You might hear a lot of contradictory advice about how to cook in your microwave oven. If you’re confused, there’s no need to be concerned. Many people don’t know a lot about this easy, fast way of preparing food. Here are a few tips that’ll help you enjoy microwave cooking a lot more successfully.

First, make sure you cook in the right plastics. While plastic containers work well in the microwave, not all of them are created equal. Some aren’t heat proof, and will melt or deform when placed in your microwave. Others contain harmful substances that can leach into food that’s in contact with them if you heat them up. Because of this, it’s extremely important to make sure you use only plastics intended to be put in the microwave. Don’t reuse packages like margarine containers as microwave cooking containers. Also, only heat foods in their packages if they have directions for microwave cooking. If you don’t see these directions, take food out of the package before you cook it.

Cook small pieces. Food should be cut into pieces of uniform size and evenly spread in the dish you’re cooking with. While you’re cooking, you may need to turn them or rotate them. Foods that are unevenly sized should be placed with the thick parts towards the outside of the container, since outer areas cook faster than inner ones in a microwave.

Foods like vegetables that have a skin, shell, or other exterior coating should be pierced before cooking. Otherwise, steam may build up inside and cause an explosive reaction. Also, always cook in a slightly larger dish than you’d use for a conventional oven. Round or oval containers cook more evenly in a microwave, while square or rectangular containers tend to heat up too much in the corners.

If you’re using a microwave recipe, cook food for the shorter time in the range stated. While you can always add more time later, overcooked food has been ruined. If you don’t have a turntable in your microwave, stop the machine periodically to rotate food. Dishes inside your oven will be extremely hot - use an oven mitt or pad.

If you cover a food in a conventional oven, use a lid in the microwave so that moisture will be retained and cooking will occur evenly. Leave all lids slightly open so that pressure won’t build up inside the container, and lift lids carefully when you remove food. Turn the opening away from you when you do this to prevent yourself from being burned. If food needs to be salted, do this after cooking it. That’s because salt can cause microwaved foods to dry out.

When baking, you can soften solid sticks of butter by heating them for about half a minute on fifty percent power. Likewise, if you’re heating sour cream, use a lower power to prevent it from curdling. Brown sugar that has hardened can be microwaved in a loosely covered container for about thirty seconds with a slice of apple or a piece of bread. This remoistens the sugar. Bread crumbs can be made by microwaving cubed bread until sale. Then, crush them in a sealed bag to make cleaning up easy.

When using frozen meat, separate individual pieces by defrosting for half a minute to a minute. If you want to cook it more in the microwave, arrange the meat evenly in a dish after separation. To drain fat from hamburger, microwave it in a plastic colander set on top of a bowl. The fat will run out of the meat and into the dish for easy disposal.