Huh? Exploding potato bits?

I didn't ask my dad why the potatoes would explode, though, because I wanted to find out myself, just like I did with that lava lamp that fascinated me in my last article.

Every modern chef knows that if you cook a potato in the microwave, it will explode, unless you poke holes in it. But why?

Potatoes are a very moist tuber. That means, they've got a lot of water in them. When they're cooked, that water turns to steam, which builds up inside, and if no holes are poked in the potato, where does the steam go? The steam pushes itself out, causing the potato to explode!

The bigger the potato, the bigger the explosion; in my delicious soup's case, the explosions were minor, because the potato bits were small. But it's a good idea to cover potato soup when cooking, so it doesn't splatter all over the place

I hope you've learned to always poke holes in potatoes while baking them, unless you want to clean potatoes out of your microwave or oven.

Have a spudtastic day!

I'm Hand11, signing off.

Editor's Note: And when you go camping, be sure to poke holes in your potatoes before baking them in the campfire, or you'll end up with a blown-up potato, shreds of aluminum foil, and a potentially dangerous campfire! Yikes! :-)