PSA: Don't microwave bacon unsupervised

Mark R

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
8,513
16
81
Put some bacon in the microwave on the extra-crispy setting, and then went to nef on ATOT.

After about 7 minutes, I hear the characteristic and unmistakable buzz of a high-current arc. A sound I can recognise immediately.

I sprint across the living room into the kitchen, where I find the microwave emitting a terrifying glow and buzzing angrily. There was a large flame rising from the bacon, and a huge ball of shimmering, brightly glowing plasma in the center of the oven.

I press stop, and the plasma dissipates, but the bacon keeps burning, but in a slightly more controlled fashion. I open the door and blow it out.

One of the pieces of bacon is a bit charred with a hole burned through it.

Not wanting my last pieces of bacon to go to waste, I make a nice chicken and bacon wrap out of what was left. It was crisped to perfection - even the one with a hole burnt in it.

The microwave oven was a bit charred inside, but I suspect it will buff out.
 

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
19
81
:D

The closest I had to that was some charring between two pieces of large-diced ham.
I just had it in there to take the chill of the refrigerator out of it, but some arcing did apparently occur.



Glowing plasma? Is that bit of an exaggeration?
Nope.
Youtube -> "grape in microwave"

:eek:


(Example)
 
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crab

Diamond Member
Jan 29, 2001
7,330
19
81
Two of my mom's more recent OTR microwaves started doing that permanently out of the blue. One a GE and the other a Whirlpool I think.
 

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
19
81
Lead wicks => lead vapor coating on inside of oven. What could possibly be unsafe?
That's why you need to use dishes made with asbestos, preferably with a glaze that contains uranium.

(It's a homeopathic thing.)
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
7 minutes sounds like an awful long time. I prefer my bacon kind of chewy (yeah, yeah -- that's weird, I know), and I only do 3.5-4 minutes for 4 pieces of bacon. 5 minutes would probably get it crunchy.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
Microwaving bacon ruins it...

I usually do it because I'm already dealing with eggs (omelettes) and sausage (patties) on the stove. I also find bacon to be the messiest thing to cook, so to avoid having a lot of stove wiping to do later, the microwave (with paper towels on bottom and top) works rather well.
 

Leros

Lifer
Jul 11, 2004
21,867
7
81
I usually do it because I'm already dealing with eggs (omelettes) and sausage (patties) on the stove. I also find bacon to be the messiest thing to cook, so to avoid having a lot of stove wiping to do later, the microwave (with paper towels on bottom and top) works rather well.

Learn to cook bacon in the oven. Lay down some tin foil on a baking sheet. Practically zero clean up and it makes great bacon.