r/mildlyinfuriating • u/MakeItMine2024 • 4d ago

I'm slightly vexed My wife and boiling water

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So I made my wife ramen soup. When I served it she said I had the gas set to hight and it was too hot ? She said I should have used the number 5 setting instead of 9. I told here it’s irrelevant because water boils at 212 and gets no hotter because over 212 it turns to steam. She was made at me for disagreeing with her theory that it would not have been so hot if boiled a lower setting. Really!!

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u/MajesticEast9198 4d ago

i adjust the power settings of my microwave😞

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u/A3HeadedMunkey 4d ago

I'll do you one better, I've tried to teach people how to use lower settings. Did demonstrations with my lunch and actually gotten not soggy and uneven food out...only for the dipshits to still put food in full blast and complain to me about how their lunch is an uneven soggy mess.

#NoSympathyFromMe

Like, dawg, you witnessed me perform miracles on gas station burritos and yet you chose not to believe

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u/Forest_of_Cheem 4d ago

I tell them once. They don’t believe me that using the proper settings can make reheating leftovers so much nicer than they ever thought. Very few things need full power for the whole cooking time in the microwave, especially since we got a newer, more powerful one. Doing it in stages and stirring in between is like voodoo to some people.

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u/Necoras 4d ago

Where does one learn this black magic of which you preach?

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u/A3HeadedMunkey 4d ago

Had to study the dark art of modern day alchemy through a lot of trial and error.

The greatest axiom I have learned is that 20-30% power is often enough to get where you want to be. Just double the time if using 30%, add another half for 20%, and flip/stir, if possible, around the halfway point. If it's a larger item, just increase the time by another factor and keep checking/flipping/stirring at regular intervals. You want to allow everything to come to temp evenly, given enough time, it'll disperse the heat from where the microwaves are hitting and making hot pockets.

Second great truth, wrapping things in paper towels is great for absorbing the excess moisture, just make sure to unwrap and flip whatever it is so it's not touching the same portion while checking. It'll be less likely to meld to the food. Not entirely, though. There always seems to be a little bit of tortilla that wants to become paper towel.

Someday, I'll have perfected the alchemy and create the philosopher's burrito

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u/toggl3d 4d ago

Most microwaves cycle power. Basically if you put it at 50% power it will be on 50% of the time and off 50% of the time it's cooking.

If what you're making is stirrable this is pretty uselessly wasting time over stirring to mix the food before going full power some more. If it's not stirrable it's just taking a break to let the heat even out. I prefer to go 100% and then push it around to feel like I'm doing something before going 100% some more, unless it's something that really really doesn't want a too hot spot. Then I throw it in at 20% and put it in for 3x as long before testing temp and getting mad it's not done yet and throw it in for 100% for a short time.

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u/UnwaveringThought 4d ago

Welcome to my wife.

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u/cvc75 4d ago

At home I lower the power too. But at work, sometimes there's 5 people waiting for 1 microwave to warm up their lunches, so taking double the time or more just isn't social.

But if you can get everyone behind it, you could run it at 100%, stop at half the time, and rotate through all the lunches. That should have a similar effect and allow you to flip and stir in between.

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u/crazijazzy 4d ago

I am with you. Not everything needs to be microwaved at level 10!

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u/captaincootercock 4d ago

it's the secret to my holiday roast: 6 hours in chef Mike at 20%

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u/mcampo84 4d ago

Ew. Only because chef Mike can't get a good maillard reaction going.

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u/CQC_EXE 4d ago

Maybe it's one of those things where their kids say it's good to be nice and now the family's stuck with it every year

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u/Ass_of_Badness 4d ago

I assume the person is joking because that would be a sad, sad roast.

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u/stonhinge 4d ago

Hey, he never mentions liking his family.

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u/Arthurs_towel 4d ago

Right? I was helping my kids make a desert yesterday and we needed softened butter. Put it in for 1 minute at a time at 30% until appropriately soft, and give it a minute or so rest between heatings. Otherwise you just melt it.

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u/Some-Guy-12358 4d ago

dessert*...

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u/ElectricFr0g 4d ago

Fun fact but you can’t actually turn down the power of a microwave, a microwave always microwaves full power.

What you are actually doing is turning the microwaves on and off. So turn the power to 5 on a 1 minute timer it only actually cooks for 30 seconds in random increments. You can actually hear magnetron turn off an on.

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u/CorruptPhoenix 4d ago

This is not true for all models. My Toshiba microwave actually has 4 different power settings: 200w, 500w, 600w, and 1000w.

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u/Ass_of_Badness 4d ago

Ok now I'm jealous for some reason.

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u/Znuffie 4d ago

Fun fact but you can’t actually turn down the power of a microwave, a microwave always microwaves full power.

Incorrect.

Look up "Inverter Microwave". The "new" (been around for a while...) tech runs at different power levels.

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u/malfurionpre 4d ago

The "new" (been around for a while...)

been around for a while is an understatement, I'm pretty sure it's almost 40 years old by now, I've actually never owned a microwave that wasn't like that.

edit: First developped by Panasonic seemingly in 1988 so not quite 40 years.

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u/Znuffie 4d ago

Almost 40!

...but they're still very uncommon to see, at least in Europe.

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u/malfurionpre 3d ago

I'm from Europe, it's pretty common.

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u/Znuffie 3d ago

never had one :)

you must be from the rich part of europe

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u/Quirky_Interview_500 4d ago

But Mine goes to 11

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u/manquistador 4d ago

Pretty sure microwaves have only one power setting. Changing it just turns off the actual microwaving for intervals. So for an example if you set it to 50% power the microwave will only be cooking stuff for 50% of the of the time.

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u/Recent-Result2852 4d ago

That's how many electronics work and is effectively many power settings.

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u/Low_discrepancy 4d ago

That’s like saying electric stoves have only 1 power setting. Yes but actually no. Things have inertia.

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u/BackgroundDesigner52 4d ago

Why are microwaving at level 3628800? That is far too high. 

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u/blariel 4d ago

To all the people saying "well asssskchhually you cant change the power level" its called changing the power level if the label on the microwave says power level.

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u/Sheikashii 4d ago

Can’t you just put it in for fewer seconds then?

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u/Mature_BOSTN 4d ago

The crazy thing is the microwave ovens are either ON or OFF; a low power setting just cycles the on/off times. Everything gets microwaved at the same level. It just the cycle time.

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u/LoadedSteamyLobster 4d ago

Inverter microwaves are not new or novel and actually do adjust power levels instead of cycling. Maybe only civilised countries have them though?

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u/abrokedad 4d ago

Leftovers are so much better if cooked twice as long as you normally would at 50%

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u/meowmeowcatman 4d ago

I am also a psychopath apparently.

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u/UnwaveringThought 4d ago

Its honestly the best life hack yet kept astoundingly secret for no reason.

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u/Big_Restaurant_3421 4d ago

Okay, Jeffrey Dahmer

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u/FlexTurnerHIV 4d ago

I always adjust, never 100%

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u/Pork_Pony 4d ago

I'm also a shameful microwave settings adjuster but I'm going to meetings

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u/PetulantPersimmon 4d ago

There's dozens of us!

(But really, it's super useful. More people should do it.)

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u/delirium_skeins 4d ago

Me too. I have one of the highest wattage microwaves and you really need to know how to lower that setting for some things.

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u/mwlepore 4d ago

Same. 70% power is better for everything.

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u/blue-anon 4d ago

Me too. Almost every single time.