When it comes to warming food up in an instant, most of the time our trusty microwaves will do the job for us. But there are some things you should never put in a microwave, as one woman recently discovered.
The woman has now issued a stark warning against putting hard-boiled eggs in the microwave, after her attempt at warming her eggs up quickly ended in disaster, and could have even been dangerous.
In a video shared online, the woman showed herself trying to break open a hard-boiled egg that she had recently stuck in her microwave. But when she broke open the white, the hot yolk exploded out in small pieces.
And although the woman in the video appeared to be safe, the pieces of yolk could have been dangerous - especially if a scalding hot piece was to fly into her eye.
In her video, shared to her @cristinamilicua account on TikTok, she said: "This is a PSA to never microwave your hard-boiled eggs."
She added in the caption: "I didn't know they could do that."
Commenters on the woman's video were equally shocked by the exploding egg, and said they would take more care in the future when it comes to warming up their lunch.
One person said: "I'm so surprised, this seems like such a normal thing to do."
While another added: "I never knew!"
Others claimed they knew of people who "needed surgery" after hot egg yolk landed in their eye, while more urged people to never microwave eggs of any kind.
According to MyRecipes, eggs can explode in the microwave because there is still moisture inside which allows steam to build up in the yolk when heated.
They said in a blog post about reheating boiled eggs: "The shell inhibits the egg from expanding when it's heated in the microwave, so once the shell is removed it explodes, and unfortunately, you're going to be prying pieces of egg off your kitchen floor.
"The principle here isn't that different from opening a shaken can of soda: All the pressure that's collected inside will leave you soaked in soda, or, in this case, egg."
Meanwhile, back in 2017, a man filed a lawsuit against a restaurant after claiming he'd suffered severe burns and hearing damage from a hard-boiled egg, which he said exploded in his mouth after he bit into it.
Following the lawsuit - which was settled out of court - Anthony Nash and Lauren von Blohn from Charles M. Salter Associates in San Francisco conducted research into the microwaving theory, and found that around 30 per cent of microwaved eggs only exploded after being poked with a sharp object.
The eggs in the experiment were hard-boiled, placed in a water bath, and then heated for three minutes.
The research showed that it is unlikely that the man suing for damages lost his hearing as a result of the egg explosion, which took place in his mouth.
"On a statistical basis, the likelihood of an egg exploding and damaging someone's hearing is quite remote," Nash said in a statement, "It's a little bit like playing egg roulette."
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