• BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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    10 hours ago

    Every microwave I’ve ever had has lots of buttons for all sorts of things, but I have no idea what they do. All I’ve ever done is put stuff in and run it at full blast.

    • Random Dent@lemmy.ml
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      7 hours ago

      I don’t even know what blast my microwave is at. I just put stuff in it, run for 45 seconds, if it’s not hot when it comes out = another 45 seconds. Repeat until food

    • vinyl@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      My friend usually cooked stuff in the microwave at lower power with longer times and had better results but I just dont care enough

      • Honytawk@feddit.nl
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        3 hours ago

        You could just not put the food in the middle of the turntable and you would get equally good results.

      • hereiamagain@sh.itjust.works
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        9 hours ago

        I got a new fancy inverter microwave, and it’s an absolute game changer, for reheating.

        Running a traditional microwave, lower power modes are literally just lower duty cycles. Very coarse, too.

        30% power is something like “turn on high power for 3 seconds, turn off power for 7 seconds, repeat”

        Which means your good gets blasted at 1200w for 3 seconds, and then is given time to rest for 7 seconds, before starting over again.

        This is bad for things like fats and oils in food, which tends to heat up REALLY fast, and start splattering/burning the parts of the food they’re in.

        It works but could be better, smoother.

        Enter the inverter microwave. It can adjust the actual power output of the magnetron itself. So when you tell it 30% power, it will run the whole 10 seconds without cycling on and off, but it’s literally only putting out 30% of the normal full power.

        This is much more gentle on delicate foods.

        Caveat, at powers below 30% it starts to duty cycle again, I imagine because the magnetron can only operate so low before it can’t run normally.

        But still, pulsing a 30% powered magnetron on and off is a lot more gentle than a 100% powered one.

        This has made reheating leftovers much better.

        Instead of blasting it at full power, then stirring/mixing the food, and blasting it again.

        I just set it at 10 or 20%, take a quick shower, and come out to perfectly evenly reheated food. Takes 10 or 20 minutes instead of 5, but, way less work, and much better results. Win win.

    • Randelung@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      Same with my washing machine. Delicates, wool, underwear, shirts, it’s all 1:10h and 40°C by default.

  • MithranArkanere@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    Nothing really matters
    Love is all we need
    Everything I give you
    All comes back to me

    So close, no matter how far
    Couldn’t be much more from the heart
    Forever trusting who we are
    No, nothing else matters

    • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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      9 hours ago

      If you wash on cold it doesn’t matter. Warm wash might matter if the colored fabrics are new, and depending on the dye process.

      Washing colors with whites on hot, especially if the colors are new, is how you get dye bleed

        • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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          6 hours ago

          Yeah, there’s that. I never do, so I didn’t think of it.

          I don’t even buy white clothes because they get dingy so fast and I’m kind of a messy eater anyway, so it’s all darks for me…

          Plus I tried using bleach once a long time ago but it seemed to degrade my clothes pretty quickly.

          • village604@adultswim.fan
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            5 hours ago

            Yeah, I don’t ever have enough white clothes to make a full load, so I don’t bother with bleach. I separate my clothes by drying requirements and fragility.

    • Kuma@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      I wish this was true… Many of my shirts with a little white (like a collar or stripe) but otherwise dark together with other dark clothes are now a weird greyish tone that do not look clean… Same with all my white towels that I didn’t care about that I washed with my other dark stuff like towels and socks.

    • furry toaster@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      8 hours ago

      I just throw towels, bed sheets, blankets, pants, shirta and everything else at the washing machine at once and set it to heavy load and it works fine

    • Agent641@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      I bought my first ever rice cooker today after seeing this thread and your comment and the video.

      Important update: I just made rice while also watering my plants and the rice was perfect and warm. Why didn’t I get a rice cooker 20 years ago?

    • NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      They’re both so much simpler and yet more complex than I had previously conceived them to be. Also, knowing how they work, there are a shit tone of things you can cook in a rice cooker that would turn out perfectly.

  • Juqu@sopuli.xyz
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    14 hours ago

    Rice and pasta can be cooked the same way. Add water and stuff to pot, then boil and drain.

    • OR3X@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      I grew up thinking I didn’t like rice. It turns out I just didn’t like rice cooked like this. Do not drain rice. It ruins it. Cook it with just enough water for it to be absorbed by the rice. roughly 2:1

      • Druid@lemmy.zip
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        6 hours ago

        I’ve found that 2:1 is usually too much water for my rice cooker. 1,5:1 is the way to go for me, at least for basmati. Comes out (close to) perfect

        • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          i do almost exclusively jasmine (i can’t find basmati at the discount grocer i use and it’s close enough) and 1.5:1 is right for jasmine. add a T of fat (we like olive oil) and 1/2 t of salt per C of rice and you’ll get a great result. also, and this is the important bit, let it rest 15 minutes after it’s finished before you take the lid off and serve. it lets the liquid redistribute in the rice and gives a better texture.

          i’ve been trying to figure out a good garlic rice, and so far i’ve just been adding a bulb’s worth of garlic cloves, sliced. it’s not garlicky enough. i have also tried sauteing the garlic in butter and using the butter for the fat, then adding the garlic cloves. it’s better, but i am lazier than that. I’ll figure it out one of these days. maybe a hint of acid might bring out the garlic? i dunno i’ma squeeze a drop of lemon in next time just to see.

      • BananaIsABerry@lemmy.zip
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        8 hours ago

        Skill issue. If you pull the rice early enough and let it steam itself dry, it comes out as good or better than letting the rice just absorb the liquid.

        It’s also way easier to make a huge batch of rice this way.

    • filcuk@lemmy.zip
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      10 hours ago

      Can, doesn’t mean it should. Rice should be cooked in just enough water for it to be absorbed or boiled off. Many types of rice are packaged with added minerals and shouldn’t be washed (check your packaging, you loose this if you have to drain).

      Even the cheapest rice cookers use clever physics to fully automate this process and make it come out perfect every time.

  • thermal_shock@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    It’s not that it won’t cook, it will just do it better on the right setting.

    You can cook chicken dry on high and burn the shit out of it. It’s “cooked” but not great.

    Butter/evoo, seasonings and low heat is much better, but both will keep you from starving.

    • Robust Mirror@aussie.zone
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      2 hours ago

      Will it though? What exactly is it doing differently? Because to my knowledge the only thing that matters is using more water. Having more water inherently cooks it longer. It’s done when all the water is absorbed/evaporated. That’s why you can use basic rice cookers with nothing but an on button for both white and brown, just get the water ratio right.

      • thermal_shock@lemmy.world
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        58 minutes ago

        I don’t know enough about rice, someone mentioned water qty is different. In this case it probably doesn’t matter, but I always put a little more water in case I don’t catch it in time and burn the bottom. I make mine in a pot on the stove.

    • Dozzi92@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      I cook chicken breasts on 425. I do everything on 425, in fact, it’s the perfect temperature for just about anything that needs to be ovened. I remember being told it would dry my chicken out, but it’s perfect.

      Now, a whole chicken works be a different story. Maybe.

      • thermal_shock@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        Our air fryer sweet spot is 360-370 degrees for most chicken, then a few minutes on 400 if you want crispier, like sweet potato fries. 🤤

    • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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      10 hours ago

      You can cook chicken dry on high and burn the shit out of it. It’s “cooked” but not great.

      Speak for yourself. I like when it’s cooked that way.