How do you open a square bucket?

Two easy ways to open a vacuum sealed container.

I'd like to say I've never done it, microwaved a container with the lid on, but I have. As you might expect, I ended up with a lid that had been vacuum sealed to the container and felt impossible to remove. Hungry and at a loss for what to do next, I got to thinking. Vacuum seals are created between your tupperware and its lid when they are heated together and then cooled. As you heat your tupperware, the contents inside expand as they warm up. To release the building pressure from the contents expanding, some air is released, escaping between the lid and the container itself. Then, when your container and its contents begin to cool, it tries to equalize the pressure again. Your tupperware is rigid though, and cannot flex with the pressure necessarily, so the lid dents inward instead to account for that pressure change.

So....to release the lid, we'll have to increase temperature of the contents inside the tupperware so that they expand again, exerting a pressure force on the lid allowing it to release. Follow along for two methods of removing the vacuum sealed lid from your tupperware.

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