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Comment by BugsJustFindMe | Hacker News Reader

What about splatter guards which are almost universally made from plastic? Or glass containers with plastic lids? Microwaving food splatters the shit out of the walls and ceiling of the microwave. Is the problem any plastic in the microwave or just the plastic that touches the food?

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Yeah, I wondered about that, too... the article specifically mentions the involvement of water (hydrolysis) in the process of micropaticle formation, but the splatter guard is of course exposed to the steam coming from the food, and some of that condenses and drops back on the food, so not using these plastic splatter guards is probably indicated. Covering the container with an inverted plate (making sure to leave some space for steam pressure to exscape) is probably better. I'm going to do that from now.

You can get splatter guards that have a glass "top" and some kind of silicone edging. It seems a lot more durable than the entirely thin white plastic ones that are more common. Look for "GGG-GLOU-GLOU GOOSE" (really) on Amazon.

Only downside is that the glass top can get dangerously hot, but there's a handle.

As someone not weary of using plastic in microwave, for some reason I am very distrustful of silicon used in cookwear, especially equipment that interacts directly touches hot metal like lids, baking sheets etc. I don't even know the science behind it. But I've seen enough semi melted silicon spatula tips to feel like it's not a good combo.

The ones I've seen of this sort are all kinda small. And "gets dangerously hot" makes it a complete nonstarter for me.

With steam being hotter than the product itself, and the steam then condensing and dropping back into the food... yeah, this seems relatively self-evident, so I've been using plates since learning years ago that plastics leak into foods in the first place

I recently picked up some dishes from AnyDay which don't contain any plastic. The lids are made out of glass, silicone, and metal (yes, it is safe to put some metal in specific shapes in the microwave). I haven't used them long enough to recommend them, but they seem fine so far.

It's possible to leave the lid off and put a cloth or paper towel on top to catch splatter.

Or just use a lower power setting, which is either an on/off duty cycle of a couple of seconds, or in the fancier models, actual variable power.

Bonus: you don't fry the shit out some of your food while other spots are cold.

I usually do a brief period on high if something came from the fridge, and then drop to a lower power level. On my microwave "programming" this is actually pretty easy; pushing the power button after entering time allows you to set a second power level and time.

Depends on the product you're heating though. I think it's certain fats that make it sometimes start to pop after literally a handful of seconds, and other times you can go at the highest power (I think that's 800W for me) until the food is done after five minutes and all you'll get is some steam. I've tried to use lower power settings for "normal" products that have splatter but not straight away, but that just doesn't get it all the way hot without starting to get splatter after all. Using a cover, like an inverted plate, is the way to go

I do agree about the part where you mention frying part of the product while the rest is still subzero. Power reduction is useful, for me it just doesn't adequately prevent splatter

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