Dear LPG,

My mum and many of her friends still enjoy a little experimentation in the kitchen.  I hail from a West Indian background and I have to say that, whatever else you say about our heritage, making sure that you always have something to offer any guest is an unwritten rule for the matriarchs regardless of whether they have a large family or not. 

She is also blessed in another way because, at well over the age of 80, she still drives and is able to visit many of her friends.  When she goes to make such a visit this custom still automatically kicks in.  She rarely leaves the house without one of those stay-fresh food containers, or two, stocked with a sample of something she has cooked and wants to give away and it is also a fact that she hardly ever returns from such a visit without something to pop into the microwave which will provide a culinary taste of ‘back-home’ pleasure for her.

As you can tell we West Indians go through a lot of food storage containers and I strongly believe that ladies of a certain age are singularly responsible for the amount of the little plastic boxes sold in the local pound shops, but every now and then there is not an appropriate one to hand, so Mum will use an ice cream or margarine tub as a substitute. 

I am not trying to be racist here; I know that this is a habit adopted by many people of all ages, all nationalities and both genders.   Offering and accepting food on a visit has moved into the 21^st  century and the take-away bag has kept up with the times; hence all those food containers.

I was visiting one day not so long ago and arrived just in time to take the picture that I have asked LPG to put with this message.  Most of the containers come with instructions about if they are microwave-safe because, as we all know by now; the only substance that you cannot safely put in for a quick reheat is anything metallic. 

My mum was given a food-gift in the container in the picture.  I think that we all know that it is just a butter dish with a beautiful silver label and it never occurred to my mum that the label had metallic properties. 

I was not actually there when she put it in but she tells me that it only took about 5 seconds of the minute she had set the microwave for, before she heard the odd popping noises and turned the machine off quickly.  Luckily she did not have time to leave the microwave before all the noise started and by the time she looked inside the container had shrivelled up and leaked its contents, which was rendered inedible, all over the interior of the oven although there was no actual explosion and she always has a plate in there to catch any spillage, but it could all have been so much worse.

The point of my little story is to remind readers that silver coloured labels often contain metal and are as dangerous to microwaves as any other metallic material. 

EB, Lee

LPG found some information about other non-microwaveable things to look out for and there are some surprising ones.  We hope it helps.

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