Stephen King’s ability to spark horror among his fans and followers has extended to his cooking suggestions after the author shared instructions for making salmon in the microwave.
This week, The Shining author, 74, tweeted his dinner recipe to his more than 6.6m Twitter followers, writing: “Dinner: get a nice salmon filet at the supermarket, not too big.
“Put some olive oil and lemon juice on it. Wrap it in damp paper towels. Nuke it in the microwave for three minutes or so. Eat it.”
After sharing the unique cooking method, King also suggested that his followers “maybe add a salad” to the dish.
As of Thursday, the tweet has been liked more than 30,000 times, with King’s followers both concerned and disgusted by the unconventional salmon recipe.
The recipe prompted many to make the same joke, with hundreds of people replying with variations of suggestions that the tweet was the “scariest thing” King has “ever written”.
“This may be the shortest horror story you’ve ever written,” one person jokingly replied, while another said: “My dude, this is your most terrifying work yet.”
“He’s on a short story horror kick again,” another fan joked. Author and Top Chef judge and host Padma Lakshmi also chimed in, tweeting: “More terrifying than any story he’s penned.”
Someone else suggested that the recipe would only be “understandable” if one was living in a college dorm, and even then it wouldn’t be “acceptable”. “This would be understandable if you were presently living in a college dorm. However, it would still not be acceptable,” they wrote.
Others noted that the smell the microwaved fish would result in would perhaps be the worst part of the meal, with one person writing: “The smell of microwaved fish is more horrifying than anything you have penned and I say this as an admirer who can barely watch a trailer or see a book jacket with your name on it without getting next-level scared.”
King’s recipe also prompted some to question whether the author was joking. “There’s no way this is real,” one person tweeted, while someone else said: “In the microwave???”
The tweet even encouraged a response from celebrity chef Jose Andres, who waded into the discussion to share his own cooking recommendations if King was serious about using a microwave to cook his salmon. “This is a horror movie! Eat it raw, eat it plancha, eat it fry... but three minutes on the microwave is like the twilight zone! Do one minute at a time if you use microwave, in and out in and out... and undercooked better! Let the waves heat the water molecules enough to be warm!”
Although King did not clarify whether his initial suggestion was a joke or not, he doubled-down on the recipe in a follow-up tweet, in which he urged his followers to try the meal before criticising it.
“I have one thing to say to people slagging on my salmon recipe: DON’T KNOCK IT IF YOU HAVEN’T TRIED IT,” the author wrote in a follow-up tweet posted on Wednesday.
In response, one person joked that they tried the recipe at work and had been fired as a result. “I tried it at work today. My badge has been deactivated and I have a meeting with HR in 15 minutes,” they wrote.
However, others said that they would be trying the recipe, with one person claiming that they were “inspired” by King’s suggestion for cooking the fish.
“Actually, I was inspired! I never tried to cook salmon in a microwave,” they wrote, while another person said: “I HATE cooking, but I love food, so I’m all in! Thank you! Anything to keep my butt out of the kitchen is good with me.”
King is not the only celebrity recently to share a controversial recipe, as Paula Patton was recently mocked over her recipe for fried chicken, which saw her seasoning the chicken after it was already frying in oil.
Patton later addressed the backlash in a video shared to social media, in which she said she would be taking some fan suggestions, but would still continue to make her “mom’s chicken the way that she did it”.
“We put the seasoning in the oil and all that, it’s just the way we do it. But that’s all good,” she added.
