|
Everybody reheats. Yes. Sometimes you're tired and not 'feeling' that cooking vibe, sometimes you're out of ingredients and your paycheck isn't here yet so it's just not possible to go shopping.. Whatever the reason, it's time to reheat something and it sucks because you know deep down you just won't get that same fresh taste you had the night before.. But can we fix that?? This is my quest. This is my meal. A nearly day old double cheeseburger from mcdonalds, stone cold out of my fridge.  I like to buy a couple of burgers when I go to mcdonalds, to make the trip seem more 'worthwhile' you know? Like, if I drive somewhere I'd prefer to be doing it for more than just one meal. Saves fuel, too. Anyway, what do I normally do next? I throw it in the aforepictured microwave. Those with a keen eye might notice that the display on my microwave isn't on. You might also notice the old washing machine next to the fridge! That's because my current place doesn't really have a kitchen, so I don't really have enough wall sockets to run the fridge and microwave at the same time. I tried a double adaptor (obviously), but the darn circuit breaker trips when the fridge compressor and the microwave are running simultaneously  . Oh well, just swap the plugs and we'll be cooking with ga- no, cooking with radiation!  So like I said the microwave is the 'usual' step, so I might as well make the 'control' group first before I try alternatives. -- Just dial it in for a bit under a minute so the cheese is pretty melty:  Hmm looks good, cheese is indeed turning liquid BUT, on closer inspection:  The actual meat is cold as heck! But the plate is really hot! (had to rest it on my knee to take a shot). The bun is all wet and squishy as well! Ugh microwaves  . Definitely not a meal I look forward to, which is what pushed me to trying something else.The solution seems obvious- I just need to heat the burger uniformly, unlike a microwave. An oven would make sense but 1) it would probably crisp up the bun too much, and 2) I don't have one. I did have a little 'toast n grill' that would probably work but I stopped using that after I pulled a charred cockroach out of it. Hmm. My options felt exhausted before I had even begun, but then I remembered something! I have a temperature bath that I made a while ago. Not for cooking, it was for safely distilling and evaporating some solvents. But hell, a temperature bath is a temperature bath, and goons really like this 'sous vide' stuff so maybe I should try it too?  Here's my 'rig'. It's a small water pump and a PID with a thermocouple that I took from a nearby dairy plant. Works great, don't know why they wanted to throw it out. It's rigged up to an element in a beer cooler (for insulation). Don't worry about the exposed wires, they're just earth wires, no harm. Now like I said I'm not well researched on sous vide methods, and I was getting hungry so I mostly winged this:  I didn't expect it to float so well.. Cheese burger in a bag, take out most of the air, set bath to.. Hmm.. I wasn't sure what to set it to so I left it at its previous setting of 79 degrees C and walked off for maybe an hour. Came back to this:  It's definitely hot!  And the bun is exactly how it should be! Not floppy or squishy at all! And the relish and cheese had that right taste to it too. gently caress the pickle though, who eats that??  Serves 1, is nicely complimented by a nice cold diet cola It was seriously like I'd just bought it at the drive thru. Amazing. Conclusion: Sous vide for reheating? Don't mind if I do! The only major downside seems to be how long it takes to heat. How about you goons? Any other methods or foods that you prefer for reheating? If you've got any I'd love to hear about it
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2014 05:58
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 05:40 |
|
|
Have you ever cleaned your microwave?
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2014 09:57
|
|
TiMBuS posted:How about you goons? Any other methods or foods that you prefer for reheating? If you've got any I'd love to hear about it
|
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2014 12:14
|
|
|
You can pop the whole thing in a toaster oven for a few minutes. That usually works pretty well for White Castle leftovers.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2014 14:01
|
|
|
Tiggum posted:Have you ever cleaned your microwave? contrapants posted:You can pop the whole thing in a toaster oven for a few minutes. That usually works pretty well for White Castle leftovers. Illinois Smith posted:I've had good experiences with putting leftovers in a skillet (depending on the dish I'll put in some oil first) and stirring occasionally while my meal heats up. I know this sounds crazy but it works!
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2014 18:18
|
|
|
The real question is why you'd cook the steaks before your date shows up.
|
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2014 18:41
|
|
|
If you want to heat something more evenly in the microwave, do it in several shorter bursts with rest time in between. I have some frozen smoked ribs and I usually heat for two minutes, wait, heat for another minute, wait, heat for forty seconds, wait, heat for forty seconds. Maybe one or two more times. This allows the heat to diffuse evenly. My favorite non-obvious re-heating method is for pizza. You heat it on a dry metal skillet, crust-down, on medium heat for five minutes or so. This gets the crust very crispy and gets the pizza warm. Then you can finish with a brief broil to melt the cheese to a satisfactory degree.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2014 14:28
|
|
|
No Wave posted:If you want to heat something more evenly in the microwave, do it in several shorter bursts with rest time in between. I have some frozen smoked ribs and I usually heat for two minutes, wait, heat for another minute, wait, heat for forty seconds, wait, heat for forty seconds. Maybe one or two more times. This allows the heat to diffuse evenly. I do the same except cover the skillet which traps the heat and by the time the bottom is crisp, the top has warmed through as well.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2014 14:41
|
|
|
No Wave posted:If you want to heat something more evenly in the microwave, do it in several shorter bursts with rest time in between. I have some frozen smoked ribs and I usually heat for two minutes, wait, heat for another minute, wait, heat for forty seconds, wait, heat for forty seconds. Maybe one or two more times. This allows the heat to diffuse evenly. That's exactly what setting your microwave to lower power does. High (or 10 or 100%) is constant, the lower settings stop and start.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2014 15:05
|
|
|
Tiggum posted:That's exactly what setting your microwave to lower power does. High (or 10 or 100%) is constant, the lower settings stop and start.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2014 16:17
|
|
|
Tiggum posted:That's exactly what setting your microwave to lower power does. High (or 10 or 100%) is constant, the lower settings stop and start. This depends on the microwave brand. The new Panasonics actually offer variable power inverters as I understand it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2014 18:08
|
|
|
Tiggum posted:That's exactly what setting your microwave to lower power does. High (or 10 or 100%) is constant, the lower settings stop and start. Holy loving poo poo. How did I not know this?
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2014 23:32
|
|
|
One time, my power was out and I wanted to heat up some leftover lasagna, so I lit my gas stove with a match and wound up steaming it. Couldn't use the oven because it has an electric starter. Lasagna wound up delicious, water bath below wound up gross.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2014 23:53
|
|
|
mediaphage posted:This depends on the microwave brand. The new Panasonics actually offer variable power inverters as I understand it. Wow. google says you're correctt, and that's cool. I should get one, then I don't have to clean mine crazyfish posted:One time, my power was out and I wanted to heat up some leftover lasagna, so I lit my gas stove with a match and wound up steaming it. Couldn't use the oven because it has an electric starter. Lasagna wound up delicious, water bath below wound up gross. You can light an oven with a match! But still a neat workaround. I love steamed hams.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2014 03:32
|
|
|
TiMBuS posted:
Because of the gross microwave pic, I thought this was one of those disgusting food comedy threads, so I thought this was a toilet tank.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2014 00:52
|
|
|
I like heating up some leftovers in my rice cooker by steaming, sometimes i'll clean out the cat food bowls and use them (because I can fit two in you see) instead.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2014 00:56
|
|
|
Using lower power on the microwave is the way to go. The only thing that I use the default high setting for is boiling water, or making popcorn. Pretty much anything you want to reheat does well at 30% power for 10 minutes.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2014 01:29
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 05:40 |
|
|
Doom Rooster posted:Using lower power on the microwave is the way to go. The only thing that I use the default high setting for is boiling water, or making popcorn. Pretty much anything you want to reheat does well at 30% power for 10 minutes. Basically anything that you can mix up can be done on high. Like, leftover soup or stew or pasta, you put it on for 3 minutes on high and then mix it up to spread the heat around and it's fine.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2014 02:42
|
|