While heating some soup in the microwave oven, precisely as instructed on the can, the soup made several loud popping noises and splattered itself all over the inside of the microwave oven. I’ve read about superheated water, but soup has plenty of nucleation points. My guess is that the thickness of the soup prevented convection currents from distributing the heat, leading to hot spots that formed explosive steam bubbles. That still doesn’t explain why the bubbles were so violent. Does anyone have an explanation?
Hydrated kidney beans will sometimes go off with a bang in the microwave. They’ve got tough skins, so the pressure builds as it does in popcorn.
There weren’t any beans in the soup, or other things likely to explode when heated.
No meat? Fatty meats can sometimes pop pretty violently when nuked. Otherwise, it could have just been another one of those things that can, under the right conditions, just asplode for no immediately obvious reason (as pointed out several times in this thread).
Is it one of those campbell type cans where you leave the holey cover on? They tend to jump and make a big pop a few minutes in, but if you place it on a napkin, then air can get under the base and prevent it from jumping.
I’ve had potatoes in soup explode. I don’t know why, because they have no skin, but they can explode.
Without more information as to the contents of the soup in question, any other posts will be pure unfounded speculation.
That might be the cause. The soup contained chicken, small dumplings and small chunks of potato in a thick base. It was heated in an earthenware bowl.
I’m in the hospital waiting room right now while my girlfriend is being treated for what I think is second degree burns. She heated Cambells soup in the microwave (not from a can or in A can) in a bowl took it out, put in on the counter and then “kaboom” literally. It even hit the cieling which is 4foot above the counter and it had a radius of up to 3 foot on the floor. It was only in the microwave for 1min 11 sec. The microwave was spotless before she used it and there was only one small splash on the inside after she cooked the soup in it. Directions did say microwaveable.
I’ve figured out you need to heat chunky soups in increments and stir in between. I’ve had this popping thing happen to me at work with chunky clam chowder and with bean and bacon soups.
Be sure to chew that food before you swallow it!
But chew it very very carefully.
Microwave ovens can cause a mess with just about anything other than water. It helps to dial the heat level down a bit. Practically speaking, put a lid on anything you don’t want stuck to the sides or roof of the oven. They are basically just tongue burning rubber-food producers anyway.