Aside from pre-frozen foods intended for microwave consumption, such as Hot Pockets, what foods or meals seem to retain the most quality after being refrigerated/frozen and subsequently microwaved, and which ones are the worst? Yes, we know nothing can ever reach 100% of it’s original flavor and texture after being refrigerated and nuked, so please give answers a rating on a scale of 1-99 equalling the percentage of perceived quality after microwaving as compared to when it was fresh.
I use my microwave to reheat anything I would on a stovetop (chili, soup, pasta sauce, etc.), plus many things I wouldn’t be able to otherwise (macaroni and cheese, risotto, etc.). All of these items taste just as good as they would with conventional heating. In my experience the foods that can’t be reheated in a microwave successfully are those that should be crisp: pizza, fish fingers, etc. These have to go into an oven or they’ll turns soggy.
Salmon works well in the microwave.
Courgettes etc can be “steamed” very well in a microwave.
IME, everthing that has a bone (chicken, pork chops) will get a nasty taste when microwaved. The same meats will nuke fine if they don’t have the bone still attached.
Sauces, soups and creams microwave the best, but you have to overdo it a little bit, to ensure that there are no cold areas (I never understood how liquids keep cold pockets so well).
All in all, we don’t nuke much at home. The summary is, if you can pour it into a small pot, you are better off nuking it. If you can place it on a skillet, then do so.
Don’t nuke bread - it goes very chewy and then goes hard and nasty!
Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society.
Potato products are in the negatives for me in the microwave. Fried potatoes and french fries are the worst!
Saucy things tend to reheat better for me, as long as you get the reheat temps right. (My microwave has a setting that will raise and lower the ‘temp’ three times, so I reheat in steps, from low to medium to high.) I’d put saucy things in the 90’s.
Veggies are in the high 70’s low 80’s.
However, if you wrap a stale bagel in a damp paper towel and nuke it about 20 seconds, it becomes nice and chewy.
French fries do not nuke well.
Hot dog buns that are stiff and cold from the fridge become much better after 10 seconds nukage.
Bread has a few seconds of warm up time and anything past that makes it tough. There are a lot of foods people say are crap in a microwave, that are not if you cook them right. Full is not the way to cook everything. Fries and hash browns will come out soggy if you use regular ones. Fries have to be those microwave ones to be hard. They still suck, but are harder. I won’t call them crisp, they’re hard from dehydration. Beef that has been BBQ on a grill tastes bad reheated by microwave too.
The food that tastes terrible after microwaving is a hamburger. There is always an after taste that I think is linked to the fat in the burger changing in a way frying doesn’t. You can stick a hamburger in a microwave maybe 20 seconds, and not ruin the taste. I can make a beef roast or ham in a microwave and it’s great tasting and browned when done. A good way to bring back stale chips is to heat them in the microwave, to drive out the water.
I don’t care for nuked chicken - it seems to get all rubbery on me. So I avoid it. For example, if I’m ordering chinese and I’m planning on leaving some for tomorrow’s lunch, I’ll either order veggie or beef. No chicken - it gets icky.
I think I like chili better after a nice cool / microwave cycle.
I have the best microwave evar! It is this one which has a heating element built into the top of the microwave. This allows you to reheat food with the microwave and then turn on the grill to add that crispiness that microwaves cannot. Pizza, fries, garlic bread all reheat well, and fish sticks can actually be thawed, cooked and then grilled to get that crispy outside that is needed. It also makes the fastest nachos I’ve ever had.
fresh shrimp can be nuked well. Of course, like any shrimp - cooking should be just enough, not too much.
While potato products might not do well in the microwave, I’ve got no complaints about whole potatos being “baked” in the microwave.
The heating element isn’t microwaving which is what we’re discussing. I have a microwave with the element, and found I didn’t need it to brown the food. You can do that without the element if the food has any fat in it.
Actually the damp paper towel trick works wonders with any food that tends to dry out in the microwave. I wrap pre-cooked meat in a damp paper towel to improve the moisture. I also will cover a bowl of pasta/rice/etc with one to help. I love that trick.
Shrimp, really?! :eek: I never would have even tried. Good to know.
and aye, aye for potatoes. Wrap them well and nuke away. Most people won’t know.
I’ve found that if I need a couple of tablespoons of sauteed chopped onion or garlic, I can nuke them in a little bowl with a dribble of oil or butter, and they do just fine. I give them about thirty seconds.
I nuke bacon, too. Put a couple of paper towels on a paper plate, lay a few slices of bacon on top, then cover them with one more paper towel. Nuke it one minute, then peel the bacon up and rearrange it, or it will achieve a molecular bond with the paper that you can’t undo. Then nuke it a minute or two more. Voila, perfect crisp bacon with no bacon grease mess to clean out of a pan.
There’s also those new Ziploc veggie steaming bags which I have just tried for the first time. They do a fair job of steaming fresh veg in a couple of minutes, and you don’t even need to add any water. The advantage is that no flavor from the veg is lost into water, and the disadvantage is that the texture isn’t quite the same as with real steaming or boiling. However, you have no pot to wash afterwards and I think the labor exchange makes it worth it.
Not food, but once I was cleaning my toothbrush and thought, “Gee - maybe if I zap it in the microwave, it will kill any bacteria.”
That was not a particularly good idea.
The bacteria may have been gone, but the toothbrush sort of melted and swirled around and came out looking like a miniature toilet brush.
So, in an effort to fight ignorance, count toothbrushes in a microwave as a “no”.
They key to successful reheating is to use the power button on your microwave. Don’t reheat things at full power, just as you wouldn’t reheat in your oven at 500 degrees or on your stovetop on high. Crank the power level down to 4 or 5 and heat for a little longer. Almost everything will taste about the same as it did fresh. Exceptions include potatoes which I don’t think taste right by any method of reheating.
You can cook from fresh in your microwave with a little know-how and the right equipment. I have a Tupperware cooking device made for the microwave that I can roast a chicken in and it takes only 15-20 minutes. The bird comes out crisp and juicy. And BROWN! Almost any veggie can be quick steamed in the microwave. And let’s not forget bacon, bacon, bacon!