Electomagnetic Waves Affecting a Turkey (13)

As the electromagnetic wave flow through food it vibrates the food therefore heating up the food from the friction between molecules.  One might ask why different types of foods work better than others in the microwave, TV dinners for example, or why bread comes our so tough.  As covered in previous pages microwaves work best on more solid substances because of the friction of molecules in solid objects is so much greater.  Bread is a very porous with a substantial number of air pockets as microwaves penetrate the bread’s layers the moisture that is in the bread usually evaporates and since the air the air molecules in the pockets expand they stretch the bread making it drier and tough.  To prevent the bread from getting tough many people will stick a moist paper towel or napkin over the bread lockingthe moisture in and keeping it soft. 

TV dinners as we all know are usually made for the microwave as well as other types of quick meal foods.  These foods usually are frozen so they have a substantial amount of moisture which evaporates unneeded water, but doesn’t dry out the food as it is being cooked.

Egg exploded in microwave (11)

As many have heard it is not a good idea to cook an egg in the microwave, as the inside of the egg heats up it expands, however the shell on the outer surface is a solid rather than a fluid so it doesn’t expand as rapidly or as much as the liquids on the inside do therefore causing the egg shell to break.  An egg shell break is not typically such a bad thing on the stove since the egg is being slowly warmed up, but in the microwave it heats up even more quickly and explodes.