microwave weirdness

[WM]

DH recently brought home some chocolate chip cookies, and I've been warming mine up in the microwave before I eat them. But the odd thing is that when I heat one up, the microwave makes a kind of rattling/crackling sound for maybe half a second partway through the 10 seconds of heating. I put one cookie in at a time, in the center of the revolving plate.

I thought the microwave was going bad, but it's still fine when I heat other stuff, so it's definitely the cookies. The ingredients are: flour, cane juice, palm shortening, chocolate chips, brown rice syrup, walnuts, vanilla, soy lecithin, molasses, baking soda, unsweetened cocoa, and salt.

Any ideas? The cookies taste fine. I actually just ate the last one this morning.

[W2R]

Mine does that too, sometimes, mostly when I microwave single portion French bread pizza. (Maybe it is telling us that cookies and pizza are not healthy? ) I usually stop and restart it and it is less noticeable.

Also, sometimes my microwave starts making a moderately loud "thunk!" sound like something was dropped. I found that stopping it and restarting it helps. I presume that is because the rotation reverses on every usage. Maybe the "thunk" has something to do with the rotation motor.

I had the same microwave for over a quarter century I think, and it wouldn't break. Finally, I replaced the unbroken microwave in 2006 just because it was ugly and took up too much counter space, and five years later I get this.

[Keim]

My guess is it is not a big enough item. Kind of like running the microwave by itself. A no-no.

Try heating up 2 or three cookies at the same time and see what happens.

[WM]

Interesting. I already ate all the cookies, so I can't do the test, but I bet you're right, that would make sense. Especially since W2R gets the same thing with a single-serving item. Thanks! I will avoid doing that in the future.

(also, on a semi-related note, I once accidentally ran the microwave empty when I meant to run the timer. I don't remember exactly what happened, but it did something noisy and then shut off. We let it cool down for a while before using it again, but no problems since. Good to know there's a safety shut-off )

[Texas Proud]

You can also throw in a cup of water to take up some of the rays....

[BigNick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Texas Proud You can also throw in a cup of water to take up some of the rays....

But in that case, make it half-full and put a saucer on top, unless you want steamed cookies. (Although actually, I guess that might make them nice and chewy...)

[Keim]

I don't think the cookie will be appreciably steamed in the 10-20 seconds the microwave is on.

[braumeister]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Texas Proud You can also throw in a cup of water to take up some of the rays....

This was always standard advice from the manufacturers of early model microwaves. The mass of a cup of water will do a fine job of absorbing the energy so you don't get it radiating back into the magnetron (which can destroy it through a feedback loop).

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by WM Interesting. I already ate all the cookies, so I can't do the test, but I bet you're right, that would make sense. Especially since W2R gets the same thing with a single-serving item. Thanks! I will avoid doing that in the future.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Texas Proud You can also throw in a cup of water to take up some of the rays....

I think this calls for additional research with several fresh bags, 6-8 cookies per run, and perhaps some double-blind testing against a control group...

[Meadbh]

Sounds like all that energy focused on just one cookie is making the cookie dance!

[Walt34]

I'm wondering if this thread shouldn't be moved to http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f29/what-did-you-do-today-37868.html

[Lsbcal]

When I heat a small item it is always on a plate or in a bowl. So far no strange sounds. Might be easier then a cup of water.

[Glo]

How do you eat only one cookie??

[WM]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glo How do you eat only one cookie??

Oh, I don't eat only one. I just heat them up that way because it makes for a good soft-cookie texture

I'll try the water next time I heat something small, that sounds safe. I guess I could try the plate too, although it always seems questionable to be heating up the plate that much. Sometimes if I heat a bowl of something, then empty it and heat another batch, the bowl ends up really hot, hotter than the food. I feel like that can't be good.