UT Life Hacks: Making the Most of Your Microwave

So, you’re going to college, and now you have your very own apartment. Or maybe you’re actually just in a dorm. Either way, you have a quintessential cooking tool on your hands as chances are your wonderful landlord or dorm has provided you with a microwave. You might have thought up until now that all you could do with a microwave was reheat things. But what if I told you that you could actually produce some milk foam for that perfect homemade latte? Make your own yogurt? What about homemade potato chips in a jiffy? Or measure the speed of light? What.

Here are a couple of tricks to make the most of your microwave:

1. Make Your Own Yogurt

Impossible? Possible. You’ll need a large Pyrex cup or microwave safe bowl, a thermometer, some large quart-sized mason jars, and a cooler that’ll fit your mason jars. What you’ll want to do is pour about half a gallon of milk into an 8-cup Pyrex cup or bowl, and heat it in the microwave until it’s 190 ℉. From there, let it cool to 120 ℉. Whisk in 2 tablespoons of your desired yogurt, and then pour the mixture into your mason jars. Place the mason jars in the cooler and submerge the jars with hot tap water. Close the cooler, and now let it sit there for 6 hours. After that, behold, yogurt! Chill the yogurt in your fridge, dollop some into a cup, layer in some berries and granola, and now you have a homemade parfait!

2. Foam Milk For Your Latte

You can also foam milk in a microwave and be your own barista in the comforts of home. Pour milk into a mason jar and shake it up for about a minute, until it gets pretty frothy. Take off the lid and microwave for 30 seconds. Et voila, instant milk foam!

3. Test If Your Dishware is Microwave Safe

Sometimes, it’s hard to tell if your dishware is microwave safe or not, but here’s a quick way to tell! Pour one cup of water into a mug that you already know is microwave safe. Put the dish you're testing in the microwave with the mug on top or next to it. Microwave the two, and if the water is hot but the dish you’re testing is not, then it’s microwave safe. If the water is hot, and your dish is warm, then your dish is not microwave safe.

4. “Fry” up your own batch of chips

Don’t own a deep fryer? No worries! You can still make your own homemade chips with your trusty microwave. Find yourself some potatoes, slice them thinly, and coat them with oil. Place them in a single layer on a microwave safe plate, and microwave the potatoes for 3-5 minutes. Once they’ve crisped up, feel free to add your favorite seasonings!

5. Measure the speed of light!

Alright, for this one, you’ll need some chocolate chips, a paper plate, and a ruler. Take out the turntable from your microwave and scatter the chocolate chips on a plate. Microwave the chocolate for about 20 seconds, and you should see some “hot spots” form. Measure the distance from one melted chip to another. From then on, proceed to follow the directions here for all of the math fun: https://extension.uga.edu/content/dam/extension/programs-and-services/science-behind-our-food/documents/MeasuringSpeedLightChocolate.pdf