Seriously, Think Twice Before Microwaving Hot Peppers

I may be a food writer by trade, but I've made more than my share of kitchen blunders, ranging from food storage mistakes to purchasing the wrong produce (meaning, the kind that turns moldy within minutes of bringing it home). However, one of the worst errors I've ever made involved the microwave. While it didn't ruin my food, it nearly wrecked me — or, at least, caused serious pain. What did I do? I microwaved a dish that contained a lot of hot peppers.

I seem to recall that it was some kind of chicken dish with onions, ginger, and serranos. I was heating up a bowl for my lunch, and when I opened the microwave, the steam poured out and enveloped me in a cloud of pain. Since I was still hungry and not one to pass up on all that deliciousness, I still managed to eat my lunch, but did so with tears streaming down my face. This was still going on when I went to work that afternoon, so everyone assumed I was suffering from some terrible tragedy. Needless to say, I felt like a total idiot every time I had to explain through my sniffles, "No, I just microwaved hot peppers."

At least I know I'm not alone in having pulled this unwise move. Several Redditors have admitted to doing something similar, with one person saying, "It's like I just pepper-sprayed my entire family! ... When I opened up the microwave I about died, not to mention all the people in the next room did too."

It's actually not that much of a stretch to compare microwaved pepper fumes to pepper spray, and I should know. Some time after my microwave mishap, I worked as a prison case manager and my training involved walking into a chamber full of this substance. While my eyes stung for a while, the fumes didn't last nearly as long or hurt as much as my earlier ordeal. So what makes microwaved peppers so painful? It's because capsaicin, which is the same compound used to make pepper spray, is released into an enclosed space. As soon as you open the microwave door, it streams straight into your eyes.

The best way to avoid experiencing this agony is to heat your peppers on the stove, since the fumes can evaporate into the air. Even cooking them in the oven is an improvement, since its interior is a lot larger than that of the microwave. Microwaves are also a moist environment, so a dry oven won't produce as much steam.

If you make the same mistake I made, there are no miracle remedies to take away the pain. The best thing you can do is to rinse your eyes with water or saline solution (my tears did the job for me). Avoid using baby shampoo or milk, since these folk remedies are no more effective than water and might actually irritate your eyes. Eventually, though, time will heal this wound. Pepper spray pain may go away in less than 30 minutes, while the irritation from my microwaved peppers wore off in an hour or so.