Grapes do very poorly in the microwave. I was cooking some Jello and wanted to put some cooked grapes and grape halves in it (I had some largish grapes). I sorted the grapes, slicing the larger ones in two, or almost in two in some cases, and placed a single layer on a plate in the microwave. I punched in 1:30 and pressed Start.
SWEET SPIRITS OF NITRE! The grapes came to life and the microwave was filled with angry yellow flames erupting from each grape collision. Apparently some bad EM mojo. Further study revealed that the almost divided grapes produced the most dramatic effect.
I’m positive that such an experiment, while entertaining to children and ususpecting house guests is actually quite dangerous and like deleterous to ones microwave.
After several exciting experiments with flames coming out of the air vents of my microwave I have learnt to follow cooking instructions VERY carefully.
Of course that doesn’t help when your baking a potato and read “heat on high for 1 minute” as “heat on high for 10 minutes”.
Now I have a gas stove and that is almost as much fun with the flames.
I’ve found pet mince doesn’t heat real good in the microwave either. And all the instructions on the baby formula tins say not to heat baby’s bottles in the microwave due to uneven heat distribution - that is more of a child safety thing than anything to do with taste or eating though.
Regular bacon microwaves great! Take a dinner plate, lay paper towels on it (2 sheets thick), lay 5 or 6 strips of bacon next to each other on the towels, and nuke them for 5 minutes. They come out great. They’re nice and crispy not limp and nasty. I think they’re better than bacon done the old way.
nebco9, I’m dissapointed :(. I took your advice and nuked a cup of cold water for 7 minutes, sat it on the floor (in anticipation of a big mess), dropped in your heaping teaspoon of instant coffee (it’s the only kind we have), and expected fireworks… or at least a little action.
End result - a slightly more audible “fitz”, then barely enough foam 1/4" deep to cover the surface when I stirred it up.
I am now even more confident than before that it does depend on your microwave and the smoothness of the cup, as I have new found proof.
(the water was hot enough that an inch had evaporated out by the time it was done nuking)
Did you read the link provided by bibliophahe above? Check Cecil’s StraightDope Coloumn that he listed there, and I"ve repeated here. The last paragraph describes my experience perfectly, and we all KNOW HE IS THE MASTER. davidm:
I’ve always put a paper towel on top of the bacon too so it doesn’t splatter all over the oven. I agree it comes out great.
Yes, I have read that article and numerous others on super-heated water, and they all say what I’ve been repeating here:
You’ll need a very smooth cup, and you’ll have to get the water very hot before you sprinkle in your stuff to get the water to start fizzing.
Like I said in post #1, unless you have relatively new or seldom used cups, you most likely won’t find anything in the cupboard smooth enough. My first experiment with my smoothest cup and a few minutes in the nuker confirmed that.
Then after post #2, I thought maybe my nuker was not so powerful and didn’t get up over 100C, so I used 7 minutes to get the water very hot and added more surface area the second time. Same results, and stated again in post #3 that the cup has to be smoother than mine to get this effect.
So, if you have smooth (that’s the 3rd time I mentioned it in a post :D) cups, be careful. If you’re using the same coffee and tea stained el-cheapo cups today that you used as a kid, they’ll have enough nucleation sites on the rough sides to negate the extra ones you add with instant coffee/sweet&low/sand, and you’ll be disappointed if you try to make super-heated water - no matter how long you heat it. Enough now on water - I don’t think it counts as a microwaveable food anyways.
lucky for you I wasn’t drinking anything when I read that.