On Thursday, December 1, 2016 at 6:31:05 PM UTC-5, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 12/1/2016 8:59 AM, wrote:


As for someone else on here suggesting
microwaves do not cook from the inside
out: A year ago I had occasion to warm
up a frozen stick of butter. So I
programmed 4 minutes on level 3(medium
low). What came out was a mostly intact
stick with HOLES IN THE SIDES where
hot butter had poured out from INSIDE.


Shows how microwaves cook unevenly and a few spots got the energy and
penetrated.

In the early days of microwave ovens (some of us are old enough to remember when they first started to become common) we tested the unevenness with mini marshmallows.

You were supposed to put a close grid of minimarshmallows covering the bottom and watch them cook. You'll see a pattern of hot and cold spots. That advice came from cooking shows I think.

The early microwaves did not have a turntable. The second generation had a rotating "fan" that bounced the waves around, and the third generation had the now ubiquitous turntable, that helps a lot with evenness of heat.