I don't know why, but I know it's true. It takes longer, but I don't care.
There must be a scientific reason for it I guess.

Fact.

JPK

I have long thought tea made with water heated in a teapot tastes better than microwaved water. Might be related.

Buck,

Not in my experience. Freshly made soup is better right off the stove. Reheated soup? Doesn't matter usually, especially if you nuke the soup for a bit, mix it, nuke it again and mix it to ensure its heated evenly. Even heating is key. Mixing in between nuking it serves the same purpose as stirring it as necessary when soup is on a stove.

Robert

....and soup Mom made....taste better than soup in a can....

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I reject your reality and substitute my own!

I would need to see a properly controlled survey to believe it applies to all soups in general. A couple of possibilities that popped into my head. Soup heated on the stove takes longer, more time means more water evaporates and it's more concentrated. It could be that heating on a stove cooks it more and continues to develop the flavor.

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In tha 360. MRF User Map

Different electrons in each case.

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It is what it is.

uneven heating

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Filliam,

Gotta say another factor is cleanup. I _hate_ doing dishes. The annoyance of having one more pot and one or more additional utensils to clean can definitely impact the taste of reheated soup.

Robert

Buck is right.

...splashing in microwave....

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I reject your reality and substitute my own!

i agree but i've always felt it had to do with our olfactory sense which is a large part of our sense of taste. heating on the stove allows time for the flavor molecules to circulate a bit. zapping in the wave shortens that process considerably.

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"Success isn't about how much money you make. It is about the difference you make in people's lives."--Michelle Obama

Graylocks,

That could definitely make a difference. The smell of my mom's chicken soup with matzoh balls cooking on the stove is the kind of awesome that would bring about peace on Earth if I had a way to package it.

Robert

...and of course you determined this by double-blind testing so that your preconceived notions didn't affect your conclusion, right?

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"In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion." (1987) -- Carl Sagan

....I think because it is heated more evenly and slowly......but that is just my opinion.....

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I reject your reality and substitute my own!

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Dennis S
Buck is right.

I hear that a lot. Humble too.

And wine tastes better out of a wine glass than an old shoe.

I got some homemade chicken noodle soup my sister made for us last week with leftover chicken from her homemade chicken and dumplings (C&D = YUM!!). Several tubs are in the freezer. I'm going to thaw a tub for lunch Thursday. No way am I going to nuke it. Slowly heat on the stove until the desired temperature is obtained. Double

EDIT: Oh, and those dumplings were so light and fluffy, they almost floated off the plate! Can you remember the last time you had chicken and dumplings? Everyone I've asked lately look at me as if I'm from Mars!

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Mr. Lahey: A lot of people, don’t know how to drink. They drink against the grain of the liquor. And when you drink against the grain of the liquor? You lose.

Randy: What the @#$%& are you talking about?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/2016 12:43PM by Rick-o.

To look at it scientifically (short of double-blind testing), microwave cooking of liquids is no different than cooking on the stovetop. They both add heat energy to the liquid unevenly. The difference is, most people will stir the soup on the stovetop to even out the heating and stop the soup from burning but don't bother to do so for the microwave. This means that part of the soup in the microwave gets overcooked (which can wreck the flavor) and part doesn't. The difference in taste is due to the lack of stirring of the microwaved soup, and has nothing to do with microwave vs stovetop heating.

The solution is simple...open the microwave 1/3 and 2/3 of the way through cooking and stir it.

Chunky soup where the ingredients have vastly different densities and water contents (i.e. with dumplings as noted above) is something different entirely. As with all solid foods, each type of ingredient will absorb microwaves differently, so it's risky to use the microwave for reheating.

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"In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion." (1987) -- Carl Sagan



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/2016 12:55PM by davester.

Whatever I am used to tastes best.

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Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.

Reheated whole hard boiled egg in the microwave tastes SOOOoooo much better.
Everyone should give it a try!!

j/k Don't try this. Seriously, don't do it.

.....don't microwave grapes either........

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I reject your reality and substitute my own!

But frozen grapes are amazing!

And I'd bet money that the soup phenomenon is due to a longer cooking time.

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Filliam H. Muffman
I would need to see a properly controlled survey to believe it applies to all soups in general. A couple of possibilities that popped into my head. Soup heated on the stove takes longer, more time means more water evaporates and it's more concentrated. It could be that heating on a stove cooks it more and continues to develop the flavor.

Especially the salt

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Buck

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Dennis S
Buck is right.

I hear that a lot. Humble too.

We have the best soups.

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Lux Interior
And wine tastes better out of a wine glass than an old shoe.

(With apologies to davester)

...and of course you determined this by double-blind testing so that your preconceived notions didn't affect your conclusion, right?

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It is what it is.

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Filliam H. Muffman
I would need to see a properly controlled survey to believe it applies to all soups in general. A couple of possibilities that popped into my head. Soup heated on the stove takes longer, more time means more water evaporates and it's more concentrated. It could be that heating on a stove cooks it more and continues to develop the flavor.

This is the correct answer. When cooking soup in general, leaving the lid off awhile really concentrates the flavor.

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Acer
I have long thought tea made with water heated in a teapot tastes better than microwaved water. Might be related.

drives off oxygen, thus less oxidation of the tea? wild ass guess. For me, Brita filter water makes a huge difference. Removes the iron and chlorine which reacts to the tannins and makes it bitter.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/2016 07:59PM by Racer X.

My wife's homemade soup tastes better reheated on the stove. It contains more solids than store-bought soup, so just like meat and boiled vegetables tend to do better with conduction heating rather than microwaving, so does her soup. I'll defrost it in the microwave until room temp, though, to save myself an eternity watching a block of iced soup slowly melt on the stove.

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N-OS X-tasy!

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Lux Interior
And wine tastes better out of a wine glass than an old shoe.

(With apologies to davester)

...and of course you determined this by double-blind testing so that your preconceived notions didn't affect your conclusion, right?

I drank enough to go blind. Does that count?

On a side note, he needs a cure for athlete's tongue.