Cory's tip of the day

[phylodog]

If you find yourself in a similar situation than I found myself this evening; I don't recommend my chosen course of action.

I browned some ground beef yesterday for tacos. As I always do, I drained as much of the grease out of the pan as possible as I was cooking it and once it was done. I could not find a suitable container to put it in so I put it into a Pyrex measuring cup figuring it would solidify and I could toss it in the garbage. I forgot about it and it ended up staying on the counter through the night.

Fast forward to this evening and my wife has browned some italian sausage to mix in with tomato sauce for spaghetti. She begins to draw off the grease and put it on top of the burger grease from yesterday. After she is finished she pours the sauce out of the jar into the sausage and I spot an opportunity.

I tried to pour the grease into the tomato sauce jar. The sausage grease went well but the burger grease was still solidified. There was approximately .5" of fluid underneath the solidified grease in the measuring cup. In a stroke of brilliance I decided to pop the measuring cup into the microwave to warm it up so I could pour it into the jar.

20 second go by and the microwave beeps. I open it up to find nothing has changed in the measuring cup. So I figure maybe another 30 seconds would do it. Bad idea. another fifteen seconds was all it could handle and *POOF*. I looked at my wife who was staring at me with a not too friendly glare as I slowly opened to microwave to find that there was very little of anything left in the measuring cup. Almost the entire contents was now covering the door, sides and roof of the microwave.

Apparently the solidified grease doesn't absorb the energy nearly as quickly as the liquid below. The solidified grease also must create a pretty substantial seal which allowed the pressure from the apparently steaming hot liquid to build up to the breaking point.

Quite a mess. I'm a professional. Do not try this at home.

 

[85t5mcss]

Good story. Funny as h**l.

P.S.-I have never grenaded my bacon grease during reheating. Thanks for the laugh.

 

[MrsXtremeVel]

At least it was contained to the microwave. I suggest next time just getting papertowel and scooping it out. You cleaned up after yourself didn't you, while your wife supervised?

 

[Moparracer89]

Take it as an easy lesson in science

 

[phylodog]

At least it was contained to the microwave. I suggest next time just getting papertowel and scooping it out. You cleaned up after yourself didn't you, while your wife supervised?

Yes, yes I did.

 

[Archbishop]

Or just just really lean beef to begin with and there's virtually no grease to get rid of.....
Still funny story. Hate the "what have you done now?!" look from my wifey to.

 

[CountryBoy19]

Lol, that's hilarious.... laughing WITH you of course, not at you....


BTW, quick lesson on how microwaves work.

Microwaves interact with water molecules to heat them. No water? It's not going to heat it.

So in your case, the microwaves were interacting with the water under the grease, but because the grease contained very little water it didn't get heated much. Hense, that problem

Now you know for the future, it's not going to heat up unless there is water in it. If it's completely dry, you get nothing.

 

[jmiller676]

Hey.....Eco-Friendly nukes!!!!!

 

[sharkey]

FWIW, "gel" deodorant will do the same thing. Flashback to 1995 or so, at a friend's place. He is unable to find deodorant, but happens upon a fairly old gel in his gym bag.

The goop is hardened in the little holes in the top, so we figure a few seconds in mister microwave.....

 

[Naptown]

ping pong balls burn when you hold a lighter too close to them too.

 

[IndyBeerman]

Oh young padawan, let this Eisenstein moment remind you that very hot water is your friend. Insert container into the sink, proceed to run the hot water around the container to warm up the grease so you can remove it with no problems. I have prevented many a headache and the tedious labor of cleaning up the microwave with this method.

With age comes experience, treasure it now before you get to old to remember it.

 

[phylodog]

I've got some of the age, just hadn't had this experience yet I reckon. I'm familiar with microwaves and how they work but I mistakenly assumed they would heat the grease along with the water in the bottom. I mean, you can microwave bacon which is what 99.5% grease? Why not beef grease?!?!

 

[Fenway]

Pics?

 

[JohnP82]

Lesson learned! thanks for sharing and maybe saving someone else from the same mess!

 

[tenring]

And no hard boiled eggs in your microwave!

 

[jmiller676]

And remember to cover ravioli.

 

[hardtrailz400]

Was the Pyrex ok? Saw a few articles recently on them exploding themselves.

 

[hotfarmboy1]

That sucks, but definitely funny!

I would of probably just grabbed a spoon, or small spatula and scraped it out that way. Yeah its one more utensil to clean, but it saves a big mess otherwise.

 

[printcraft]

Luckily it did not catch fire.
Grease fires are the best.

My mother-in-law came to the house one weekend and was cooking tacos
for dinner (she's a great cook, not to great on the cleanup) anyhoo at some
point she spilled grease in the back burner of the stove (it was off at the time)
and did not clean it up or make mention of it.

Fast forward a couple of days and I am in the kitchen boiling some water
for noodles and am using that particular burner.
I start to get a little smoke and thought....
"There must be some crumb down there smoldering or something, I'll just tip this pan a little and put it out with this here water......"



Looked something like this......

It was pretty exciting..... my extinguisher worked well.

 

[Clay]

butter will do the same thing. NEVER put a stick of butter in the microwave to soften it for more than 10 or 15 seconds at a time. You can do it multiple times, and for less time with each successive attempt. Apparently if you try to do it all at once, the butter WILL EXPLODE and cover the inside of the microwave.

Dont ask me how I know.