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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   4572 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 7, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Doesn’t that risk superheating and explosion

It's possible, but you have to put a ton of effort into it, and most kitchenware today is microwave safed by including microscoring to avoid that sort of problem. And if you're not sure, throwing anything like a wooden kitchen utensil (or a toothpick) in will completely eliminate the risk.

That said, tea purists will absolutely dump boiling water on you for doing it, though.

I'm a tea purist with a $200 usd kettle, and I'm fine with using a microwave if that's all that I have around. I probably spent a decade making tea at work this way with zero issues. I even tried intentionally causing a "superheating" situation and couldn't make it happen. Do let the water cool down a bit before making (black) tea; 99c is the ideal temperature. Water that is actually as a rolling boil with ruin the flavor of the tea by boiling out some of the oil in the leaves. You can tell when you've done this by a lot of small bubbles forming on the surface. For green tea let it cool a bit more, 90-95c.

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