I'm the idiot who burned something in the microwave, help me clean it

[Northern_Piper]

From ten years ago:

Help! My microwave stinks!

@Northern_Piper

Really, really stinks! We had a heat bag that you warmed up in the microwave and then put it on a sore muscle for soft gentle heat. The bag was cloth, and it was filled with grain, so that each time you microwaved it the grain warmed up.

Worked like a charm - until we got a new microwave. Turns out the new one is much more powerful than our old one. So the same amount of time on “high”, instead of just heating up the grain - well - it burst into flame. Still in the microwave. Burning through the cloth bag. And it stunk! Imagine an entire bag of Orville Redenbacher popcorn burning inside a cotton bag, and you’ve pretty much got it. :eek:

It was so hot that even once I got it out of the oven and extinguished the flames and tossed it into the garbage, the garbage bag started melting. So I had to run it out through a snow storm to get it in the garbage bin in the alley before it all melted. :eek:

Great. Now we’ve got burning plastic added to the mix. :smack:

That was on Sunday. And even though I’ve cleaned the microwave several times, every time we open the door we get a horrible stinky smoky smell. And it gets worse if we actually use it. I think it must have smoke inside the vents where I can’t get at it, and each time it heats up, the smoke smell re-apppears.

So do any of you smart Dopers have any suggestions for how I can clean it? Is there any product or cleaning agent that I can use? Or do I just have a big stinky microwave forever? :eek:

Helpful suggestions followed.