It will go away on its own over the next week or two. :D

Have you taken the MW out of the house? If it *really* burnt the MW may be unrecoverable.

Whenever I paint, I slice an onion like a tomato, and put the slices on saucers throughout the house. The onions absorb the smell of the paint, without leaving an onion smell. Maybe you could do the same in your kitchen and see if it works?

This just recently happened to me as well. It happened over one month ago, and the smell is finally gone. Ugh! Here are the things I tried:
1) Wipe down the interior of the microwave with acetone based nail polish remover. This worked great to get the yellow stains from the popcorn explosion out of the white surface.

2)Scrub interior with baking soda, then with white vinegar.

3) Fill a large bowl with water then cut up a lemon put the slices in the bowl with some dish soap. Boil the mixture in the microwave for several minutes.

4) Every day when you're not using the microwave keep a bowl of baking soda in it, dispose of it and use fresh every few days.

This is seriously one of the hardest problems to deal with. I think to truly rid yourself of the smell, you may have to take the microwave apart to wipe down the interior fan, etc. Since Im getting rid of my micro when I remodel and I'll have a new one it wasnt worth it for me, but you might want to try the other things first then use that as a last resort.

Good luck, and Im so sorry you have to deal with this in your new kitchen. Yukk!

Hubby pressed 25 mins.. don't ask.. lol.. instead of 2.5.. yarshhhh,,yick.. smoke alarms went off at 10 mins.. guess where he was??? The smallest room of the house.. idiot.. lol... anyways.. I had the same issue.. took apart everything I could on the microwave, washed it, then reassembled, and then zapped a bowl of vinegar, with a sliced lemon in the bowl.. for 8 mins.. hot lemony pickle scent for a while.. but the popcorn smell in the house was gone. (Turned out that the turntable ring under the glass plate was overly stinky too, so it got soaked and lemoned.. all ok now.. but hubby is NOT allowed microwave popcorn EVER again!

Try burning some white sage.

This just happened at our office with a co-worker who's plastic mac n' cheese burned so badly that the fire dept. came to the office! The smell was horrible!!! We tried all the measures listed above and while it abated, the smell lingered for at least a week. Someone finally cleaned the fan and under the turntable and that seemed to really make a difference. It was about 2 weeks before the smell was truly gone forever but I do not think you'll need to get rid of your microwave.

We use activated charcoal tied up in an old sock in the sons' hockey bags and it works really good for odors. Try putting some in a shallow dish & store in the micro when you're not using it. (You can find it in the aquarium supplies at WalMart, etc.)

Bake an apple pie. And then drink a few glasses of wine, (and eat the pie) you won't care about the smell anymore.

Actually I've heard that about the charcoal thing. Have you tried Oust? Or burn some incense and candles, at least you can try to overpower the smell during the day until it goes away on it's own.

Good luck!

I've used a cream of tarter, homemade scrub, with some effectiveness, on tough odors and stains. I can't remember the recipe, though. Very curious to hear what works, especially the onion trick. Good luck, and please let us know!

[We switched to a cheapo air popper last fall. It's so much better than the microwave stuff. I can go to one of the local co-ops and get different colored popcorn kernals, I can control the additives (=healthier), the popcorn tastes better, it's entertaining, and it's a fun ritual with the kids. And no more lingering odors!]

My teenage son & his friend popped a bag (forget which brand) of microwave popcorn at our cabin last summer. I came in from outside and insisted that one of them must have doggie do-do stuck on their shoes. They insisted that I was smelling the popcorn! I said, "that's not popcorn, someone has doggie do-do on their shoes!" After inspecting their shoes (clean) I was reluctant to admit that it was the strong odor of butter flavored microwave popcorn. And it wasn't even burned! The odor just hung in the air but didn't have any long lasting effects on the microwave itself.

Yet, this episode convinced me to quit buying microwave popcorn. I figured it was more fun to pop jiffy pop over the gas stove at the cabin, anyways. I do remember how to make popcorn the old-fashioned way in a pan on the stove but I recall also how it ruins the pan. So jiffy-pop it is!

Thanks to everyone who wrote in home remedies. I'm going to note them for future use. I was going to suggest the vinegar in a pan also, but that was in the OP!

Sorry to hear - but convinces me why I never buy the stuff - the smell of it in micro (not burning) makes me wretch

Ok, good to know that I'm not the only one that can't stand the smell of microwave pop-corn. It is also a fire hazzard. Don't ever put the hot bag directly from the microwave into the trash can. I was staying (long-term work assignment) in a hotel when someone did that. It actually caused a fire and we had to evacuate. I can't tell you how much smoke and odor it caused - that lasted forever!! All of our clothes had to be sent to the dry-cleaners and those small rooms really couldn't accommodate that much smoke - even with fire dept. fans for half the night.

I think the warning is on the bag, but all of us staying at the hotel learned first hand.