Does microwaved food reach room temperature faster than food cooked on the stovetop? If so, why? Does the same hold true for microwaved liquids? (eg. coffee)
None of my searches were getting me anywhere…
Thanks!
HJ
I wouldn’t think so. Is there any particular reason why you think it would make a difference?
I’ve noticed this to the extent that it can’t be my imagination. I cook with both the stovetop and the microwave, and both have their advantages, but it seems to me that the stovetop foods hold heat longer.
I have some friends in the restaurant biz who think there’s no difference, and I know some folks with food science degrees who think there might be a difference, but no real data yet.
Any physicists want to weigh in? I’ve gotta cook a Christmas dinner soon!
Some foods hold heat better. Unless you were cooking the same thing in both the microwave and on the stovetop, it’d be hard to get an accurate and valid comparison of cooling times.
I take a WAG that what you are noticing is uneven heating.
Put something on the stovetop, stir it until it’s boiling, and you’ve heated the whole thing to boiling point.
If you put it in the microwave, some parts can reach boiling point while other parts are colder. The whole thing might only have an average temperature of 50C rather than 100C.
When you take it out of the microwave, the whole thing gets back to room temperature quicker because it wasn’t as hot to start with.
While I took off into a different wording, on preview I see that ** Desmostylus** has said what I would offer. Conventional cooking/heating is relatively uniform, while a microwave oven can be much more focussed (or otherwise). I’ve nuked a beef stew and had a scalding carrot nestled up next to a chilly potato (sounds like a singles bar, eh?).
Microwaves ovens are very good at heating food unevenly. Where in one spot you might see gravy boiling madly, mere inches away the bulk of the food is still frozen. When you pull a microwaved item from the oven, these temperature differences begin to even out. The heat travels by conduction from the hot bits to the cooler portions of the food. That cooling effect usually happens pretty fast by comparison to the rate at which a food loses heat to the air. So your observation that some microwaved foods seem to cool more quickly is correct. However, it’s not because the nuked stuff loses heat to the air quicker, it’s because it wasn’t all as hot as you thought it was when you took it out of the oven.
I agree, it’s just uneven heating. It applies to liquids too - a kettle on the stove is heated from the bottom, and the liquid is stirred by convection. A microwave heats from the side and top, so there can be some cold liquid left at the bottom even when the top of the liquid is hot. When you stir it it immediately “cools down.”
Perhaps there’s also different expectations. People expect microwaves to be fast, but gas stoves actually generate far more heat than microwaves.
Thanks scr4 and Squink!
Uneven heating, 'eh? Makes a lot of sense. Even though I’ve got one of those rotating platform microwaves, I’m gonna try the “nuke - stir - renuke” plan for the holidays.
By the way, in restaurants where they say "Be careful, the plates are hot," I understand that that usually means "We microwaved your food on this plate." I suppose a quick stir of the entree will help keep the whole thing warmer longer.
Thanks for the insights!
HJI have another potential. Many foods that are “dry” have a fair amount of water in them. Think french fries. A french fry heated in the microwave to 200 degrees (for example) would still be moist on the outside, while a french fry cooked to 200 degrees in the oven would have a dry exterior. The moist fry would cool faster because of evaporation.
Another thing is that the plate/bowl/container stays cool in the microwave, so it acts as a pretty efficient heat SINK once the food is hot. On the other hand, an oven or rangetop would heat the food and the vessel too; the whole package would stay hot longer.