Never Find Cold Spots In Your Microwaved Food Again With This One Little Trick

Microwaves have been a game-changer ever since they first hit the home-use market in 1967. With them, people can enjoy hot meals without having to fuss around with ovens or wait long cook times. Just heat and eat. And yet, for as long as they've been around, microwaves have had a fatal flaw: they just can't seem to heat food evenly. Cold pockets are sadly familiar friends to microwave warriors everywhere.

Luckily, there are more than a few ways to get around a microwave's tendency for uneven heating. One great hack when reheating leftover cooked rice or pasta in a microwave is to spread out your food in a thin, ring-shaped layer on the plate, with a large gap in the middle. Microwaves work by hitting food with a form of electromagnetic radiation called microwaves (naturally) from a part called a magnetron. The microwaves bounce around in the metal box inside the appliance and heat up your food by exciting the water within. 

Those waves hit the outside edges more frequently than the center. This is both part of the reason why microwaves don't always heat food evenly and the key to making sure they do via the ring trick. Spreading food around also helps increase its surface area. Because microwaves heat food from the outside in and the heat doesn't penetrate very far below your meal's surface, increased surface area means that more of the food gets heated. Essentially, there's not as much "inside" that can stay cold.

Of course, not every microwaved food can be spread like rice can. Pizza, steak, and chicken are just a few examples of food that can't, or shouldn't, be spread. But that doesn't mean you have to suffer from cold spots. There are microwave hacks for almost any food. For example, since the outside edge is heated more than the inside, putting your plate off-center as opposed to right in the middle will also heat your food more evenly.

One of the best ways to ensure your leftovers heat evenly in the microwave starts before they go in at all. A little moisture goes a long way when it comes to microwaves, so adding some water to the food when you store it in the fridge can help a lot when it comes time to reheat it. You can also cover the food with a damp paper towel or some wax paper when you put it in the microwave to help retain moisture, though keep in mind that microwaving paper towels should only be done for short periods. Finally, you can put a glass of water in the microwave with your food to increase humidity and help with even heating. With certain foods, you can also cut them up to increase the surface area and help them heat more evenly. This is a great option for leftover proteins like chicken, though we maintain that a microwave isn't the best way to reheat steak.