If your food is unevenly heated it's probably because you need to adjust the cook time and power settings. Heating it longer at a lower power setting will let the heat spread more evenly.
Alternatively, check your microwave's wattage. I always have to adjust microwave instructions to be about 10% longer because my apartment's microwave is weaker than companies assume the standard microwave is.
✨ May better heated microwave food await you ✨
Yeah, once I started playing with power level settings, it was like night and day with cooking in the microwave.
tl;dr: skill issue
Except the food has localized concentrations of oil, fat or water or differences on overall density.
That's why you lower the power. Leave enough time for entropy to distribute the heat before dumping more energy into the food. The more heterogenous the food is, the more you need to lower the power (down to maybe even 200-400 W for mixed leftovers). And make sure all your foodstuffs are touching each other to allow heat to homogenize.
"How about I just heat the plate instead dipshit?"
But why's it gotta be hotter than the runaway nuclear reaction at Chernobyl?
My plates always stay cold lol
In the kitchen it hums with delight,
A mischievous microwave, quite a sight.
With a twist of its dial, a dance begins,
Uneven warmth, where chaos wins.
With a flicker and a sarcastic hum,
Microwave, oh marvel, where chaos is spun.
A promise of warmth, a comedic jest,
In your reheating quest, you give us the rest.
Wavelengths oh do cancel when a crest and a trough
Do meet one another and, energy, not enough
Yet center the plate, or a bowl, it’s your choice
So the food spins round the high points and molecules, excited, rejoice
magical energy, technological wonder,
Could my reheating choice perhaps be a blunder?
My mind races, my feelings are mixed;
Lasagna like magma with ice patches betwixt.
I'll bet 99% of the people who bitch bout this only use HI power .
I just started doubling time and using half power. It works sooo much better!
I can take a McDonalds cheeseburger thats been in the fridge for three days and nuke it to like it was just handed over the counter fresh by using 20-30% power for 4 minutes
This is because all microwaves have terrible UI/UX. If you are supposed to use less than 100% then why do I have to hit 9 buttons every time I want to use less than 100% power? And only 1 button to use 100% power for a variety of different settings.
Why is it not you hit Cook, then enter Power, then enter time? Like every single other stove in existence
I usually just use high power. I should try this sometime, although I don't tend to have issues with stuff having cold spots. Something I think that helps is stirring stuff half way through and letting it sit for a min after it's done.
Stirring definitely helps. The exact setting to use will vary depending on the microwave, what is being heated, and how much of it there is, but my usual go-to for a starting point on a full, regular-sized bowl or plate of food is: 3 minutes at 40%, remove and stir or flip as appropriate, then another 2-3 minutes at 30-40% depending on how hot it was. This approach will end up heating most things evenly without drying them out or burning anything.
Some things can be more sensitive, so if I'm ever unsure about what would be safe, I'll start at 30% for 1 minute just to get a baseline for context. Below 30% is usually only useful for frozen things. Soups usually require several stirs - you don't want to let it sit still for too long, or use too high a setting, or it can explode.
Among the other suggestions people have made in this thread, I'd like to add that just covering something and allowing the food to steam-heat makes a big difference. For instance I will usually poke a well in the middle of leftovers, put a tiny bit of water in (especially with rice, which dries out) and cover it with a plate. The water boils and heats it much better.
Great suggestion.
On a side note look into eating left over rice.
PROTIP: Whenever possible, shape/place the food you're heating like a donut. ( O )
Microwaves need to penetrate the food; if it's a big lump, it's hard to reach the stuff in the middle. By using a "donut" shape, you are creating more surface area, and spreading out the "middle" so it's easier for microwaves to reach all the parts of the food equally
Microwave ovens were a tech ahead of their time. It's crazy how incredibly little these have evolved though decade after decade.
I don’t normally stop for “cute” but this one got me. It’s super cute.
Some have sensors that will really help heat food evenly and will adjust times and power levels depending on what you're doing. Most are just default cook times, but if you haven't tried it out, it's worth it.
I watched a video the other day discussing the sensors in some Microwaves for popping popcorn. Most lower end units don't have these sensors but the ones that do, can actually make pretty good popcorn.
People who have inverter microwaves, do they actually heat food more evenly or is it just marketing buzz?
dunno what an inverting thing is but I suspect uneven heating is due to different food's physics properties so uhm...
We have a Panasonic inverting one that has a flat bed (no turn table) and it doesn't heat evenly...
Don't all microwave ovens have an inverter? Like, isn't that the thing that produces the photons?
No, that's the magnetron. Normal microwave magnetrons have 2 power settings, on and off, and reducing the microwave's power just means switching the magnetron on and off at different intervals.
An inverter just allows to keep the magnetron running at a lower power. Whether that has a better effect than just on/off-switching the magnetron I do not know, but it's probably more energy efficient over long usage periods.
Ahhh thank you, I'm getting my words mixed up.
I would imagine having an inverter would allow you to avoid situations where individual parts heat too quickly during your heat cycle, but the advantage probably isn't that big. Afterall, you could just heat it at a slightly lower power to stop whatever overheating effect you're troubled with.
Don't inverter microwaves solve this problem?
I thought it was the metal fan in front of the magnetron that scattered and randomized the microwaves so there aren't any hotspots.
Inverter microwaves allow you to change the power level without duty cycling
@MicroWave@lemmy.world, care to comment on your creative process?
Hah! Just like Forrest Gump and his box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.
Spinny plate and letting it sit afterwards
It's an effect of how they work which is inherently uneven saved depends largely on what it is cooking or rather it's water content.
Yes a wave has peaks and valleys
Rotating reduces this short coming
And waiting allows the heat to spread
And placing the food at the edge of the plate instead of the center.
Thawing the pizza? of course that one edge has to be half done while we're at it!
lmao!