• Rustmilian@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Microwave : boils water
    Stovetop : boils water
    Electric stovetop : boils water
    Induction stovetop : boils water
    Electric kettle : boils water
    Open flame : boils water

    Bri’ish “people” : *pretending they have any sense of taste* “mIcRoWavE wA’eR taSte difFerenT.”

      • Ilflish@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        I mean we can pick at things. Americans put marshmallows in their potatoes and eat cereal that are the same shade as crayons. Asians put cheese slices in their instant noodles. Italians eat Prosciutto and Melon, The French eat Escargot and Frog. At least most of these are consider guilty pleasures or 3am grub rather than cuisine.

      • Wanderer@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        Americans always shit on British food then come over and remark at how great it is.

        Americans try to substitute good food with size, sugar and oil.

        • LinyosT@sopuli.xyz
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          9 months ago

          I’m pretty sure Americans have a panic attack when what they’re eating isn’t at least 50% high fructose corn syrup.

          • Wanderer@lemm.ee
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            9 months ago

            You speak like someone that has never met a British person never mind not having been to the UK.

            The national dish of the UK is curry. There is curry everywhere.

            I went to an Indian restaurant in America the women actually lived in the UK and we was chatting. I ordered a hot curry and it was fine.

            But the Mexican woman behind me ordered a vindaloo which is a pretty standard dish in the UK. The Indian said “you had this before? Its very hot”

            But “no but it’s fine I’m Mexican. I can handle my heat”

            “I’m just warning you it’svery hot. You sure you want it? Maybe you want x, y, z instead if you ve never had it”

            “I’m good with heat. My family always makes things spicy”

            Anyway it came and she ate less than 10% of it before getting it boxed up.

            • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
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              9 months ago

              Eh, there are different kinds of “spicy”. Depending on how dead your receptors are after eating that “spicy” food before.

              So if you don’t notice some kind of spices anymore, and are going to try the same amount of something you’ve not tried before, it may be painful until your receptors are dead to that too.

              Personally I think it’s simply bad taste and bad cuisine to put large amounts of spices and salt into food. You should feel the actual flavor of what you are eating behind spices and herbs and salt and sugar and what not.

                • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
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                  9 months ago

                  The objective part I’ve checked experimentally many times, so fsck right off.

                  The subjective part doesn’t require your approval. Think that moment in the “Green Book” movie about “salty” and people unable to cook.

        • TheControlled@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Haha I was just in England/UK/Britain and the food was whack, in England especially. The reason England is famous for its fish and chips is because it’s the only thing that is good.

          Curry is bomb though, but idk (honestly) if that counts. Colonizing India is the best thing that ever happened to England, sadly you cannot say the same going the other direction lol

          Haggis fucking rules though!

    • dingus@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Yeah I will never at all understand this weird superiority complex in the way in which people boil fucking water of all things. The result is the same.

      The reason why a kettle is nice is because it boils a large quantity of water quickly. If you only want a single cup, then a microwave is a great option if you don’t have or want a kettle.

    • db2@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Is this some kind of beans on toast thing I’m too colonies to understand?

    • li10@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      You’ve missed the way that British people actually boil water though, thus missing the true reason that we’re superior.

    • Mr_Blott@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      In our defence (spelt correctly) all of the above are acceptable, except the microwave. Reasons being that a) the microwave doesn’t boil it evenly, and you get pockets of mega heated water that bubble up and splash up in the microwave, then drip off the manky ceiling of the microwave and into your cup. B) microwaves stink. I don’t know anyone that uses one for anything other than popcorn or melting butter. But if you’re using it to cook as well… 🤢

      • Rustmilian@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago
        1. Clean out your fuckin microwaves.
        2. Convection currents stir the water automatically, heating it unevenly doesn’t matter. A stovetop also heats water unevenly.
        3. Stop microwaving fucking fish you dirty bastards. I will punt any mf who microwaves fish into the fuckin Gehenna.
        • nBodyProblem@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Convection currents don’t stir water in a microwave because the heat source isn’t on the bottom. That’s the difference. You get temperature stratified water where the surface is hotter than the bottom of the cup and they don’t naturally mix.

          Of course, here in America, we have this incredible technology called a spoon. Pull that bad boy out, give a little stir, problem solved.

          • Rustmilian@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Convection currents don’t need the heat source to be directly at the bottom to stir the liquid, it just needs cold water to be on-top of hot, because cold is more dense.
            Microwaves don’t really heat top to bottom either, it’s shooting waves through the body of the water and even the cup, directly exciting a bunch of individual H2O atoms in hot spots where the microwaves peak at, (e.g. the actual microwaves not the name of the machine) heating the liquid very unevenly. The wave could very much be heating a fraction of the top, middle, and bottom at different points in 3d space. it just depends on the peak of the micro-waves.

              • Rustmilian@lemmy.world
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                9 months ago

                I’m well aware of temperature stratification. It doesn’t happen in a microwave in the same way.

                Micro waves don’t heat purely the top surface, they penetrate the entire waters body creating super-heated localized hotpots that shift the water around from Convection currents because the hotter more excited water atoms are less dense than the colder less excited water atoms above them spreading temperature out from those hotspots.
                Temperature stratification only comes into play if there’s no nucleation point, in which you get this.
                Also, your link is dead.

                • nBodyProblem@lemmy.world
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                  9 months ago

                  I’m well aware of temperature stratification. It doesn’t happen in a microwave.

                  It empirically does. We can argue about the theory all day but the research says microwaves produce stratified temperature gradients when heating liquids. However, I’d point out that, in atmosphere, when we have localized hot spots the warm air can effectively travel in bubbles without significant mixing for quite some distance. There seems to be a similar phenomena at work when microwaving liquids.

                  See the screenshot below.

                  I pulled this from “Multiphysics analysis for unusual heat convection in microwave heating liquid” published in 2020 in AIP Advances.

                  Relevant excerpts:

                  “ Usually, the fluidity of liquids is considered to make the temperature field uniform, when it is heated, because of the heat convection, but there is something different when microwave heating. The temperature of the top is always the highest in the liquid when heated by microwaves.”

                  “ The experimental results show that when the modified glass cup with 7 cm metal coating is used to heat water in a microwave oven, the temperature difference between the upper and lower parts of the water is reduced from 7.8 °C to 0.5 °C.”

                  “According to the feedback from Midea (microwave appliance makers), when users use the microwave oven to heat liquids such as milk or water, the temperature at the top of the liquid will be significantly higher than the temperature at the bottom.”

      • noisefree@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        You gotta clean the microwave regularly like anything else. There are reasons why I would probably use my stove top over my microwave to boil water (though I do use a microwave to make tea when I just want a single serving), but your points about water splashing up everywhere and dripping down off of disgusting interior surfaces of the microwave sound a lot like operator error.

        • Rustmilian@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          If you’re microwaving water for more than 2-4 minutes you’re doing something very very wrong.
          1m 30s to 2mins is already enough for 1 coffee cup worth of water to reach boiling temp in the majority of microwaves.

          • noisefree@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            I’m just imagining @Mr_Blott@lemmy.world microwaving a cup of water for way too long to absolutely volcanic results and then throwing up his hands in disgust before walking away from the swampy microwave without bothering to clean the mess up like a scene out of some infomercial for a device that solves microwave issues that don’t exist lol

        • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Or just like gently stir the water when it comes out of the microwave. You’d really have to overcook the fuck out of the water to create a risk of superheated water explosions. Tea should be slightly below boiling anyway.

  • SuperDuper@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Bri’ish people: Conquer half of the world in the name of spices

    Also Bri’ish people: Refuse to season food

        • Mr_Blott@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Our curries. Conceived by British people. Whose families may have come come from other countries. You know. British people

            • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
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              9 months ago

              Hence why they said “our curry” instead of “curry”, to specify which kind of curry they are speaking about since by saying curry in general one might not think about British curry. Just like Australian sushi.

  • Raiderkev@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Lol, no we don’t. We just don’t drink tea. Unless you’re in the south n it’s more sugar water than tea.

  • nyahlathotep@sh.itjust.works
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    9 months ago

    Americans who drink tea generally use a stovetop kettle. Sometimes they use an electric one. But what does it matter how the water gets hot, if the water’s hot? Microwave radiation doesn’t leave a taste in water or something

    • db2@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Boiling it with some kind of kettle can make minerals drop out of solution, but I really doubt it would make a significant taste difference unless the kettle is attached to copper piping leading to a catch basin (aka a still).

  • Vespair@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    Electric kettles have been available at every American supermarket superstore for literal decades.

    Yes they aren’t ubiquitous here in the way they are in the UK and elsewhere, but they’re absolutely not a rarity at all.

    Sincerely, somebody who has been using an electric kettle for almost two decades.

    edit: wrong word. I meant places like Walmart, not places like Safeway.

    • nevetsg@aussie.zone
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      9 months ago

      Curious if you have any insight as to why Americans in movies always boil water on the stove top? Australian here and we use electric Kettles. I assumed it was a 120 vs 240V thing.

      • Vespair@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        Again, ubiquity. Especially since the vast majority of Americans who make coffee at home do so in drip coffee machines, there just isn’t a lot the typical American is needs to heat up hot water for, so to most people an electric kettle is a non-mandatory item. Even most American tea drinkers honestly aren’t daily tea drinkers (myself included), so for many the benefit of having extra counter space beats out the benefit of having convenient hot water, and a stovetop kettle can most easily be put away in the back of a cabinet somewhere.

    • Luke@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      You kid, but I really do find this stereotype of Americans fascinating in it’s persistence. Every supermarket I’ve been to in America during the last decade has a tea section that is double the size of the coffee section next to it. These stores wouldn’t be stocking like that if Americans weren’t buying a ton of tea, but yet the idea of America being a tea desert continues.

    • derf82@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      It actually doesn’t make that big of difference. It is more likely Americans don’t have kettles because we drink more coffee and have drip coffee brewers instead.

      https://youtu.be/_yMMTVVJI4c

      We use a kettle here in the states and it’s just fine. But it’s mostly used for French press coffee.

  • Asclepiaz@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Could someone explain why it matters? Is microwaving water for tea akin to instant coffee or Keurig to snobby coffee drinkers? (I nuke water for tea, but when it comes to coffee I use distilled water, fresh beans, a scale and it’s kinda ritualistic)

    • johannesvanderwhales@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      It’s fairly inefficient and less convenient than a dedicated electric kettle, but no there’s nothing wrong with the results. I did pick up a cheap electric kettle recently and it’s nice, but doesn’t get a ton of use since I don’t drink that much tea.

    • Ookami38@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      No, it doesn’t actually matter as to the quality of the tea. Hot water is hot water. Assuming you don’t just microwave til it’s boiling, and instead get it to the proper temperature, there will be 0 difference.

      A lot of electric kettles have fine temperature control, so it’s easier to dial in on an exact temperature. Brewing a lot of teas too hot will burn them and make them taste bitter. This is 100% a temperature thing, though, and what you use to make it hot has no impact.

  • cmbabul@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    This isn’t true, Americans make tea by boiling a stovetop kettle pouring that into a pitcher with 5 teabags adding 1-3 cups of sugar after about 3 minutes and then filling that pitcher to the top with hot tap water. And then pouring that over ice after about 5 minutes

    • Caiman86@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Our typical US 120V household outlets can’t pull that much power. Most electric kettles here draw about 1.5 kW.

      Could run a 240V circuit (or tap into the oven/range 240V circuit I suppose) and use an imported UK kettle. I’ve heard of people here actually doing this, but I can live with the slower boil times 😄

  • prayer@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Americans: invent machine to boil water

    Also Americans: use that machine to boil water

    Rest of the world: 😱

    • Tomato666@lemmy.sdf.org
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      9 months ago

      The cavity magnetron was invented in England by a man who was clearly a tea drinker. The Americans successfully commercialised the device some years later, no doubt by a coffee drinker.

      If you guys had more volts in the household electrics you too could use an electric kettle like we do in the UK.

      • Rustmilian@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        You mean the electric kettles that you can find at literally any fucking Walmart ever.

        The standard US household voltage is infact higher than the UK 230V 50hz at 240V 60Hz with outlets output differing depending on what devices it’s intended for. Outlets intended for low volt devices are 110-120V 60Hz using NEMA 1-15P & 5-15R, Outlets intended for high volt devices are 220-240V 60Hz using a NEMA 6-15P & 6-50P connections.

        Wikipedia

        Today, virtually all American homes and businesses have access to 120 and 240 V at 60 Hz. Both voltages are available on the three wires (two “hot” legs of opposite phase and one “neutral” leg).

    • Rustmilian@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Just plug it into an outlet that outputs higher voltage(you can’t lol). The US household standard is actually higher than the UK(230V 50Hz) at 240V 60Hz, the output of the outlet is just dependent on what devices it’s intended for. General outlets output 110-120V 60Hz, outlets intended for say an electric stovetop or dyer output 220-240V 60Hz. Too hard to access? Literally can’t go wrong with these bad boys.

      Wikipedia

      Today, virtually all American homes and businesses have access to 120 and 240 V at 60 Hz. Both voltages are available on the three wires (two “hot” legs of opposite phase and one “neutral” leg).

      • singron@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Before an American lights their house on fire, do not plug a 120V appliance into an 240V circuit using one of these adapters. If you live in North America, a 240V appliance will not use an ordinary plug, and the 120V ones that do will probably light on fire if you plug it into one of these. You need to import a 240V appliance from a different country, and then it will use the plug from that country and not an North American plug.

        Also for the non-Americans, 240V circuits in NA need 4 wires (2 hots, 1 neutral, 1 ground) instead of 3, so usually only 1-2 circuits in the entire house will be 240 and the rest are 120. If you want to install another 240V outlet, you probably need to install a completely new circuit at the breaker and run new copper wires from there to the new outlet, which is very expensive.

        Also, wires heat up according to their current. Normally the breaker at the panel can open the circuit if the current is too high, but 240V circuits are often rated for much higher currents (e.g. 50A instead of 20A), and the appliance itself will draw a lot more current than it expects if the voltage is double, which can internally overload it even if it doesn’t trip the breaker. E.g. if you plug a 120V 15A kettle into a 240V 40A circuit, it will draw 30A according to Ohms Law, which will probably cause wires within to overheat and eventually light the kettle on fire without tripping the breaker.

        • Rustmilian@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          using one of these these adapters

          There actually not adapters. If you look, there NEMA 6-15P & 6-50P on both ends which is US standard 240V outlets.

          …a 240V appliance will not use an ordinary plug… You need to import a 240V appliance from a different country…

          There actually are 240V appliances with a US NEMA 6-15P & 6-50P plug. You’re just not going to find them at wallmart, there usually used by businesses like mom & pop shops. For example, this expensive mf. For imported appliances all you need is an adapter from NEMA 6-15P/6-50P to whatever that particular 240v rated appliance is using.

      • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
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        9 months ago

        A couple of issues:

        Watts = Volts * Amps. So, if the circuit that the outlet is on is not rated for enough current, it will either trip the breaker or potentially start an electrical fire.

        A 240V outlet requires appropriately-rated wiring and breaker, not to mention the outlet itself. Generally these are only installed for ranges and dryers. Getting an extra installed for the counter isn’t in the budget for most people.

        And for the 240V extension cord…really?.. Is that thing rated for consistent usage at >3kW and potential water exposure? If it’s not, that’s just asking for a house fire.

        • Rustmilian@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Watts = Volts * Amps. So, if the circuit that the outlet is on is not rated for enough current, it will either trip the breaker or potentially start an electrical fire.

          The outlets are installed per-code by licensed professionals, there’s nothing to worry about. You can’t install them yourself without breaking the law, unless you happen to be a licensed professional.

          And for the 240V extension cord…really?.. Is that thing rated for consistent usage at >3kW and potential water exposure? If it’s not, that’s just asking for a house fire.

          The extension cords I linked are perfectly safe and manufactured to deal with 24/7 use & potential water exposure.
          In fact there probably overkill. They’re capable of 3.60kW(240 × 15 amp = 3600watts).
          Just look at the company making them 😆 https://milehydro.com/
          Just don’t use them outside and you’ll be fine.

          • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
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            9 months ago

            You’ve got it! Good catch on that extension. 20% over is probably safe, if the manufacturer rated it with enough headroom.

            The outlets are installed per-code by licensed professionals, there’s nothing to worry about. You can’t install them yourself without breaking the law, unless you happen to be a licensed professional.

            Yup. With good reason. I DO actually want to get a 240V installed specifically for this purpose myself. Just too pricy to justify/afford at the moment between permit and electrician costs. I’d wager that the cost is well outside of the realm of affordable for a good portion of people, especially those who are not licensed electricians or able to buy a home.

            • Rustmilian@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              Yeah getting new ones installed is costly, but most homes & apartments should have at least one and these 25ft extension cords are likely more than enough as a substitute unless you get really unlucky where the only one is in the basement which would really suck.

  • ohlaph@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I use a gas stove to heat my kettle.

    The microwave is only used to melt butter before I make cheesecake.