Microwave oven’s “add 30 seconds” button delivers cool digital precision escape

The microwave is a precision cooking tool. Put how long you need the food to heat in the microwave and that will do; no more, no less.

But for all the accuracy that governs the microwave – and what the microwave is trying to impose on our food and cooking – the reality is that things can’t be placed so well in a convenient digital box. Life is not binary, so many microwaves have an “add 30 seconds” button to give people the camera we need in the otherwise relentless numbers of the countdown clock.

It is a button that almost opposes the caverns to the desired functionality. Instead of calculating the perfect amount of time to reheat or cook your food, it turns out that the best way to actually use a microwave oven in real life is to just force it to start and continue until you think that the food is ready. What if it’s not? Well, just add an extra 30 seconds.

Microwaves are almost ubiquitous in kitchens nowadays and are relatively high-tech compared to a range of hobs or an oven, which have been largely unchanged in their basic functions for centuries. The basic technology is simple: microwaves skip radio waves to shake the water molecules in your food in turn, creating heat, turning leftover pasta or frozen dinner into a quickly accessible holiday.

When cooking with an oven or an open flame on the stove, there is an element of unpredictability in the oven. Sometimes that batch of cakes will need an extra minute; sometimes your eggs burn because you overestimated how long it would take to cook. It is difficult to put most recipes or food in an exact, scientific box.

And yet, that’s what we’re trying to do with the microwave. It is no coincidence that most foods destined for the microwave are premade: usually something that comes from a box, completed with the specific calendar and instructions, or leftovers from the refrigerator, the leftovers of a previous meal penetrated into a spectrum its self.

But the “add 30 seconds” button is a crack in the cold digital armor of the microwave, a control area that allows users to go beyond the allotted time, to slip in seconds to get the perfect results. It is a reminder that life is not always accurate or predictable and that time It is on your side.

Because sometimes a few extra seconds can make a difference.