in your videos. Takes a really good communicator to get technical concepts through so well.
A bonus thing about the microwave vs. conventional heating when it comes to sogginess: When heating from surface in, the water evaporating into steam also absorbs a lot of heat (same thing which makes sweat so good at cooling you down), so the heat needs to deplete some water from the surface before it can go further down. Because the microwave penetrates a bit and delivers heat below the surface, expansion and evaporation can also happen further below the surface. So the outside will be less dry, meanwhile the percent loss of water is actually higher, it's just that more was taken from the middle instead of the outside.
Source: I did R&D/troubleshooting for ways to accelerate drying of certain types of candy and this is one I tried.
Never realised the ice thing. I always just sort of took it for granted that ice takes weirdly long in the microwave to melt, because, well, it's quite cold. So next time, maybe I'll melt ice in a pan.
(and yes, I do melt ice in the microwave; frozen homemade vegetable stock is one example)
Add just a little bit of water. The water will heat, which will melt the ice next to it, which is now water, and so on. This will also help it melt more uniformly, since otherwise it's quite dependent on what parts melt first.
@@reverse_engineered Good one! So basically like a seed, in a way.
This is better explained than some crackhead on tiktok. Those mf’s tell viewers that water and snow are both made by the government.
Phase changes take a lot of energy!
I learned from a technology connections video that microwaves could be used to cook potatoes and ever since i havent looked back, 15min (bc i cook on low settings) and theyre always perfect, no poking no boiling just heat
I didn't get that from technology connections, but now I'm definitely trying it out, if it works, I'm never boiling them again
Shouldn’t you still be poking them?
I've only ever used a microwave for potatoes. But I do poke them with a fork to facilitate the steam moving out from the middle as once or twice they've gone kaboom and I had a steel box filled with fluffy starch.
I feel obliged to say how my experiment went: I used peeled potatoes, no poking, cut in quarts , I microwaved them for 2x5mins +2mins while shuffling them around in between and they came out pretty good, 2x7.5 mins should be enough for the first time I guess.
🇨🇱
For me, it's about 1 minute per potato. If Y put in 5 potato's, it's 5 minutes timing.
And as someone said, poking with a fork helps avoiding eventually exploding
Saludos de 🇨🇱
I need to go to sleep
Have you slept yet?
@@EthanWinter-…no….every thought causes a head ache….these last 10 months have taken a serious toll on my health. “2 more months.” I tell myself. Or maybe it’s the voices from the shadowy figures. But I need to make this record. If not there shadow men said they will kill the rest of my family. They make me do things, I killed little Billy…… but making kale chips with the microwave has really helped.
Same
Wobduebsjdidbairbfh 👍
The fact that it creates resonant standing waves on purpose is the most revelatory information I’ve ever heard about an appliance. It instantly gives me information to use when heating and placing food, and why stirring is so crucial. Amazing.
how to reheat old rice in a microwave:
1. put in your bowl of leftover rice
2. put in a shot glass of water next to the bowl
3. set the timer for one minute
4. enjoy moist, like-new rice
I've never had any luck with the damp-paper-towel thing, but this is foolproof.
I just sprinkle water over my rice before microwaving with a lid. The little drops of water turn to steam fairly easily and steams the rice, more or less.
@@AndyGneiss Both work, the direct contact can make the rice still wet if you put too much but is also less effort.
Rice is definitely one of the best foods to reheat with a microwave
😊 it’s cool that I already knew that
Works for pizza too
This video proves the value in understanding your equipment and the saying "a bad workman blames his tools". It's really important to thoroughly understand the tools you are working with and be aware of their limitations. This helps you get the most of out them.
Microwaves are convenient way of heating a bowl, which might heat up the food in it as well
Lmao
That's the wrong way around. Microwaves don't heat bowls - put a dry empty bowl in a microwave & try to heat it - it doesn't heat up. But, a plate or bowl gets warm/hot if there's food in it - the food heats the plate/bowl which helps redistribute the heat to other parts of the food.
You can definitely heat plates in the microwave - go put a plate in the microwave for 90 seconds and report back
@@nightjarflying i think ceramics and glass do heat up?
@@nightjarflying There's lots of less than optimal crockery that does directly heat up in a microwave - put some form of food in it that doesn't absorb microwaves as well (eg something frozen, something very dry etc) and you will find that the container is sometimes warmer than the food, or at least parts of the food.
Would love to see some recipes that combine what you show here about microwaves with other tools to get better results faster. Like how you did dehydrating, or combining the microwave with say a toaster oven to do French fries or something.
One example I have is Twice-Baked potatoes. I "bake" potatoes through in the microwave first, then scoop out the insides, mash, replace, and then for the second bake I use the oven to get nice crispy-ness.
We chemists actually use something really similar in the lab, called an IR spectrometer. It's basically a microwave, except it can tell us exactly in which wavelength the vibrations happen. So we can use it to characterize unknown molecules. For example a carbonyl group (C=O) will always have a strong absorption at 1700, so if we detect that then we can be sure it has a part with a carbon oxygen bond.
Thank you to Crazy Aarons for your thoughtful sponsorship of this channel and video! Fantastic collaboration. Love to see it!
Breaking a bit more into the wave mechanics for anyone interested:
When the waves bounce back from the wall, you essentially En up with two waves traveling the opposite way on the same path.
Electromagnetic waves have two "peaks", the one looking up is the crest while the one looking down it a trough.
Now, when two crests or troughs meet, their energy gets combined to make a "big peek", a crest or trough carrying the energy of both of the waves for that moment. However, if a crest and peek meet, they neutralize each other and the wave gets dampened in that point, essentially meaning there is little to no energy there.
And that's why there are "deadspots" in the microwave. A good way to see this is to put a whole bar of chocolate in the microcawe. You will see a pattern of molten and solid chocolate.
Not only does the magnetron have a cool name, it's also made even cooler by the fact that it is a tiny particle accelerator!
It emits photons. I'm not sure this qualifies as a particle accelerator.
@@Ceelvain it is very literally a particle accelerator. It produces microwaves by accelerating electrons, the same principal that a synchrotron lightsource operates on.
Edit: I initially wrote photons when I meant electrons.
Nobody summons Magnetron! 😁
Micro waves to Magnetron as he powers up.
*in Holland and Germany it's called that!*
Microwaves are mostly used to heat food, and indeed one particular microwave I had once said "Your food is ready" when the time ran out, which I thought was pretty presumptuous in two ways: that's you're heating food, and that it's ready. We've also used microwaves to heat other things, such as heat sources for applying to injured areas. We had a bag of something or other that heated up really nice in the microwave that I used on my back, alternating with ice, when it was injured on a few occasions.
Excellent quality of vids....I knew how the microwave works at its core but never thought about how it would affect ice or moisture content of a food!! It's quite amazing that it can heat up water so fast but doesn't really work well on ice......
Also adorable animations as always.... :)
do not heat up water in the microwave, if you put in in too long and the water isn't disturbed in anyway it could explode when you try to take it out (super heated water).
same reason you shouldn't put eggs of any kind in the microwave.
How microwaves work is something I should understand but this video told me things I did not understand very well. Excellent video!! Thanks
Cooking pasta in the microwave was an absolute revelation to me.
In the past when I cooked pasta, I needed to get a pot, fill it with water and put it on the stove, turn on the stove and wait for the water to boil (staying near the stove for safety reasons), then _finally_ putting in the pasta and waiting another 10-ish mins for it to cook, then draining into a colander, and then serving in a bowl. Oh, and then having to wash a giant pot plus a colander afterwards. So, a lot of mental energy.
In comparison, for pasta for one, tip about 1cm deep into a tupperware container, fill most of the way with water plus your pinch of salt, nuke in the microwave for 7-10 mins depending on the shape (do not need to stay in kitchen during this time), tip out the water using the tupperware lid against the tub as a strainer, and then tip into bowl. Oh, and small tupperware container and lid can easily just be slotted into the dishawasher afterwards, no dramas! As somebody who cooks for one, absolute game changer in the staying-reasonably-consistently-fed department!
gotta love all that hot plastic in your spaghetti... hope you're doing that in a glass tupperware
Microwave is usually an element on my online or gaming handles, so l felt the need to learn as much about them as l can for consistency sake.
A key tip about microwaving food is to avoid the center of the turntable if possible since the food in the axis of rotation is effectively stationary in the standing wave while the rim sweeps through the hot and cold spots. Also, don't just let frozen food stand when it's done cooking before eating, but in the middle of cooking as well. This gives the heat time to migrate deeper into the food and melt the ice so that it cooks more evenly.
cy33kkW
Microwaves can unfreeze frozen food so then you can cook it, you put it to low (about 200 watts) for as long as you need, can be 20 seconds can be more, and once it's not frozen anymore heat it up. Also, the cold spots will heat up because the food is on a turn table, that's why the microwave turns the food. I never had any cold spots in my food when heating it in the microwave, but I don't use the microwave to cook food, just to heat it if it's cold.
As someone who loves cooking, I do use microwaves, but also despised them for most applications.
You've given me a new appreciation for leveraging their strengths vs focusing on their weaknesses.
This has changed my view of microwaves. I’ll never look at it the same, I’ll only view it with admiration of how interesting and incredible this invention is
An important thing to remember when using a microwave, the center of your microwave is either a hot or a cold spot (can actually swap at different heights as well) so if you place something in the center of the turntable, it will be either really hot or uncooked. It is best to place stuff off center in the microwave to avoid this issue, though if the stuff is big it can be difficult, in those cases you might want to split up the cooking into a couple shorter periods where you adjust the position between them. Also if you are heating up a liquid, you should have no problems with using a microwave as the liquid will mix due to convection as it gets heated, eliminating nearly all downsides, making microwaves actually one of the most efficient methods of effectively heating liquids, though be careful with water as sometimes it can be overheated and explode after being taken out of the microwave.
I also use the edge of the turntable for this exact reason.
I love watching videos like this because I have more random facts in my head to share at random times
The microave is the most underated kitchen appliance. Everyone says itmakes food bad or assoceiates it with leftovers or pre-cooked food. The microave is just AMAZING, I am alawys discover new ways to use. My best tip, its to not expect the same result as other apliances, and just try and see what happens.
Plus, it is amazing at "pancake-fing" thing that do not wnat to join, or wil get distroid when fliping: make a low moisture oatmeal in the microave, but instead of puting in a bowl, use a plate, flip it half way trought cooking, andd you will end up with an oatmeal pancaka, that requiers only one plate. The same thing can be aplied to any thing that you cold imagine being a pancake.
Hi I am a microwave expert that has been microwaving since I was 7 years old...The best way to cook anything especially if it is frozen is to Select the power level button, then Select number 5 which will lower the power to 50% of the normal power.
Make sure to extend the cooking time to make up for the lack of power, I typically go by around 75% extra time to what I would normally cook a specific food at.
The reason why this works is the same as what the video shared, More time for the heat to get to the center of the food AND not destroying the food in the process by high heat.
The fact that ice doesn't melt in microwave 🧐 was new to me .very cool video and pretty cool channel top image (all those food and logo in the middle one ).
As someone who did academic research in Microwave technology, I find this video surprisingly well made and properly presented.
4:29 do not try it with apples unless you want plasma in your microwave but if you really do want apples only do it one at a time
It dries mushrooms out too!
Very useful first step in mushroom prep
Yes - eggplant too! Great tip.
Never in my life i would think id enjoy someone talking about a microwave for 8 minutes.
You can measure the speed of light with a microwave oven since the distance between the centres of the two high-temperature regions in 2:40 is the complete wavelength. Moreover, the long wavelength makes it challenging to heat food evenly. Having a halogen oven in your house can help you reheat or cook food quickly and evenly.
Getting the frequency is non trivial. Sometimes, it's in the fine print somewhere on the microwave, and sometimes not.
Edit: it seems most microwaves operate at 2.45 GHz
@@pierrecurie Just like wifi if I'm not mistaken lol. Way lower wattage though :D
@@derAtze Yes.
@@pierrecurie Yes, there are several reasons. 2.45GHz is part of the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band that can be used without a license while bellowing a certain power. The magnetron that operates at 2.45GHz is considered technologically mature. This makes it easy to manufacture and its size is small enough for home use. Albeit 433Mhz & 915Mhz would have been a better option for heating depth, the cost of redesigning and licensing them is significant, so choosing 2.45GHz was more practical.
explain how determining the frequency of light helps determine its speed?
The funny thing is, the concept for microwaves came about in WWII when an engineer was fixing up one of the radar facilities in Britain, only to find out it was on the whole time because the chocolate bar in his pocket melted entirely.
A question I've been having lately, is, why does cheese seem to taste beter when it melts? I always thought it was purely a texture thing but I noticed even when cheese cools back down, it still tastes better than before. Might be a dumb question, I don't know, but may be a good idea for a video!
Is it pre-shredded cheese? There's a starchy layer on those to keep them from sticking. It's why Celiac's individuals cannot eat pre-shredded cheese unless it is gluten free.
After it melts, that starchiness is browned and/or hidden in the cheese. Either way, it changes the taste.
I have noticed a taste difference as well. But I don't see it in whole cubes of cheese like I do in melted shredded cheese.
@@thecountrychemist2561 Well, I can't tell right now, I'll have to check it out.
Frozen fat doesn't taste like much, and a lot of the fats in cheese are completely solid (aka frozen) at room temp. Once you've melted it, it's possible to really taste everything that's there and not just the little bit of salt on the surface. I agree there's probably a cute video with animated fats waiting to be made about it.
@@TysonJensen fa(c)ts
I've found the opposite is true for butter, melted butter just doesn't taste as good as cold butter
I was pleasantly surprised how good this video is.
So many people have very little real knowledge of everyday things.
TY for making this video.
This is genuinely one of the best explanations of how microwaves work for cooking. It even beats some I’ve seen by physics channels. And thank you for acknowledging that they don’t *just* heat up water!
Why nobody explains the stand function of microwave. 99% of the times, you can heat any food evenly and make it stay hot for longer if you let the food stand in the microwave after the timer runs out. It works even if you set the timer for less than 2 minutes but let it stand for 5 minutes. You can't get this result even if you set the time for 5 minutes or more but open the door immediately. Spray or keep some water too along with food to get even better results.
As a good rule of thumb, just remember to do just the opposite of everything above if you want to make something crispy or dehydrated, like chips; but if not, then do exactly as above. It's worth it, and you'll actually start loving your microwave!
I like to set the power level low and increase the cook time. Gives food time to distribute the heat more evenly without being teased by food in front of me
Feels like a lot less waiting having something in the microwave for 5 minutes on low than 1 minute on high and 4 minutes of food sitting in front of me before it's safe to eat
Also fun fact, magnetrons don't have variable output. Lower power settings just cycle it on and off for varying lengths of time
Literally the best video I've seen on microwaves ovens, at least in relation to the interaction with food.
Love Demeter's cameo in the video!
Oh so that’s why it takes so long to defrost stuff in a microwave but only takes 10 seconds to heat up cold meat.
So know I know why pizza taste different when I put in on the microwave.
Even better than having a turntable is if your microwave has a stirrer: a device that looks and spins like a fan but the goal is to move the microwaves around instead of air, as one (or more) of the blades is metal. The net effect is you're spinning the cold spots around instead of your food, and it can spin waaay faster than a turntable! Sadly, they've essentially disappeared from consumer microwaves these days and are basically only used in commercial units.
That was informative and enjoyable.
By way of thanks, I watched the whole commercial promotion -- which is not my custom -- and I took it seriously. I'm not in the market right now, but I have some grandchildren, so I made notes. Crazy Aaron's seems like a sensible outfit.
Yay! It's the best when we're able to partner with brands we are personally really passionate about. Their stuff is seriously awesome (their new "liquid glass" putty is the current favorite in our house...)
This is certainly the best video about microwaves that i've ever seen.
Simple, right to the point and with a pretty accessible language.
This channel is fantastic!
Thanks for the good work you guys do.
I bought my first microwave in 1978 for $600. It had dials, not buttons. No turntable, but a temperature probe. And it was HUGE. I bought my first color TV at the same time. It was (of course) a cathode ray, 19" for $178. My first VCR in 1980 for $1,000 (the remote had a cord for pause/play) and my first VHS camcorder for $1,000. My first blank VHS tape was $65, and there were no video rental stores yet; you could only record broadcast tv. I bought all of these things at Shillito's (Macy's) and still retain the receipts.
Hot tip: when microwaving breaded things, put them on a paper towel. It gives the moisture somewhere to condense, and results in crispier food.
I do this with oily foods like Pizza, frozen taquitos, burritos too. The issue is that sometimes the paper towel sticks to the food, and most of the time you get the taste of the paper towel on your food (wet paper with a hint of chemical).
I still recommend this method, though. Worth using when preventing food sogginess is important.
You cover food in a paper towel to preserve texture, I cover food to avoid the _exploding pockets of gas that hurt like shit when they land on my skin_ while taking the plate out.
Exploding food is a thing due to pressure buildup of steam inside the food. Covering, whether to preserve crispiness or popping stuff, is a good idea.
That was fanTASTIC. I always, "knew" how they worked, but after about two minutes was new info. I NEVER knew you could use them to dry out veggies and fruits.
Omg THANK YOU for explainibg that microwaves dont just effecr water, its always misrepresented and as a science aspie it always bothwrs me
Oh damn spelling misteaks but hey at least I got attention from min earth
I'm dyslexic
some microwave ovens have wave stirrers which seem to help with the standing waves issue
I like using microwaves to heat up the inside of a food before turning to the air fryer to heat up the outside and crispify it. Speeds up the cooking process without too much sacrifice for some things.
Totally agree - I think it is a great tool for getting leftovers up to temp before using a different cooking method!
I've done that with frozen burritos. Nuke and then oven bake. Of course a MW is an oven.
Really? My microwave heats the outside not the middle 😅
So what's why some microwaves have the de-freeze option that turns it on and off at low power. It's just slowly trying to melt the ice without burning other parts. Always wondered why it's doing that rather than blasting at full power.
Did you know: the clock on a microwave uses more electricity than its primary purpose.
0:45 sees the magnetron input on right side, and animates the wavelengths coming in from the left.
0:14 I didn't know you had access to the big red button.
I microwaved some ice, pulled it out thinking it was still gonna be solid ice, got splashed with boiling hot water instead 😭
I love microwaves for the fast and easy convenience! I hate spending a lot of time cooking.
I even got so good at making use of a microwave, I would joke I was a "gourmet microwave chef" lol
Adding water to certain leftovers like spaghetti is def one of my fav tricks I use. Makes a HUUGE difference.
yes! it’s so underrated and underused as a cooking appliance and so many people don’t understand how powerful it can be for cooking certain things
This is now one of my favorite videos ever. I love seeing everyday items in a whole new light.
Thanks for the info about microwave oven basic principles. I hope you'll occasionally make more videos featuring microwave cooking tips. For instance, the effect of reducing the power and when to do so.
Personally, I'm not finicky about food texture. (It's all good.) Nor blandness, because it's easy to add spices. My main concerns are nutritional value, avoiding toxins & carcinogens & excessive calories, and minimizing labor.
Outstanding video and excellent narration. Your story line is engaging and interesting and your narration makes it fun. Well done.
Usually videos like this are about how microwaves are bad for you - I’m so glad it was just about the science of how it works!
Okay to be Franklin Delano Rosevelt with you, you can get ice to melt as once the air causes some to melt into water, water will get heated and melt the ice and the more the ice melts, the faster the process will be.
is- is that DEMETER FROM HADES GAME AT 2:04 I JUST SAW?????
You saw it too!!
I use that thing almost daily. Yet this teached me so many new things. Thanks for making it so easy to understand!
I use microwave to bake cake + airfryer to “crustify” the exterior: it is now my preferred method for a fast and weird cake when i have sweet cravings
What makes microwaves truly magical is learning to use the setting that allow you to change the power levels. This is really a time based on/off switch for the magnetron vs running it 50% power (on 50%, off 50%) but it allows food to be heated or cooked evenly, though it increases the time needed. Works by gently heating up the outside, but not too much, then stopping the magnetron to let that heat migrate to the center, heating up the outside, etc until you have uniform heat throughout. Bit of a learning curve but not terrible. Way better than the “food buttons” on the microwave that are supposed to be automatic.
2:14 "btw reality is 3D, more complicated and less cute than this"
Ah yes, a problem that every otaku is well familiar with.
cringe
The animations on this channel are amazing and so easily understood
5:13 *C A N N I B A L I S M*
What will really bake your cookie is the connection between how magnetron ovens (that's how we call them in Dutch) work and how soap and sauces work.
Fats don't jiggle in the the flipping field; fats are a-polar. What you drew there were fatty acids. Fats are fatty acids bound to a backbone of glycerol. Neutral, a-polar. That's why they don't mix well with water. Unless you add an emulsifier. And fatty acids are emulsifiers; the "head" easily donates a H+ and is negatively charged, but the long long "tail" is so long that a-polar oils and fats can mix to that side of the molecule.
When you make mayo, you surround the polar molecules in your splash vinaigre with emulsifier (traditionally egg yolk) and suspend them in the oil.
When you do your dishes, you surround the a-polar molecules of the fats and oils on your dishes with emulsifier (traditionally dish soap) and suspend them in the dishwater.
Same thing. That's why the merger of Margarine Unie (a margarine company) and the Lever Brothers (a soap company) was chemically not at all weird. Today they are Unilever, one of the giants in the food industry.
When you take an oil or fat and break away the glycerol (by stirring it in a base like lye) you get soap or nasty tasting emulsifier.
Potashes (why you guys call K, potassium and not Kalium), are basic too. So when you're out camping and don't want stir up the biome with a modern constructed detergent, you can rub your dishes with the ashes of your fire and turn some of the oils and fats into soap. It won't perform as well as a modern detergent but it wil work... 🤔 There's this other cool RUclipsr, MinuteEarth, this last nugget (and the history of phosphates that will come out when you pull this string in research) could be a nice collab video. 😘
And I was going to ask about my difficulties trying to melt butter.
fun fact: if you take our the turning plate, and put, say the thermal putty, in there, you can measure the distance between the cold spots. times that distance by 2 to get its wavelength, times this by the frequency labelled on the microwave specs and you can get an approximate value for the speed of light.
My favorite way to make scrambled eggs is in the microwave. It takes longer than doing it on the stove, but the consistency is always way more airy and fluffy than if I did it in a pan.
Bleghh
Eeww
4:50 love that you actually wrote in proper mandarin on the box
That’s why I bought a convection microwave by using both heating options at the same time I get great tasting food without that soggy rubbery food
Learning how the microwave works and how it cooks stuff honestly helped me maximize the use of it. I've dried about 3 apples in the microwave.
I've actually always wanted to know how these sometimes frustrating machines work so I thank you for this educational video, it was interesting
No idea why this is in my recommended, but the drawn style is pretty neat.
Can't believe Demeter is making my potatoes heat unevenly out of divine spite.
Least petty Greek god curse.
I've never tried this, but I heard you can use a microwave to make inside-out Baked Alaska. You mould the ice cream with a space in the middle, make sure it's frozen solid, then fill the space with meringue and cook the whole thing in a microwave oven. It cooks the meringue, but it doesn't heat the ice cream, (as you observed in the video.) Timing is very important, of course, since the meringue *will* melt the ice cream if it's not served quickly enough.
The dehydration technique is super clever. I'll have to try that next time I need to dehydrate food!
Nice job! You actually explained many things about microwaves that I feel like others don't touch on (not that I've seen many other explainers). The other cool thing about those standing waves is that they're 3-dimensional, which means they're likely to vary in the vertical direction as well. Also, your voice really reminds me of that automatic voice you hear in TikToks. Not an insult, just observing.
The disclaimer at 2:14 is the most 1 size fits all disclaimer I've ever read. Thank you for bringing this into my life.
Love the Hades styled Demeter!
Here's a cool microwave trick I discovered that not a lot people know about: suppose you're making a dish like pasta on the stovetop that has a large surface area and cools off very quickly. Sometimes it can be frustrating that by the time you finish eating it it's already cold. Here's how you fix that. A couple minutes before it finishes, take your plate or bowl, put some water in it, and put it in the microwave for 2 minutes. Using oven gloves, take it out, pour off the water, and then quickly dry it with a paper towel to avoid evaporative cooling. Your plate/bowl is now piping hot and ready to keep your fresh pasta nice and warm while you eat it!
My go-to way to heat food in to w micro is with the addition of a moist paper towel covering the food. Adds moisture and keeps the splatters in. 👍
That's it. I'm dehydrating apples with a machine that might kill me if I hit it with a hammer
Thank you for effectively explaining what I was trying to explain to people for years: you are not irradiating food by using a microwave. I can't believe how many folks around me believe that.
*Casually jiggles food molecules 4.9 billion times per second*