Microwaves heat food by blasting it with electromagnetic waves that cause water molecules to vibrate violently and generate friction. While this rapid heating is great for reviving yesterday’s dinner, it’s a total disaster for ingredients that can’t handle intense, uneven heat. Anything that traps steam, contains trace minerals or breaks down chemically under pressure can quickly turn your appliance into an impromptu smoke machine.

This depends. If you put a whole egg in its shell in the microwave, its interiors will heat up faster than the steam can escape through the shell’s pores. This causes an extreme pressure build-up, which will either end in egg all over your microwave, or egg all over your face when you try to crack that hen grenade open. A similar situation will occur if you attempt to heat up a peeled hard-boiled egg in the microwave. Eggs contain a lot of protein, and this protein ‘matrix’ is quite tightly packed. When the egg heats, the moisture inside it creates steam, which becomes trapped in the matrix (save us, Neo!) This creates a pressure vessel that can explode as soon as something sharp – say, your teeth – pierces the exterior. However, cooking scrambled eggs or an omelette is perfectly safe.

This one seems like a no-brainer. Surely this nifty gadget can heat up a plain old cup of water without anything going wrong? Sadly, we are all mistaken. Microwaving a cup of water can cause something called ‘superheating’ – the water heats beyond its boiling point without actually bubbling. Then, when you disturb it by doing something like moving the cup or dunking in a tea bag, the water can suddenly and violently erupt, like that Red Wedding scene in Game of Thrones. If you absolutely must heat water in the microwave, place a wooden chopstick or stirrer in the cup – this gives the bubbles a place to form and prevents superheating.

Again, a seemingly simple task, yet fraught with risk. Thick sauces can trap steam as they heat. This pressure can build up in bubbles underneath the surface until they suddenly ‘POP’, spraying sauce all over your microwave. Turning what was a simple heat-and-eat solution into a two-hour cleaning job. If you want to reheat pasta sauce safely, do so in a deep, microwave-safe bowl, covered with a vented lid or paper towel. Heat in short 30-45-second intervals, and stir well after each interval.

Odd question, if you ask me. But in case anyone is seriously considering this – please don’t. Exhibit 1: see our friend eggs up there. Grapes are small little nuggets of juiciness with a high water content, all wrapped in a tight skin. Heating that water content builds up a lot of steam, which gets trapped inside the skin… until it bursts forth and shoots you in the eye with a jet of volcanic jelly. But that’s not the worst of it. The average grape usually has around the same diameter as the electromagnetic waves bouncing around inside your microwave. Instead of just heating up the fruit, these waves get trapped inside, and this energy starts to build up. And because grapes are rich in water and electrolytes, they’re perfect little lightning rods. Put two grapes or two grape halves side-by-side in a microwave, and all that trapped energy starts to bounce between them and sets off a supercharged flare of fiery plasma. Boom – microwave destroyed.

Defrosting frozen veg is perfectly fine, as is heating up leftovers or steaming chopped vegies. However, leafy greens like kale, spinach and celery shouldn’t go in the microwave. They naturally contain minerals like iron, which can react with the microwave radiation like tiny pieces of metal, causing sparks and potentially catching on fire. You should also never microwave whole tomatoes or potatoes without piercing the skin well first. Otherwise they could explode.

It’s not recommended. Cooking hot chilli peppers in the microwave causes the chemical that makes them spicy (capsaicin) to vaporise into the trapped air inside the microwave. So when you open the microwave door, you’ll be hit in the face with a great cloud of airborne capsaicin – basically a homemade pepper spray.

Microwaves heat foods and drinks unevenly. This can create hidden ‘hot spots’ that can scald a baby’s mouth. Also, the intense heat of the microwave can destroy some of the important nutrients and proteins found in breast milk.

Cooking processed meats like bacon and hot dogs in the microwave leads to the formation of something called ‘cholesterol oxidation products’. These compounds have been linked to an increased risk of coronary heart disease and Alzheimer’s.

Unless it specifically says ‘microwave safe’, nuking your leftover pad thai in a styrofoam container is a bad idea. Polystyrene is highly unstable under heat and will quickly warp, melt and leach toxic chemicals (like styrene, a potential carcinogen) directly into your food.

Seems harmless enough – you can’t see any heating elements in there, so what’s the biggie? Plenty – if you run a microwave with nothing in it, all that energy will have nowhere else to go, and will start bouncing around the interior cavity until it’s absorbed by the microwave’s own components, which can cause the glass to shatter or the whole thing to catch fire.