My wife and I were having fast and easy Lean Cuisine dinners last night. I was in the kitchen when her entree finished cooking, and offered to bring it out to the living room for her. She declined, because it had to stand for a few minutes in the microwave.
Sure enough, that was specified on the Lean Cuisine box: “Let stand in microwave 2-3 minutes.”
I don’t think it matters where you let your microwaved meal stand. (I would’ve attempted to debate the point, but I wasn’t waiting for the microwave myself, so it didn’t matter.)
She believes that you let it stand in the microwave because it’s warmer in there, since the food has heated it up, and that warmth is necessary to complete the cooking process.
I think that’s . . . um . . . far-fetched.
My revised theory: you let frozen entrees stand, specifically in the microwave, so that you’re less likely to burn yourself and pitch a lawsuit at the manufacturer. So I could’ve taken the entree out of the microwave with a hot pad and let it stand on the table for a few minutes with no effect on the cooking process.
The package, of course, doesn’t give reasons, just directions.
So: is it important to let your reheated frozen entree stand? Must you let it stand in the microwave? Why?
I didn’t know people actually followed the directions to a “T” like that. I just microwave it until it’s warm and then I eat it. I think the directions are merely a guideline and whenever it’s warm enough for you to eat, then eat.
It’s important to let it stand to complete the cooking process, since microwaves heat penetrate only the outer part of the food. (Even after cooking in a conventional oven, you do the same thing with roasts and turkeys, cooks call it “resting”.)
Why inside? I’d be inclined to agree with you–safer to leave it in since it’s so hot. Yeah, it’s marginally warmer inside but I can’t believe it makes a significant difference. The air inside after cooking is not that warm, and certainly cooler than the food since it got its heat from the food in the first place.
IANAGC (Gourmet Chef), but I have done more than my fair share of cooking. No, you’re right for the most part - you could pull it out of the microwave and let it stand without adverse affects - but why would you want to? It probably needs to stand anyway for a couple of reasons 1) to let it finish cooking (thermal lag) or 2) to allow some of the foods time to “set up” so it won’t run all over the place, so might as well save some effort, and just let it sit in the nuker - letting stand in a cooler place will make it cool off quicker, especially given the portion of food that’s in those microwave meals
Sometimes, however (and this most assuredly depends on what’s actually being cooked), it’s better to let a meal stand in the oven for culinary reasons (whether convection or microwave or toaster, etc) - shaking or moving some foods before they completely set up may cause them to turn out bad, or subjecting some dishes to the thermal shock of going straight from a hot environment (ie convection or microwave oven) to an environment where the temperature may be 100-300 degrees cooler it’s taste/texture/etc can be negatively affect the item being cooked.
But, for your run-of-the-mill $1.00 tv dinner, it really doesn’t matter where you let it stand
If I were waiting to microwave my dinner, I could start it 2-3 minutes sooner if I took the first dinner out of the microwave and let it stand on the counter.
MHO? I think the microwave is more insulated than the open air in my kitchen counter. So whatever heat builds up in your frozen block o’ food-like product, stays in your frozen block o’ food-like product… and doesn’t dissipate throughout the kitchen, leaving my frozen block o’ food-like product frozen in the center and bubbly warm on the edges. YMMV.
With chilled food, you should never reheat to ‘just right’ by any method, especially a microwave because the outside of the item may feel ‘just right’, but there may be hidden cold spots.
You should heat until piping hot throughout, then leave to stand so that the temperatures can equalise.
The reason is that simply warming the food does not destroy any pathogenic bacteria that may have been multiplying in the food item in the time since it was first cooked and cooled.
The reason that you should let it stand in the microwave rather than removing it to stand on the counter or elsewhere is that if you have properly heated the food, it will be emitting live steam and could be quite dangerous to handle.
