Scalded woman warns others against TikTok microwave egg hack

Shafia Bashir, aged 37, was making herself a poached egg a couple of weeks ago when she says disaster struck.

Shafia, who lives in Heaton, had been cooking them in a mug in the microwave for three years - a trick her ex-mother-in-law had taught her.

However, her attempt went wrong and the egg exploded onto her face, forcing Shafia to go to A&E and leaving her with facial burns.

Shafia after the incident (Image: Public)

Shafia said: “My ex-mother-in-law told me about it, she told me how to make a poached egg in the microwave. I had been doing it for three years.

“I boiled the kettle, half filled the mug with water, put salt inside, the egg inside, and microwaved it for a minute.

“It wasn’t cooked, so I put it in for another minute.

“As soon as I put the cold spoon in, it exploded like a fountain and it scolded me. I put my face under the tap and then had to get my mate to look after my daughter so I could go to A&E.”

How Shafia normally looks. Her face has healed since the incident (Image: Public)

The British Medical Journal previously said that microwave ovens should display clear warnings about exploding eggs.

Cooking shelled eggs in a microwave is dangerous because the casing holds in heat.

Once you have removed the egg from the microwave, it will carry on cooking itself and any disruption can cause an explosion.

But similar dangers can apply when cooking sunny side up or poached eggs in the microwave.

Shafia added: “My face has healed now, luckily with no scars. I used Vaseline, Sudocrem, whatever I could get my hands on.

“I did it exactly the same as I usually do it. I had already made the toast, I was starving!

“It was the most excruciating pain in my life. I was waiting in A&E for 45 minutes, people usually wait two to three hours these days."

Cooking hacks prove popular on social media sites such as TikTok, as people look for ways to save time with every day tasks. 

It is not the first time people have reported the poached egg hack going wrong, with Chantelle Conway, from Farnworth, claiming a similar thing happened to her in 2021.

She says she was left with horrific facial burns, traumatised and vowed never to eat an egg again.

Shafia  added: “I just don’t want anyone else going through that, because it is trending on TikTok as well now.

The explosion shattered Shafia's mug (Image: Public)

"It exploded my mug too."

Shafia has seen the funny side of it, however. She said: “For my last videos on TikTok, I did Beauty and the Beast and Tony Montana from Scarface, with the burn.

“My followers thought it was a filter!”