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.
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.