Why does microwaving food make it soggy?
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Microwaves turn the water in food into steam (like a kettle boiling). This, in turn, makes the food damper and soggy.
Microwaves cause water to heat up. Hot water becomes steam. Food gets soggy because it’s being steamed from the inside out. Some of that water escapes the food too, but is trapped inside the microwave and makes it kind of like a sauna in there.
MinuteFood did a great explainer on this very topic
Basically because all the water molecules inside are getting heated up they try to escape, making the outside soggy, and the inside with less water, almost dry .
When food is heated, the water present in the food wants to evaporate.
Normal ovens heat the food from the outside inwards, ensuring the ouside is always hotter than the inside.
Microwave ovens heat the food everywhere simultaneously.
However, because the surface of the food cools down quicker than the inside, the outside is slightly cooler and this causes some slight condensation of the water that is evaporating. This condensation in the outer layers makes the food soggy.
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