What do you mean, never? Do you never heat water, coffee, tea, …? Or just larger quantities where more power is no problem even for longer durations? This is not a fundamental thing, the optimum is different not just based on type, amount and distribution of food, additionally things like time constraints or cleaning matter.
Comment on Which one are you?
CidVicious@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
Never over 50% power. I’m always shocked by how many people don’t know how to use a microwave. I usually worked a long time on my food, I don’t want to ruin it through lazy reheating.
Eheran@lemmy.world 4 days ago
CidVicious@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
Never for reheating leftovers, anyway, which is 99% of what I use a microwave for. I have a kettle for other stuff. Overly high heat is gonna turn your proteins into rubber and exaggerate the “flaming hot on the outside, still cold in the middle” effect. There’s also lots of other stuff like arranging things to avoid dead spots, making use of coverings to trap steam, not throwing your vegetables that will take a minute to warm up in at the beginning with the big hunk of pasta that’s gonna need several minutes to heat through, etc.
But yeah if you’re reheating your food on >50% power you are almost definitely making it turn out worse than it would be on lower power.
Eheran@lemmy.world 3 days ago
How does heat turn things into rubber? The meat I reheat was already cooked? Or am I always too gentle to experience that? I usually do not heat up to boiling hot since I want to eat it and not have to let it cool down first.
Again, your generalization does not make sense. 50 % of a 1000 Watts microwave is different to one with 600 Watts. Heating up a bit of leftover is different to something for multiple persons. Etc. etc.
Honytawk@lemmy.zip 3 days ago
The difference in heating is negligible, but the time saved sure isn’t. Always at 100%
menemen@lemmy.world 3 days ago
That is why I do most reheating on the stove, in the oven or on the contact grill (depends on what it is).
CidVicious@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
Obviously not always an option to use an oven/stove if you are e.g. bringing a packed lunch into a typical office. It’s certainly a better option for some things (you will never get “crispy” from a microwave, period) but microwave still produces acceptable results for many things, particularly if you are willing to put some thought and care into how you use it.
Venator@lemmy.nz 3 days ago
Only time I use the power level selector is for poached eggs. If I’m reheating something where I actually care about how it turns out I’ll usually use the oven 😂
RisingSwell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 days ago
Full 900w every time, because that’s what the package asks for. Except when it asks for 1000w.