Does the microwave still warm the food after the beep?

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zoxxy

zoxxy

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Mmm, panpizza spinning around in there. Looks sooo good. Oops gotta go to the bathroom. While sitting there, you hear the microwave wispering "beep beep beep" through the door. Is it worth interrupting your thing to rush out and put the pizza on a plate?
 
The residual heat might continue to cook the pizza a bit more, but the microwave itself shouldn't be doing anything after it's turned off.
 
This was a myth that was circulated during fears of microwave safety and health impacts.

"Food keeps on cooking after you take it out of the microwave!!!"

This is partly true. But it is also true of any other cooking method. When you take a baked potato out of the oven, the heat inside the potato causes it to carry on cooking until it cools down.
 
Which is why most packaged microwavable foods advise you to leave the food for a minute after the cooking has stopped.
 
zoxxy
Mmm, panpizza spinning around in there. Looks sooo good. Oops gotta go to the bathroom. While sitting there, you hear the microwave wispering "beep beep beep" through the door. Is it worth interrupting your thing to rush out and put the pizza on a plate?
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Microwaves do not carry on residual cooking heat because they don't cook by heating directly, they cook by bombarding the food with microwaves. Once the microwaves stop, the external forces cooking the food stop. All you're left with is the residual heat in the food and the air in the microwave - which aren't going to cook the food much at all

It's the same in a conventional oven except that the air in the oven is what's being used to cook the food, and so the residual heat left in the air is quite substantial when you turn the oven off and it continues cooking.

Here's the short version.

Microwaves cook food. Microwaves stop -> cooking stops
Oven air cooks food. Air still hot -> cooking continues
 
You definitely should NOT rush out and put the pizza on a plate.

Microwaves tend to heat food very unevenly while cooking. Resting with the microwave off for a minute or two allows the temperature to evenly distribute itself through the food.
 
Duke
Microwaves tend to heat food very unevenly while cooking.
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And they don't all cook the same, either. The microwave at work cooks from the middle out and at home it's from the outside in.
 
zoxxy
Mmm, panpizza spinning around in there. Looks sooo good. Oops gotta go to the bathroom. While sitting there, you hear the microwave wispering "beep beep beep" through the door. Is it worth interrupting your thing to rush out and put the pizza on a plate?
Click to expand...

I am yet to meet a single guy who can just stop in the middle of doing their thing. I think it might be physically impossible.
 
I believe that opening the microwave too quickly, even after the beeps have finished is risky because there is residual radiation waves still bouncing around inside the unit. I usually wait like 10-20 seconds before I open it.

I cant remember where I read it but a woman who worked at a cafe all her life using the microwave constantly got a cancerous growth on her hand due to the constant putting of her hand in even before the microwave beeped. There are many cases of this happening to people who work with microwaves on a daily basis.

Anything using radiation is risky and microwaves do use a fair amount... just take your time with them (yes I know thats an irony!).

Robin.
 
I thought the risk of opening the microwave suddenly was because the cold air meeting the hot food/liquid can cause it to send hot food/liquid flying.
 
It's not painful. Actually, it's pretty easy if your muscles are strong enough. Also, LOL @ talking about this. TB hit it on the head.

So, about microwaves... It's not worth getting off the pot to go grab your pizza. But, check the center of the food to see if it's still cold. The residual heat will usually not warm it up (unless the heat is in the form of steam).
 
Geez, the Internet is such a reliable place for information, huh?

Microwave beeps when it stops. There are no more radio waves being fed to the oven cavity, nor is there any "residual" bouncing around inside. Open the door and get your stuff.

Opening the door while it's running shuts off the microwave source. Instantly. You cannot get microwave exposure outside the oven by opening the door "fast enough." That's like looking in the refrigerator before the light turns on.

Microwaves are not "radiation" in the radioactive sense. They're not X-rays, gamma rays, or anything like that. It's radar-frequency radio, which is why Amana calls theirs "Radarange." They're not good for you at the distance you'd be from the source if it ran with the door open, but radar is out there everywhere. Airports, weather, police cars, traffic lights, grocery store doors. . . .

Original question: No they don't keep cooking after the beep. There's no energy being fed into the oven. Whatever heat has been built in the food will try to even itself out through the food, which is one reason your frozen dinner says "Let stand in microwave for 2 minutes."
 
Stig22121
I can. It is very painful. Trust me.
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Pan pizza > Personal comfort.



Thanks for all the reply's guys, but what I meant was that my micro keep running after the beep. And I was wondering if that keeps warming the food, or just delicately keeping at at rougly the same temp?
 
Oh. Well, did you press the "pizza" button or something? Sometimes they'll beep when they change power levels or whatever. I think mine beeps once when it goes from defrost mode to cook.
 
Omnis
Oh. Well, did you press the "pizza" button or something? Sometimes they'll beep when they change power levels or whatever. I think mine beeps once when it goes from defrost mode to cook.
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Sometimes if you set it up they also beep every minute. the one at my school is like the cheepest ones in the the world but it beeps every minute so that you know whether or not you set it too high.
 
zoxxy
Pan pizza > Personal comfort.



Thanks for all the reply's guys, but what I meant was that my micro keep running after the beep. And I was wondering if that keeps warming the food, or just delicately keeping at at rougly the same temp?
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It doesn't do anything after the beep. It's just a box, then.
 
Our microwave has an option to run at a lower temperature just to keep the food warm. It doesn't do that automatically though.
 
Question.

What about the microwaves? Are the microwaves completely, gone out of the food, after the microwave has stopped?

I was thinking about getting myself a steam cooker. In case I don't use the correct word, I want to steam my vegetables instead of boiling them.

I never use a microwave, although we have one.
 
kikie
Question.

What about the microwaves? Are the microwaves completely, gone out of the food, after the microwave has stopped?

I was thinking about getting myself a steam cooker. In case I don't use the correct word, I want to steam my vegetables instead of boiling them.

I never use a microwave, although we have one.
Click to expand...

Microwaves = energy. Energy = heat. So yeah, the 'microwaves' will leave the food, but then you'll just have to warm it again.
 
Robin.
I believe that opening the microwave too quickly, even after the beeps have finished is risky because there is residual radiation waves still bouncing around inside the unit. I usually wait like 10-20 seconds before I open it.

I cant remember where I read it but a woman who worked at a cafe all her life using the microwave constantly got a cancerous growth on her hand due to the constant putting of her hand in even before the microwave beeped. There are many cases of this happening to people who work with microwaves on a daily basis.

Anything using radiation is risky and microwaves do use a fair amount... just take your time with them (yes I know thats an irony!).

Robin.
Click to expand...
You have a mobile phone yeah? Do you hold it a foot from your head on the end of a stick?
 

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