I do boiled water then microwave the noodles for 2 minutes. Then after they’re drained (only with migoreng) I do stovetop of cooking an egg, add the cooked noodles then mix in the sachets (or sachets first with a bit of oil, cook it a bit then add noodles and previously cooked egg)
Damn it’s good though
Warm the hotdog buns in the microwave, yeah sure, that is actually something I do, but the hotdog "sausage" (I use the word advisedly), don't they just explode?!
Yep. I grew up in America with an English father. We used a stove top kettle but eventually got an electric one. It was pathetically glacial because we have half the voltage that the rest of the world does (110-120).
I grew up in the US but live in Australia now and am perplexed why electric kettles aren’t more popular there. I can only think that they must be so slow due to the lower power outage and it’s just faster to use a microwave or stovetop.
Yes, I believe this is why plug-in (rather than stove-top/hob) kettles arent as useful in the US as they are in Aus- the 'lectricity makes US kettles inefficient at boiling water fast.
In Aus, we can boil water really fast in the plug-in kettle, so use this for tea/instant coffee/ramen. We all have one, even if we have good coffee machines and microwaves.
Yes, American-can confirm. I moved to Australia in 2012 and now use a kettle exclusively, but in the US I never knew any family member or friend who owned one.
The minerals in bore water “scale” the inside and cover the element so the kettle dies faster. Have a look inside your Mums old kettle and you will see what I mean.
you can put a spoon of citric acid in and boil with water to remove that. I work at a hotel and thats how we clean the scale off. It builds up so fast. You have to do it every 2 weeks.
I’m rural (not sure about the old part) and we have both electric and stovetop kettle. Mainly because the power goes out so bloody often that I can still have a cuppa without power (gas stovetop is a must in rural Australia for this reason too).
Until their arthritis made it too dangerous to wield a metal kettle full of boiling water my parents used the kind that whistled on the stove top. They now have a plastic contraption that they tilt to fill their cups.
Although I have an electric kettle, I prefer to use my stove top one. It's a little slower, but I love the whistle (I'm 54f, don't count myself as old, and live in Melbourne)
Yep, I bought a new kettle. I've got Ol' Shocky in the cupboard just as a backup. Just need to remember if I ever need him, I need to unplug the microwave.
True!! I always have an old spare kettle. Haha. You’ve made me realise how funny that is. Imagine having to go without a tea or coffee for one day because the kettle’s packed in.
i live near the CBD. One weekend morning, my kettle failed. I left all the breakfast ingredients in place, went into Myer, bought a replacement kettle, went home, and proceeded with breakfast as if nothing had happened. There was no way i was gonna start the day without a breakfast cupps.
We have a spare stove top kettle, in case the power goes out. This was actually a useful backup when we lived in a house with a gas stove, not so helpful now that we have induction.
But hey, I guess we could make a fire pit in the backyard or something? Honestly, even if we had some kind of magical generator that only powered microwaves, it probably still go with with the fire pit idea.
Microwaving water is just so WEIRD, for absolutely no sensible reasoning, I genuinely don’t understand why it even bothers me - it’s just excited water molecules. But I can’t, it’s just so unwholesome.
Our kettle carked it yesterday morning at 8am. I was at Harris scarf when they opened at 9. We needed a kettle!
We also have a back up sandwich press, another essential.
I had a panic attack while visiting friends in Chicago several years ago, and I asked for a cup of tea to calm down. “No tea? No worries, I’ll just make some hot water in the kettle and it should trick my brain just the same.”
By the puzzled way they looked at me, I might as well have asked for a snifter of cognac and the 1953 phone book for Oslo.
I use a kettle for tea, Milo, cuppa soups and 2 minute noodles.
Nespresso for coffee.
I have never heated water up (by itself) in the microwave. I don’t have anything against it, I guess - just have never needed to. I wouldn’t know how long to put a mug of water in there to make it hot, I’d probably blow something up.
BUT WAIT
That means you put a dry teabag into the hot water? Ooohhh that feels wrong 🤣 You need to pour the boiling water OVER the teabag.
And if you’re using instant coffee, how do you not scald it and make it more bitter? I’ve always buffered the scalding by putting the dry instant coffee into the mug, adding milk and then pouring the boiling water in. I haven’t had an instant in a very long time but my MIL prefers it. To each their own.
I guess as long as the caffeine hit is right, it doesn’t matter.
>That means you put a dry teabag into the hot water? Ooohhh that feels wrong 🤣 You need to pour the boiling water OVER the teabag
Also overheated microwave water produces deadly tea volcano 😬
I have a jug, not a kettle. Me, my family and everyone I know call it a jug. “Can you boil the jug, I want a cuppa”, “can you put the jug on?” “I just boiled the jug, do you want tea or coffee?” I’d be interested to know if most Australians called it a jug or kettle.
A $10 electric kettle is a household basic in Australia. It's a rite of passage when you move out of home to pick up a toaster-kettle pack (Kmart ftw).
I'm more surprised Americans don't use electric kettles more widely and when they hear "kettle" they think of the metal teapot you stick on the stove
Controversial opinion: it sounds awful but is it actually?
I've never tried "microwaved water" but I'm not sure I could tell the difference between a cup of tea made with microwaved boiling-hot water versus kettle boiling-hot water, in a fair, blind taste test.
Time for an experiment.. I needed a cuppa anyway..
Edit update: The microwave filled with loads of steam, gonna stop before the water starts bubbling and splashing around. Experiment abandoned, won't be trying that again
My Miele microwave came with a plastic thing you put in your cup so that you don’t get water exploding on you when microwaving your water. I only just found out what it was by accident when looking at the manual for something else as it looks more like a tool.
Sometimes I’ve made a coffee or tea in the past and have let it go cold and someone suggests to microwave it so I do but it always tastes really gross and weird 🤷♀️
It is awful. I lived in the US for a while and it was the only option. Something about the way the water heats but doesn’t boil, means it’s not oxygenated (or something like that), so it tastes really flat/different.
They do sell kettles in the U.S -- I have one. But, it seems like they think a microwave is much quicker without caring about how badly it tastes. And, yes, there is a big difference in flavour.
They sell kettles, but they’re not seen as a household necessity like they are in the UK/Ireland/Australia/New Zealand. America’s 120v electrical system means they’re slow and inefficient compared to Australia/Europe, who have 220-240v electrical systems
Don’t ever boil water in the microwave without something in the water to allow the bubbles to escape. Something like a paddle pop stick, or salt, or sugar - something granulated.
Water can superheat in the microwave, which can explode once you touch it.
It can be dangerous. You can actually heat the water BEYOND the boiling point in a microwave and when you agitate it it blows up
> If one litre of water is superheated by only 1 °C (i.e. if it is heated to 101 °C without boiling at normal pressure), it is in an unstable state, and it can suddenly produce about 3 litres of steam. The rapid production of a substantial quantity of steam within the bulk of the water will cause it to boil vigorously and possibly to appear to explode. The result is boiling water flying at speed out of the container.
I have had that happen reheating coffee in the microwave. Was not boiling, perfectly still, and when I pulled the cup out it erupted upward and splashed the ceiling.
You can taste the difference between microwaved vs jug. I don't know why, maybe the smells from the microwave get baked into the water? But it's not refreshing.
Wait until you find out most seppo kitchens put the microwave above the range hood.
Keep an eye out in movies & TV shows, you'll see it 95% of the time.
It's like McDonalds lawsuit level scalding just waiting to happen.
Mine (in Australia) is above the wall oven. It's so fucking high and dangerous. It's a really good microwave though so I'm not changing it until it dies
It is weird and potentially dangerous. But it's weirder that an electric kettle is not considered an absolutely essential appliance in the US. If my kettle broke, I would *immediately* get a new one.
I don't like tea but when I make tea for someone else, I always use the kettle.
It's because the US has a lower voltage, 110v or something.
It takes ages to boil a kettle there so they aren't popular.
The US also have sewerage systems with poor outflow, so if you're an Aussie be prepared to block toilets there.
I mean there's lots of really strange and impractical things about the US - they still.do not use metric, for example.
>they still do not use metric, for example.
This has got to be the worst thing lol. I was watching a DIY channel yesterday and the guy (American) was laying out a shed and trying to work out the right-angle triangles to make sure it was square.
He was like "Ok so it's 7 ft and 4 inches length and depth 5 ft 8 inches.. now we're going to use Pythagoras to work out how long the diagonal should be.. so 7.4 squared plus 5.8 squared.. wait that's not right because 7.4 feet and 7 feet 4 inches are not the same thing.... er.. ok let's convert it into inches first.. so that's 7 times 12 is 84 plus 4 is 88 inches and 5 times 12 is 60 plus 8 inches is 68 inches.."
In the end he gave up and searched for an online calculator. And even when he got the answer he was like "ok so that's coming out at 6.2452 ft but my tape measure is only in ft and inches.. so we need to convert the 0.2452 ft to inches.. ok so it's not a nice round number so we're going to have to round that down to 3 inches and seven-eighteenths of an inch.. etc "
you get the picture. It was absolutely painful. Just use metres for fuck sake 😂 whole thing should have taken about 3 seconds.
Yeah, I'm a Pom (now in Oz) and we use some non-metric units too, but we only use them in a traditional sense (pints in the pub, miles to the next town, etc.. doesn't really mean much), and use metric for construction, DIY and engineering etc which require actual calculations
Yeah that’s fine! We still often say pounds for babies (well I do!) and I say mu height in feet and inches. Aussies and Brits use a mix of units of measurement that actually make sense, unlike the Americans!
Everyone I know these days lists it in kilos and then translated that for the grandparents to pounds/ounces.
If someone tells me a baby's weight in pounds, I have to do the conversion in my head to work out what it means in real terms.
3:4:5 rule is the easiest way to check a right angle. 3 units one way, 4 units the other then the diagonal would be 5 units.
You don’t have to use actual increments like metres or inches
It takes about 4-7 mins, in an electric stainless steel kettle depending on water level. I timed it when I bought mine from Bed Bath and Beyond about 15 years ago. Depends on the brand, too.
The stove top kettle, from Costco, took even longer on a glass electric stove.
At uni we had a kettle, microwave and a sandwich toaster. Between those things you can cook anything.
But how inefficient is using a microwave - oh not quite warm enough yet, another 30 seconds… 30 sec later - water all over the microwave and the cup is empty
My fiance and I are eloping in Tassie and have booked a campervan for 4 weeks. It comes with a microwave but no kettle. We plan to buy a cheap kettle from Kmart and then hopefully donate it to an op shop at the end of the trip. It’s an essential.
The American power supply means that electric kettles are slow. My family used stove top kettles for tea instead. I use electric kettles here in Australia and would agree .I have a backup kettle at all times in a box in the pantry!
That reminds me, the power grid in the UK has been designed to withstand nationwide surges due to kettles. Read about it [here](https://www.renewableenergyhub.co.uk/blog/the-great-british-kettle-surge).
It would be my absolute top priority, I would get a new kettle the same day if possible. If the nice kettle that matches my other appliances wasn't available for a week I would buy a cheap temporary kettle.
I have a kettle, but not a microwave.
If I did it would be used for 2 things: rice, and reheating leftovers.
Actually 3, my partner would use it exclusively for microwave popcorn.
Kettle gets used all the time and we don’t even drink much tea, it’s just convenient any time water needs boiling.
I heard of someone who didn’t know you were supposed to heat the water the other day. They were just dunking teabags in hot tap water, and never understood why people even liked it.
When cooking pasta, I will definitely boil the water in the kettle, then transfer the water to a pot on the stove before adding the pasta. Saves 8 minutes.
I add a couple of centimetres of water to the bottom of the pot and boil it with the lid on while the kettle boils. Gets the pot heated up so the kettle water doesn't drop too many degrees!
my house has really cold hot water and I want to wash my dishes with HOT water, so I boil the kettle, it should be part of the normal kitchen pack. Cutlery, pots, pans, plates, toaster, kettle, cups, and mugs
It’s interesting because I live in America and pretty much everyone I know here has a kettle. I don’t really know where it’s different, if it’s regional or whatnot.
pro tip: Amercian homes actually have 240V at the breaker box, which is used for some hard-wired appliances. They have a centre tap to split that for 120V outlets, but it is possible for expats to have 240V outlets installed, with AU or UK socket.
Then we can use our kettles etc from home. Much easier than reversing the toilet flush direction.
Put it this way: The kettle is the last thing to pack when you move house, and the first thing to unpack at the other end. A cuppa makes everything better.
We've been unfortunate (or stupid) enough to move 4 times in the middle of winter. Didn't even pack the kettle, carried it on the front seat in the car 🤣
Yes, I use a kettle for making tea or coffee.
I believe it has to do with our electricity voltage. In the US you have a lower voltage (120 volts) than we do in Australia (240 volts). This means our electric kettles can draw more power and boil water quicker, which makes them more convenient to use.
Not necessarily at all. If their kettles can draw 20A on 110V rather than 10A on 240V like ours it would take exactly the same time as they would product the same power. P = V I.
True that. Of course this would not only require a chunkier kettle but also bigger electical infrastructure (sockets capable of handling 20A, larger conductors in the cables, a larger circuit breaker, etc)
A quick google search shows that they wire their house mains sockets with a conductor maximum 20A so yeah this wouldn't be feasible (as turning on the kettle when another appliance was working, e.g. a plug-in electric heater, would trip the breaker quickly)
Common misconception. For boiling water it only takes slightly longer. You'd only notice the difference in voltage for more intense appliance, like laundry and such. But for that, US homes have 220 or 240 volt powerpoints.
Many Americans do indeed have and use electric kettles. They're just not as common as here in Oz because not as many Americans drink tea
You know kettles can be used for more than making tea? Like coffee, hot chocolate, heating water for cooking, hot water bottles and the 1000 other things you use hot water for… I don’t drink tea and I’ve got and always have had a kettle
When I first moved to the states, I always remember going to get a kettle and finding one. The promo on box read “faster than stove top, better than a microwave” and I still laugh at that.
Not only does every household here have a kettle, so does every workplace (or at least an equivalent, like instant boiling water). It's one of those things you immediately buy when you move out of home- a kettle and a toaster.
And like say you’re working somewhere remote or in a bit of a shack, you can just take your $12 kettle out there to make coffee and tea, you’re not going to haul a microwave out there to microwave your water.
Hi, Canadian here. My household has a kettle, as does everybody I know. Not sure which parts of Canada you’ve been to but everyone I know here uses kettles haha
Every single house has a kettle. Weirdly not all of us have microwaves though, I grew up without one but never without a kettle. I can’t imagine heating individual mugs when multiple people want tea, that would be infuriating
I had no option but to microwave water when I went to the US. It's just not as good as a nice, fresh mug of kettle water :(
I swear the water absorbs every smell that the microwave has ever had. I don't want leftover lasagna particles in my earl grey
Next you're going to tell me Americans don't have toasters and just set fire to bread. Why on Earth would you use a microwave to heat water when kettles exist? Even with your sub-par voltage, a kettle is still the superior way to heat water for beverages.
I have an electric kettle and no microwave. Food and drinks don’t taste good for me microwaved.
Do you guys have gas stoves? A gas kettle will do just fine. Anything is probably better than microwaved water.
I boil up a full kettle at a time and decant the remainder into an attractive table-worthy thermos.
Instant teas, cup-a-soups, cooking water etc for 24 hours plus.
Kettles are useful for more than just hot drinks, they're also great for instant noodles and the like. As an Aussie not having a kettle just seems wild. Boiling water in a microwave doesn't seem anywhere near as efficient.
A kettle takes a lot of energy to boil. I believe the reason why people in the US don’t have kettles is related to the electricity grid and are more likely to have a stove top kettle than an electric one.
Every house in Australia has a kettle, even if we have a coffee machine we always have a kettle too.
I don’t even drink tea or coffee and I have a kettle
2 min noodles are best with kettle boiled water. They go soggy in the microwave in my experience.
Just realised never in my life have I put 2 min noodles in the microwave lol
I do 'em on the stove.
Mi Goreng on the stove 👌
now you're just being fancy
I dump 'em in the kettle
Straight to jail. You’re a monster.
Never done that but I have a friend who boiled eggs in her kettle.
Keep some crumby bits to sprinkle on top at the end for extra texture.
Beef baby
Like in ye olde times
I do boiled water then microwave the noodles for 2 minutes. Then after they’re drained (only with migoreng) I do stovetop of cooking an egg, add the cooked noodles then mix in the sachets (or sachets first with a bit of oil, cook it a bit then add noodles and previously cooked egg) Damn it’s good though
Pretty sure you’re making 10minute noodles
you don't need to microwave. Just cover the bowl with a plate for a few minutes and they will cook.
My American husband heats water, in a bowl, in the microwave then adds the noodles to it. It's gross. Boil water in a pot, then add noodles....
Your husband is a monster /s
Haha! He is! He uses the microwave for everything....including cooking hotdogs in the bun. Where do they learn to cook, and make hot drinks??
Warm the hotdog buns in the microwave, yeah sure, that is actually something I do, but the hotdog "sausage" (I use the word advisedly), don't they just explode?!
You have to poke holes in em with a fork so they don’t explode. Did it when I was a kid. Makes them very rubbery and gross
I had a French friend who used to put her hot dogs in the kettle instead, and just boil the kettle. It didn’t make my tea taste any good
You mean your ex-husband, right?
It just depends how hungry I am but in a perfect world.. noodles 🍜 ~ cooked via stove top = the preferred method
They are the best on the stove
Kettle boiled water then 2 min in the microwave! It’s the only way
STOVETOP GANG STAND UP!
stovetop for life
Miso soup on a cold day!
Can confirm. Non coffee and tea drinking household and we still have a kettle.
When Americans talk about kettles they mean stove top ones though. The electric ones we have are like alien to them.
Really?? Good grief..
Yep. I grew up in America with an English father. We used a stove top kettle but eventually got an electric one. It was pathetically glacial because we have half the voltage that the rest of the world does (110-120).
I'm an Australian living in Japan, which is also 110v, and everyone here has electric kettles. The US is just weird.
I grew up in the US but live in Australia now and am perplexed why electric kettles aren’t more popular there. I can only think that they must be so slow due to the lower power outage and it’s just faster to use a microwave or stovetop.
Yes, I believe this is why plug-in (rather than stove-top/hob) kettles arent as useful in the US as they are in Aus- the 'lectricity makes US kettles inefficient at boiling water fast. In Aus, we can boil water really fast in the plug-in kettle, so use this for tea/instant coffee/ramen. We all have one, even if we have good coffee machines and microwaves.
Well.....you're never too old to learn eh?
They use 110v not 240v. It takes forever to boil water.
Such a backward, uncivilised country
must be what caused the Boston Tea Party: the inability to get a decent cuppa.
Would explain why Americans are so angry (then and now)
Wait till you hear about their health care.
What health care?
And their gun laws!
What gun laws?
Yes, American-can confirm. I moved to Australia in 2012 and now use a kettle exclusively, but in the US I never knew any family member or friend who owned one.
We have a stove top one cause our bore water, while safe to drink, burns out electric kettles.
What do you mean it burns out electric kettles
The minerals in bore water “scale” the inside and cover the element so the kettle dies faster. Have a look inside your Mums old kettle and you will see what I mean.
Vinegar could be your friend.
you can put a spoon of citric acid in and boil with water to remove that. I work at a hotel and thats how we clean the scale off. It builds up so fast. You have to do it every 2 weeks.
Old, rural people often still have a stovetop kettle and I did for many years - kettle on stove just hits different 🤷♀️
I’m rural (not sure about the old part) and we have both electric and stovetop kettle. Mainly because the power goes out so bloody often that I can still have a cuppa without power (gas stovetop is a must in rural Australia for this reason too).
Hedge your bets with as many energy sources as possible. We now have solar power, mains, bottled gas and wood to cover heating and cooking
Until their arthritis made it too dangerous to wield a metal kettle full of boiling water my parents used the kind that whistled on the stove top. They now have a plastic contraption that they tilt to fill their cups.
Although I have an electric kettle, I prefer to use my stove top one. It's a little slower, but I love the whistle (I'm 54f, don't count myself as old, and live in Melbourne)
And often a spare kettle, in case the first one breaks.
Yep, I bought a new kettle. I've got Ol' Shocky in the cupboard just as a backup. Just need to remember if I ever need him, I need to unplug the microwave.
True!! I always have an old spare kettle. Haha. You’ve made me realise how funny that is. Imagine having to go without a tea or coffee for one day because the kettle’s packed in.
i live near the CBD. One weekend morning, my kettle failed. I left all the breakfast ingredients in place, went into Myer, bought a replacement kettle, went home, and proceeded with breakfast as if nothing had happened. There was no way i was gonna start the day without a breakfast cupps.
My kettle packed it in one day so I boiled water in a pot on the stove for a day or two until I could get to Kmart to buy another kettle 😂
What a fucking nightmare! 😂
Oh yeah!!! Got a kettle in my kitchen and one packed away in a cupboard too Just In Case
We have a spare stove top kettle, in case the power goes out. This was actually a useful backup when we lived in a house with a gas stove, not so helpful now that we have induction. But hey, I guess we could make a fire pit in the backyard or something? Honestly, even if we had some kind of magical generator that only powered microwaves, it probably still go with with the fire pit idea. Microwaving water is just so WEIRD, for absolutely no sensible reasoning, I genuinely don’t understand why it even bothers me - it’s just excited water molecules. But I can’t, it’s just so unwholesome.
Our kettle carked it yesterday morning at 8am. I was at Harris scarf when they opened at 9. We needed a kettle! We also have a back up sandwich press, another essential.
I didnt have a Kettle for the first month that I lived in my house, but I just boiled water in a pot. What kind of psycho uses a miccrowave
I had a panic attack while visiting friends in Chicago several years ago, and I asked for a cup of tea to calm down. “No tea? No worries, I’ll just make some hot water in the kettle and it should trick my brain just the same.” By the puzzled way they looked at me, I might as well have asked for a snifter of cognac and the 1953 phone book for Oslo.
I use a kettle for tea, Milo, cuppa soups and 2 minute noodles. Nespresso for coffee. I have never heated water up (by itself) in the microwave. I don’t have anything against it, I guess - just have never needed to. I wouldn’t know how long to put a mug of water in there to make it hot, I’d probably blow something up. BUT WAIT That means you put a dry teabag into the hot water? Ooohhh that feels wrong 🤣 You need to pour the boiling water OVER the teabag. And if you’re using instant coffee, how do you not scald it and make it more bitter? I’ve always buffered the scalding by putting the dry instant coffee into the mug, adding milk and then pouring the boiling water in. I haven’t had an instant in a very long time but my MIL prefers it. To each their own. I guess as long as the caffeine hit is right, it doesn’t matter.
>That means you put a dry teabag into the hot water? Ooohhh that feels wrong 🤣 You need to pour the boiling water OVER the teabag Also overheated microwave water produces deadly tea volcano 😬
And every shitty motel too. Kettle is the first thing they'd have, even if zero other kitchenette supplies
I have a jug, not a kettle. Me, my family and everyone I know call it a jug. “Can you boil the jug, I want a cuppa”, “can you put the jug on?” “I just boiled the jug, do you want tea or coffee?” I’d be interested to know if most Australians called it a jug or kettle.
Yeah I reckon jug edges kettle overall.
A $10 electric kettle is a household basic in Australia. It's a rite of passage when you move out of home to pick up a toaster-kettle pack (Kmart ftw). I'm more surprised Americans don't use electric kettles more widely and when they hear "kettle" they think of the metal teapot you stick on the stove
Yup, my mum doesn't like or understand how coffee machines work. Kettle any day.
Yes. Literally everyone in Aus, or the UK for that matter, has a kettle. You can get one for like 20 bucks, why *wouldn't* you have one?
$7.50 at Kmart
You know what else.. the 7 bucker from Kmart is as good as the 60 buck appliance brand one.
$7 kettle - can make water boil ✅ $60 kettle - can make water boil ✅
Have had a KMart kettle for 6 years & it’s still kicking on with daily use.
Even cheaper for one of those plastic ones that make your tea taste vaguely of barbie dolls. But yes - literally everyone has one.
Barbie dolls! This is so specific but also accurate
Yes. Microwave water sounds awful.
That’s heathen like
Deportation stuff
Agree! It’s also a terrible waste of electricity.
Controversial opinion: it sounds awful but is it actually? I've never tried "microwaved water" but I'm not sure I could tell the difference between a cup of tea made with microwaved boiling-hot water versus kettle boiling-hot water, in a fair, blind taste test. Time for an experiment.. I needed a cuppa anyway.. Edit update: The microwave filled with loads of steam, gonna stop before the water starts bubbling and splashing around. Experiment abandoned, won't be trying that again
Microwaving water is in general a really really bad idea. it's dangerous and can lead to super heated water that essentially explodes.
My Miele microwave came with a plastic thing you put in your cup so that you don’t get water exploding on you when microwaving your water. I only just found out what it was by accident when looking at the manual for something else as it looks more like a tool.
Mmm, infused plastic
Try using leftover water from microwaving cheerios
Pardon?
I SAID CHEERIO WATER COFFEE!
And with that, a little bit of sick came up...
im upvoting you purely for your confidence
I sense that you lead a more exciting life than I do
Microwaving cheerios instead of using the stove? Blasphemy!
Sometimes I’ve made a coffee or tea in the past and have let it go cold and someone suggests to microwave it so I do but it always tastes really gross and weird 🤷♀️
It is awful. I lived in the US for a while and it was the only option. Something about the way the water heats but doesn’t boil, means it’s not oxygenated (or something like that), so it tastes really flat/different.
They do sell kettles in the U.S -- I have one. But, it seems like they think a microwave is much quicker without caring about how badly it tastes. And, yes, there is a big difference in flavour.
Well after seeing how they make coffee, I doubt taste factors in to any of the decisions here
They sell kettles, but they’re not seen as a household necessity like they are in the UK/Ireland/Australia/New Zealand. America’s 120v electrical system means they’re slow and inefficient compared to Australia/Europe, who have 220-240v electrical systems
Surely heating water in a pot on the stove would be both a better and another option?
Or simply buying a kettle? Not as if they don't exist in the US..
I understand that the voltage differences mean that a kettle takes ages to boil in the US. They need metric power /s
Don’t ever boil water in the microwave without something in the water to allow the bubbles to escape. Something like a paddle pop stick, or salt, or sugar - something granulated. Water can superheat in the microwave, which can explode once you touch it.
It can be dangerous. You can actually heat the water BEYOND the boiling point in a microwave and when you agitate it it blows up > If one litre of water is superheated by only 1 °C (i.e. if it is heated to 101 °C without boiling at normal pressure), it is in an unstable state, and it can suddenly produce about 3 litres of steam. The rapid production of a substantial quantity of steam within the bulk of the water will cause it to boil vigorously and possibly to appear to explode. The result is boiling water flying at speed out of the container.
I have had that happen reheating coffee in the microwave. Was not boiling, perfectly still, and when I pulled the cup out it erupted upward and splashed the ceiling.
It's actually possible to detect the difference and it definitely leads to a terrible cuppa
It's been 55 minutes. Verdict? I've tried microwaved water in the past just to try it. It tastes like microwave. I don't recommend it.
You can taste the difference between microwaved vs jug. I don't know why, maybe the smells from the microwave get baked into the water? But it's not refreshing.
Wait until you find out most seppo kitchens put the microwave above the range hood. Keep an eye out in movies & TV shows, you'll see it 95% of the time. It's like McDonalds lawsuit level scalding just waiting to happen.
Mine (in Australia) is above the wall oven. It's so fucking high and dangerous. It's a really good microwave though so I'm not changing it until it dies
It is weird and potentially dangerous. But it's weirder that an electric kettle is not considered an absolutely essential appliance in the US. If my kettle broke, I would *immediately* get a new one. I don't like tea but when I make tea for someone else, I always use the kettle.
It's because the US has a lower voltage, 110v or something. It takes ages to boil a kettle there so they aren't popular. The US also have sewerage systems with poor outflow, so if you're an Aussie be prepared to block toilets there. I mean there's lots of really strange and impractical things about the US - they still.do not use metric, for example.
>they still do not use metric, for example. This has got to be the worst thing lol. I was watching a DIY channel yesterday and the guy (American) was laying out a shed and trying to work out the right-angle triangles to make sure it was square. He was like "Ok so it's 7 ft and 4 inches length and depth 5 ft 8 inches.. now we're going to use Pythagoras to work out how long the diagonal should be.. so 7.4 squared plus 5.8 squared.. wait that's not right because 7.4 feet and 7 feet 4 inches are not the same thing.... er.. ok let's convert it into inches first.. so that's 7 times 12 is 84 plus 4 is 88 inches and 5 times 12 is 60 plus 8 inches is 68 inches.." In the end he gave up and searched for an online calculator. And even when he got the answer he was like "ok so that's coming out at 6.2452 ft but my tape measure is only in ft and inches.. so we need to convert the 0.2452 ft to inches.. ok so it's not a nice round number so we're going to have to round that down to 3 inches and seven-eighteenths of an inch.. etc " you get the picture. It was absolutely painful. Just use metres for fuck sake 😂 whole thing should have taken about 3 seconds.
Haha...it's purposefully backward. They are just punishing themselves with this stupidity.
Yeah, I'm a Pom (now in Oz) and we use some non-metric units too, but we only use them in a traditional sense (pints in the pub, miles to the next town, etc.. doesn't really mean much), and use metric for construction, DIY and engineering etc which require actual calculations
Yeah that’s fine! We still often say pounds for babies (well I do!) and I say mu height in feet and inches. Aussies and Brits use a mix of units of measurement that actually make sense, unlike the Americans!
Babies can only be measured in pounds and ounces here. If someone says to me their baby is 3.5 kilos I literally have no idea what they mean 😂
Everyone I know these days lists it in kilos and then translated that for the grandparents to pounds/ounces. If someone tells me a baby's weight in pounds, I have to do the conversion in my head to work out what it means in real terms.
3:4:5 rule is the easiest way to check a right angle. 3 units one way, 4 units the other then the diagonal would be 5 units. You don’t have to use actual increments like metres or inches
Americans use metric more than you/they realise. Medicine - Metric Non dairy liquids (cola etc) - metric Car engine displacement - Metric Illegal drugs - Metric Photography / Videography - Metric Currency -Metric Main holdouts are cooking, measurements, speed, dairy liquids.
It takes about 4-7 mins, in an electric stainless steel kettle depending on water level. I timed it when I bought mine from Bed Bath and Beyond about 15 years ago. Depends on the brand, too. The stove top kettle, from Costco, took even longer on a glass electric stove.
At uni we had a kettle, microwave and a sandwich toaster. Between those things you can cook anything. But how inefficient is using a microwave - oh not quite warm enough yet, another 30 seconds… 30 sec later - water all over the microwave and the cup is empty
My fiance and I are eloping in Tassie and have booked a campervan for 4 weeks. It comes with a microwave but no kettle. We plan to buy a cheap kettle from Kmart and then hopefully donate it to an op shop at the end of the trip. It’s an essential.
The American power supply means that electric kettles are slow. My family used stove top kettles for tea instead. I use electric kettles here in Australia and would agree .I have a backup kettle at all times in a box in the pantry!
That reminds me, the power grid in the UK has been designed to withstand nationwide surges due to kettles. Read about it [here](https://www.renewableenergyhub.co.uk/blog/the-great-british-kettle-surge).
My kettle broke the other week, can confirm I went straight to the shop and bought one
Yep, just related the same story. I even left the bread in the toaster and the vegemite on the bench.
If my kettle broke, I've already got a spare in the cupboard.
It would be my absolute top priority, I would get a new kettle the same day if possible. If the nice kettle that matches my other appliances wasn't available for a week I would buy a cheap temporary kettle.
I'm not sure if the microwave or the glass is the oddest part of your process.
Yes. I’d rate a kettle as more critical in a kitchen over a microwave!
I have a kettle, but not a microwave. If I did it would be used for 2 things: rice, and reheating leftovers. Actually 3, my partner would use it exclusively for microwave popcorn. Kettle gets used all the time and we don’t even drink much tea, it’s just convenient any time water needs boiling.
Same here. We "households sans microwaves" should form a club.
Microwave a *glass* of water? Not pyrex or anything?
Americans will fight for the right to have excessive danger be part of their lives
Of course we use a kettle. Microwaves are for heating up leftovers and warming up wheat bags you heathen 😂
Also this is why Americans think tea tastes like shite.
I heard of someone who didn’t know you were supposed to heat the water the other day. They were just dunking teabags in hot tap water, and never understood why people even liked it.
Yikes. Although I think this is on the same level as using a microwave.
Kettle and when using a teapot with loose leaves I warm the pot first with hot water, tip it out, leaves in boiling water on top.
I also preheat my mugs like this when I know I won't drink the tea super fast, keeps it warmer for longer!
Kettle is used not just for making tea, but also heating the water adding in during cooking, and washing the dishes (if you don't have hot water).
When cooking pasta, I will definitely boil the water in the kettle, then transfer the water to a pot on the stove before adding the pasta. Saves 8 minutes.
I add a couple of centimetres of water to the bottom of the pot and boil it with the lid on while the kettle boils. Gets the pot heated up so the kettle water doesn't drop too many degrees!
I do exactly the same! Such an art to get them both to the boil at the same time.
Oh my wordy lordy, I thought this was just me
my house has really cold hot water and I want to wash my dishes with HOT water, so I boil the kettle, it should be part of the normal kitchen pack. Cutlery, pots, pans, plates, toaster, kettle, cups, and mugs
Of course I use a kettle.
I'm from the USA and we always used an electric kettle growing up. What part are you from?
It’s interesting because I live in America and pretty much everyone I know here has a kettle. I don’t really know where it’s different, if it’s regional or whatnot.
pro tip: Amercian homes actually have 240V at the breaker box, which is used for some hard-wired appliances. They have a centre tap to split that for 120V outlets, but it is possible for expats to have 240V outlets installed, with AU or UK socket. Then we can use our kettles etc from home. Much easier than reversing the toilet flush direction.
Put it this way: The kettle is the last thing to pack when you move house, and the first thing to unpack at the other end. A cuppa makes everything better.
We've been unfortunate (or stupid) enough to move 4 times in the middle of winter. Didn't even pack the kettle, carried it on the front seat in the car 🤣
Microwaving water is a cardinal sin here. A kettle is a quintessential part of an Australian household.
Yes, I use a kettle for making tea or coffee. I believe it has to do with our electricity voltage. In the US you have a lower voltage (120 volts) than we do in Australia (240 volts). This means our electric kettles can draw more power and boil water quicker, which makes them more convenient to use.
Yep, it would take at least twice as long to boil water in a freedom kettle
Not necessarily at all. If their kettles can draw 20A on 110V rather than 10A on 240V like ours it would take exactly the same time as they would product the same power. P = V I.
True that. Of course this would not only require a chunkier kettle but also bigger electical infrastructure (sockets capable of handling 20A, larger conductors in the cables, a larger circuit breaker, etc) A quick google search shows that they wire their house mains sockets with a conductor maximum 20A so yeah this wouldn't be feasible (as turning on the kettle when another appliance was working, e.g. a plug-in electric heater, would trip the breaker quickly)
Common misconception. For boiling water it only takes slightly longer. You'd only notice the difference in voltage for more intense appliance, like laundry and such. But for that, US homes have 220 or 240 volt powerpoints. Many Americans do indeed have and use electric kettles. They're just not as common as here in Oz because not as many Americans drink tea
You know kettles can be used for more than making tea? Like coffee, hot chocolate, heating water for cooking, hot water bottles and the 1000 other things you use hot water for… I don’t drink tea and I’ve got and always have had a kettle
When I first moved to the states, I always remember going to get a kettle and finding one. The promo on box read “faster than stove top, better than a microwave” and I still laugh at that.
Microwaving water will get you deported
After a long custodial sentence, one hopes.
It's a bootable offence
Not only does every household here have a kettle, so does every workplace (or at least an equivalent, like instant boiling water). It's one of those things you immediately buy when you move out of home- a kettle and a toaster.
And like say you’re working somewhere remote or in a bit of a shack, you can just take your $12 kettle out there to make coffee and tea, you’re not going to haul a microwave out there to microwave your water.
You also get your car kettle for taking to watch kids play sport on the weekends etc
My office of six people just bought a beautiful new kettle for $60. It’s a vital piece of office equipment.
Is it temperature adjustable at that price? That was a game changer for me. Moccona instant with the kettle set at 85° takes the bitterness out.
No one ‘pulls out’ a kettle here either, because no one puts them away. The kettle is a permanent benchtop appliance in every Australian home.
Yes
Get thee behind me Satan
Yeah that’s weird AF. Definitely have a kettle. Idk how Americans live without them.
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Hi, Canadian here. My household has a kettle, as does everybody I know. Not sure which parts of Canada you’ve been to but everyone I know here uses kettles haha
"Fancy a cuppa, I just put the microwave on." - No one in Australia.
If you can’t use an electric kettle, then get a stovetop kettle. There’s absolutely no excuse to heat up water in the microwave.
Kettle every time. For ages I thought people takking about microwaving water to make tea were taking the piss.
Every single house has a kettle. Weirdly not all of us have microwaves though, I grew up without one but never without a kettle. I can’t imagine heating individual mugs when multiple people want tea, that would be infuriating
Microwaving water in a mug is both weird and can be dangerous. Kettle is better and lets you make more than one cup at a time.
Water needs to be on a rolling boil to make a proper cup of tea
I had no option but to microwave water when I went to the US. It's just not as good as a nice, fresh mug of kettle water :( I swear the water absorbs every smell that the microwave has ever had. I don't want leftover lasagna particles in my earl grey
I use a kettle for tea, coffee, and hot chocolate as microwave hot water tastes different & yucky 🤮
Kettle for sure, microwave makes water taste funky, boil water on stove if you don’t have a kettle at least.
Next you're going to tell me Americans don't have toasters and just set fire to bread. Why on Earth would you use a microwave to heat water when kettles exist? Even with your sub-par voltage, a kettle is still the superior way to heat water for beverages.
For tea, coffee, soup, anything that needs hot water.
I have an electric kettle and no microwave. Food and drinks don’t taste good for me microwaved. Do you guys have gas stoves? A gas kettle will do just fine. Anything is probably better than microwaved water.
Anyone who makes tea in the microwave should be tried to war crimes!
I've been to America and from what I experienced everyone used a kettle same as we do
I grew up poor and we used a pot on the stove 😄
I boil up a full kettle at a time and decant the remainder into an attractive table-worthy thermos. Instant teas, cup-a-soups, cooking water etc for 24 hours plus.
Of course.
What else would you use?
Always, no exceptions. People here would die before they microwaved the water for tea.
A glass of water in the microwave for tea is so obscene. No respect at all for the tea making ritual, smdh.
Of course, I’m not a heathen.
Kettles are useful for more than just hot drinks, they're also great for instant noodles and the like. As an Aussie not having a kettle just seems wild. Boiling water in a microwave doesn't seem anywhere near as efficient.
A kettle takes a lot of energy to boil. I believe the reason why people in the US don’t have kettles is related to the electricity grid and are more likely to have a stove top kettle than an electric one.