Mum left in ‘agony’ after following viral TikTok poached egg ‘hack’

By Charlie Herbert

She said it was the ‘most excruciating pain’ of her life

A mum was left with her skin peeling from her face after she used the microwave to make a poached egg. Shafia Bashir, 37, said she’d been in “absolute agony” after making a poached egg using a much-publicised recipe available on the internet. The ‘hack’ involves first pouring some boiling water in a mug before adding the egg and then placing this in the microwave for a couple of minutes until it cooks. But when Shafia put a cold spoon on the egg, it erupted “like a fountain” and scolded the right side of her face – leaving her in the “most excruciating” pain of her life. Shafia went to A&E where her burns were treated, but she said they were still stinging 12 hours after the incident. The mum-of-one has now warned others to think twice about using the microwave to make a poached egg. She said: “I just don’t want anyone else going through that, because it is trending on TikTok…It was the most excruciating pain in my life. “It was a terrifying time for me. I was in absolute agony. “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. “My face has healed now, luckily with no scars. I used Vaseline, Sudocrem, whatever I could get my hands on.” Shafia, from Bolton, said she had been using the microwave method for three years when she decided to cook it on May 12. She had followed a recipe that her ex-mum-in-law had taught her, but on this occasion, it went horribly wrong. She said: “I did it exactly the same as I usually do it. I had already made the toast, I was starving! “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.” “After it happened, I put my face under the tap for 20 mins. But the burning lasted for 12 hours. It just didn’t stop.” The British Medical Journal has previously recommended that microwave ovens display clear warnings about exploding eggs. Cooking shelled eggs in a microwave is dangerous because the casing holds in heat, meaning that once the egg is removed from the microwave, it carries on cooking itself. Any disruption to the shell can cause an explosion, but similar dangers can apply when cooking sunny side up or poached eggs in the microwave. These cooking hacks proved popular on social media sites such as TikTok, as people look for ways to save time with everyday tasks. But it’s not the first time the trick has gone wrong, with Chantelle Conway, from Farnworth, claiming a similar thing happened to her in 2021. Shafia said she had been left traumatised after the incident and vowed never to eat an egg again. But she has also seen the funny side of her experiences and made light of them to her 15,000 followers on TikTok. Shafia 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!” This article originally appeared on Joe.co.uk.

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