Keep Your Instant Mac & Cheese Cups from Boiling Over with This Simple Trick

Microwaves get gross. Minestrone explodes and splatters onto the top of the box. Cheese oozes out of a quesadilla and sticks to the rotating plate. That instant cup of mac and cheese boils over leaving a cloudy, watery puddle. While we can’t help you with the first two examples, we can help out with that last one. Because the internet, in its limitless wisdom, has discovered a way to stop instant mac and cheese cups from letting loose their water onto the glass plate. All it takes is a paper towel. 

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How can a paper towel stop mac and cheese cup leakage?

The trick isn’t just putting a paper towel on top of the cup. I continue to do that every time I microwave any liquid and continue to be left with a sopping wet, gross, hot paper towel after it inevitably falls into the liquid. Will I ever learn? Nope! 

Instead, the trick is to place a paper towel underneath the cup. You fill the cup with the required amount of water, place it in the microwave on top of a paper towel, and nuke as usual. When you open the door you’ll have a perfect cup of instant mac and cheese and a dry paper towel. No mess at all, which means your quick snack actually is a quick snack rather than a quick snack and then a few minutes of cleaning up. 

Does the paper towel trick actually work?

According to TikTok it does work! This guy goes through the whole thing, first microwaving a cup of instant mac without a paper towel, which results in the gross puddle, and then microwaving it with the cup. After which he lifts the paper towel to show that it is truly dry as a bone. 

Why does the paper towel trick work?

The paper towel acts as a buffer between the cup and the plate, lowering the temperature of the cup just enough that the cup doesn’t boil over. Note: It only works with the cups you buy—it won’t work if you make it in your own mug.