How do I use a microwave properly?

A microwave excites water molecules directly, which is why it heats fast and why it heats unevenly. Almost every microwave complaint — rubbery, dried out, cold in the middle — is a consequence of that, and the fixes are the same each time.

Safety

Step by step

1. Use lower power for anything delicate.Full power is right for boiling water and reheating a plate of dinner. For melting chocolate, softening butter, cooking fish, custard or anything with egg, use 30 to 50% and give it longer.
2. Stir or turn halfway through.Microwaves have hot and cold zones, and a turntable only partly compensates. Stirring redistributes the heat and is the single most effective habit.
3. Always leave a standing time.One to three minutes after it stops. Heat continues to conduct from hot spots into cold ones, and food that seemed unevenly heated is often fine after standing.
4. Arrange food in a ring.The centre of a plate heats last. Push food outwards into a ring with a gap in the middle and it heats far more evenly.
5. Cover it.A plate, a lid, or a piece of damp kitchen paper. It traps steam so food heats through rather than drying, and it keeps the microwave clean.
6. Add a splash of liquid to reheat.A tablespoon of water or stock over rice, pasta or a curry. It generates steam and stops the surface drying and going leathery.
7. Reheat to steaming hot throughout.UK guidance is 70°C for two minutes or piping hot right through. Cold spots in reheated food are a genuine safety risk, particularly with rice, poultry and anything with sauce.
8. Know what must not go in.Metal and most foil, anything sealed, eggs in the shell, whole unpierced potatoes or tomatoes, grapes, and plastic not marked microwave-safe. Takeaway tubs are often not safe at high temperatures.
9. Never superheat plain water.Water heated alone in a smooth mug can exceed boiling point without bubbling, then erupt violently when disturbed. Put a wooden stirrer or a teaspoon in with it.
10. Use it for what it is genuinely best at.Steaming vegetables, softening butter, cooking rice, melting chocolate gently, reheating leftovers, cooking a jacket potato quickly. It is a real cooking tool, not only a reheater.

Tips

• Ring arrangement, stir halfway, stand for two minutes. Those three habits solve most microwave complaints.
• Lower power and longer time is almost always better for anything with egg, dairy or chocolate in it.
• Put a wooden spoon in a mug of water so it cannot superheat.

Common mistakes

• Reheating on full power and serving immediately — The outside is scalding and the centre is cool, which is unpleasant and, for rice or chicken, a genuine safety risk. Lower power with a standing time gives an even result.
• Microwaving in a sealed container — Steam has nowhere to go and pressure builds until the lid blows off, throwing hot food out. Vent the lid or leave it resting rather than clipped down.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask