How To Prevent Butter From Exploding In The Microwave

Melting butter in the microwave is definitely a time save. When you are popping up popcorn on the stove top, melting butter in your microwave allows you to enjoy those fluffy popped kernels that much sooner. Need a little melted butter to pour over your ears of corn? The microwave has got you covered. And, according to Bon Appetit, melted butter and baking can be a baker's best friend, depending on what you're baking, and the microwave can turn butter from a solid stick to a bowl of liquid in a matter of seconds.

But allow your microwave to go a second too long and that timesaver goes out the window. In fact, you may even end up adding time to your task, as you'll likely have to clean up the dripping, yellow butter splattered on the walls of your microwave. (As the saying goes, if you know, you know.)

Why does this happen with your creamy spread? As The Takeout explains, butter is 80% butter fat, 1-2% milk solid, and the rest is water and as they so astutely point out, we all know what happens when you try to mix oil with water. (It doesn't.) But once the separated fats heat up, it's like snap, crackle, pop... all over the place.

So, how can you get that beautiful melted product without the greasy mess? According to the Spruce Eats, melting butter in the microwave doesn't have to be difficult, and once you remember the key step to mastering the process, it will become turnkey. The food site shares you always want to start with a microwavable bowl. They also reveal it is mission critical to change the power setting on your microwave when you are melting butter. Warming up this fat at a lower heat for a specific time will help eliminate the symphony of sounds. Of course, if your microwave has a melt butter button, your small appliance is already programmed to do this.

The Takeout reports that working in short increments of time is also essential. They suggest 30 seconds for an entire stick of butter should do the trick, but if it doesn't work, proceed in 15 second intervals as needed. Of course, the amount of butter you are melting will change up the amount of time you need. If you are melting just a pat, start with 15 seconds. And one more thing — always make certain to cover the container in which you are melting your butter with a little wax paper to prevent potential splatters.