Cooking hacks can be hugely helpful in the kitchen, with many of the quick tricks helping to save money, time, and effort.
But one woman has issued a shocking warning after her microwave poaching hack backfired and exploded in her face – leaving her with horrific burns.
Chantelle Conway had been using the hack – which involves putting boiling water into a cup along with a raw egg before microwaving it for 10 seconds – for two years before it went horribly wrong last week.
The 25-year-old was left screaming in agony and was convinced she'd “burnt her face off” when she put a cold spoon into the boiling water to remove the poached egg, as the temperature clash caused the water to shoot out of the cup and straight into her face.
Chantelle suffered severe burns as a result of the hack gone wrong, and has been sharing photos of her excruciating injuries to warn others against the hack.
She said: "I've always done poached eggs that way because it was just a quicker and easier way of doing them.
"When I took it out of the microwave I put a metal spoon in to turn the egg and check if it was cooked but as soon as the spoon touched the water it shot out. It wasn't the egg that blew up, that landed on my kitchen side.
"The water went everywhere - all over my face and neck and I'm sure it even hit the ceiling because there's a mark above where I was standing.
"It was the worst pain I've ever experienced in my life and I've had two natural childbirths - it felt like someone had a blowtorch on my face constantly and I was convinced my whole face had burnt off.
“I think I probably would've died from the pain if I hadn't acted so fast pouring cold water on myself because it was that bad, I couldn't handle it."
The mum of two was at home with her 18-month-old baby Heidi-River Ball when she suffered her burns, and had to wait almost an hour before her partner Mark Ball could take her to Royal Bolton Hospital.
And hospital staff told her she was lucky to not have suffered worse injuries, as her fast action of dousing herself in cold water spared her from third degree burns.
Chantelle’s injuries blistered and burst over the next week, but have now started to heal.
The burnt skin has begun to flake off leaving her with a “patchy” complexion that she's praying won't scar.
She added: "The next day I started getting blisters on my chin and by Sunday morning I couldn't cope with the pain and went back to hospital for some advice.
"On Monday the blisters on my chin burst and I woke up with my hand stuck to my face which pulled some skin off when I moved - I was panicking because then I had a raw patch of skin.
"I'm coming to the end of it now and my burnt skin is shedding off like a snake. I'm not in much pain now but it's very itchy and the inside of my nose and lips are still very raw."
Following her dangerous run-in with a poached egg, Chantelle has vowed never to eat the protein product ever again.
The mum has been left “traumatised” by the events, and wants to make sure others don’t try the potentially life-threatening hack.
She said: "I get flashbacks and it's put me off cooking. I'll never have an egg again because I'm so traumatised - I used to love eggs.
"I do take full responsibility for what happened, it was silly of me to do it and I just want more people to know what can happen so it doesn't happen to anyone else.
"I've seen loads of videos of people doing it on TikTok and I just want to show people what can happen to hopefully stop them doing it."
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