This is going to be one of my dumber ones, I’m warning you right now. But my brain is fried and I already wrote it, so here goes.
I’ll set the scene: You’re heating up some tortilla soup from the day before. You hear mini explosions happening in the microwave as the soup heats up. It must be so hot its boiling! Quickly you remove the bowl and scream HOT HOT HOT. The bowl is so hot you have to use a pot holder. But the soup is still…cold.
What’s up with that?
It’s the most mundane of problems, and I LOVE looking into boring everyday problems. And since we’re still smack in the middle of soup season (my euphemism for “the cold months that suck”), this is a timely challenge.
How microwaves work:
“Of course I know how microwaves work!” you’re saying. But do you? Are you SURE?
I thought I did, until I Googled it, just to double check my knowledge. The AI gave me this:
If you’d asked me how microwaves work, I would have given a vague description like “it bounces microwaves around.”
Anyways, the important thing to know here is that the microwaves hit the molecules, and the molecules vibrate, which produces heat.
This is important because soup has more water molecules than solid food does. Which means it behaves differently when the microwaves hit the molecules.
Things get weird when you heat up water molecules
The water molecules in soup cause a few inconveniences for the microwaves trying to do their job:
Soup is uneven. When you heat up solid food, the molecules are trapped inside the food, heating up the food more evenly. With soup, you’ve got gloopy liquid mixed with solids and it all heats up differently. Some of the liquid gets to a boiling point while the rest of the bowl is still cold, and with nowhere to go, it explodes like a mini Old Faithful geyser in your microwave.
Water molecules have a higher heat capacity. It takes more energy to heat up water molecules, so it takes longer to microwave the soup. By the time you’ve gotten the soup warm enough, you’ve been blasting the bowl with too much heat.
Another possibility is that the bowl sucks. Literally, the bowl sucks up the microwaves too easily, so it gets flaming hot while the contents are still cold. If you are using ceramic bowls that you bought at Goodwill in 2016 that aren’t actually microwave-safe (me, I do this), that might be your problem.
So what to do when you need to reheat soup?
Use the stove. Save yourself the headache. If you must microwave, you’ll have to stir the soup every minute to help distribute the heat so you don’t get a bowlful of Yellowstone.
A few of my favorite soup recipes to get you started on your reheating adventure:
Go to the source:
Ditch the Microwave and Reheat Super Bowl Leftovers Like a Pro. Here's How (CNET)
Why Do Some Foods Explode in the Microwave? (Britannica)
Hop take: Beverage of the week
Water from a giant 40oz tumbler
A week without beer? Who am I? But that’s what happened, so I’m going to plug a product: For Christmas I got a Simple Modern tumbler (THANK YOU ALLISON if you’re reading this) which I like better than the Stanley because it’s got a more user-friendly design, and also because it’s not a Stanley. Yes, I’m still a teenager at heart who hates “being too conformist” and I avoid adopting brands that are overhyped.
That said, I’m not above participating in the big dumb cup trend (see SNL sketch) if it solves my tendency to drink more coffee than water.
In other news
Stingray drama. Charlotte the stingray got pregnant, which baffled aquarium staff because she hasn’t had a male stingray in her tank in eight years. There was speculation it could have been one of the sharks that shared the tank with Charlotte, but experts shut that down. Charlotte probs got pregnant by herself (the scientific term being parthenogenesis). This is more exciting than this season of The Bachelor.
An explainer on how Uber finds nearby drivers. While I’m over here talking about microwaves and soup, other writers are explaining some incredibly complex stuff. I’ve always been curious about the inner workings of the Uber app — I bash Uber a lot but it’s amazing engineering — and this Substack did a great job breaking it down.
Words of wisdom
If you’re trying a new soup recipe this week, remember:
"Anyone can cook, but only the fearless can be great."
– Ratatouille (Chef Gusteau)
See you in the next Drop-In!
Cheers,
Alex