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

*🏃 Is Your Microwave Running?*

Picture this, loyal Theorist: you’re sitting down on the couch ready to enjoy a showing of your favorite movie. You’re missing only one thing: a bag of popcorn. You go to the kitchen, grab a bag, and throw it in the microwave. But what next? Do you tap the “popcorn” button? Do you tap +30 seconds five times? Either way, you know you’re going to end up with a bunch of kernels to accidentally chomp into halfway through the movie. It’s a shame that NOBODY knows how a microwave really works. So today, we’re going to show you EXACTLY how to use that beautiful machine in your kitchen.
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*Credits:*
Writers: Santi Massa and Mike Keenan (The Pokémon Biologist)
Editors: Dom Sealion, Pedro Freitas, Tyler Mascola, and Shnaia "Naya" Llamera
Sound Designer: Yosi Berman
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*Timestamps:*
You’re Using the Microwave WRONG! (0:00)
How Do Microwaves Even Work? (2:20)
What’s Your Power Level? (5:35)
Should You Use the 30 Sec Button? (9:12)
Seriously, What Do the Buttons Do? (11:06)
The 🍿 Popcorn Test (13:31)
What This Means For You (15:58)
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#Microwave #MicrowaveHacks #PizzaRolls #Pizza #Popcorn #Totinos #FoodHack #FoodHacks #MicrowaveCooking #MicrowaveRecipes #LifeHacks #Theory #FoodTheory #Matpat

[FoodTheory]

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

[cpljimmyneutron]

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.

[fakecereal_]

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

[markvwood]

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

[PCENES]

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.

[jnonymous]

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]"_

[MrRhombus]

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

[BestLittleStudio]

At 9:50 You have the hot pocket sleeve in the "I'm eating it leave me alone" position.

You are suposed to center it over the hot pocket whicle cooking, then pull it out, let it cvool a bit, THEN fold up the bottom to hold it.

As for the lasagna, you also are supposed to open one corner of the plastic to allow steam to escape so it does not explode.

You need to follow the package directions my man.

[haydenhoes]

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

[kimberlywilliams]

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

[Ryu_D]

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.

[CCKaraoke]

I only ever use lower power settings on my microwave. The reason I do this is that the hotter parts of the food naturally spread their heat to the neighboring colder spots. I always end up with a more evenly cooked meal by allowing more time for the food to heat up slowly.

[LoVeRuty]

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

[karmawhitewolf]

I am so proud of you Sanji for uploading this video because now I can actually be able to show this video to my mother and since because it has captions my mother is deaf so this will actually greatly help her learn how to use the microwave better

[pchawkmin]

Tiniest little mosh pit has got to be my favorite line from this episode

[eric]

I use the baked potato function a lot. Works well if you poke it all over, rub it in a little oil, salt and pepper. The popcorn button never goes long enough. The butter soften works well. The butter melt function makes your butter explode.

[Tempestwolf]

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.

[HeyItsHarsh]

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.

[Pystro]

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.

[danielsantiagourtado]

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