Last night, as I was preparing dinner, I – very intelligently, as you will find out shortly – sat the baking dish to hold the casserole on the range. I likely wouldn’t have done this previously, since we didn’t have a flat range, and the range that we did have wouldn’t have had the room. So I guess you could consider that a strike against both a flat range surface and replacing a smaller range top with a larger one.
That alone probably wouldn’t have been an issue. Then I turned on the pan to start cooking the chicken when it came out of the microwave. Unfortunately, I turned on the burner underneath the baking dish. That was probably the problem, though it may have simply been bad enough that it was ‘soaking up’ some heat from adjacent burners.
Alas, I didn’t realize the wrong one was on until some time later, as I was chopping the onions and heard a sudden crash. Actually, a crash isn’t quite the right description. It really sounded like an explosion. I thought surely that the kids had tipped over the TV or the computer monitor or something.
Then I realized it was there in the kitchen with me, so I thought something had fallen out of the cabinet and onto the range, shattering it. Only then did I realize I was standing in a sea of cobalt blue glass. Literally – it was spread all over the floor. Then I thought a bottle of lotion or oil or something had somehow shattered, until I realized that was the color of the baking dish I was using, and started putting the pieces together.
Uh, that is the pieces of the puzzle – not the pieces of the dish. Those were gradually cleaned up and thrown away. And when I say gradually, I mean gradually. It took a long time to clean it up. I suspect there are still some pieces of glass in the kitchen that we haven’t found yet, but I think that we did a pretty decent job of getting it all.
So what did we learn? Don’t place a baking dish on the range? Check. Though it doesn’t make sense – shouldn’t a baking dish be able to take some heat? I won’t do it again, just wondering. Don’t buy a cobalt blue baking dish, but instead stick to a different material (Pyrex)? Sounds good, though I don’t know why it matters. Maybe we just ought to stay away from glass entirely. Perhaps stay away from the cooking entirely, and let my wife do it? Now we’re talking, though there are bound to be pluses and minuses to this approach.
Comments
31 responses to “The Exploding Baking Dish”
OK, I just had a Pyrex 1 Cup mesuring cup explode in my kitchen sink after using it to add some tap water to a dish I was preparing. It was not close to any heat or cold source. It is very old but there were no visible cracks or chips. A Very ghost like experience! I can’t imagine “Thermo Shock” being the reason since there were no wild temp variences.
OK, First off let me start by saying GLASS DOES NOT EXPLODE any human being would know that. The noise that you hear is a loud pop. Anyways when cooking meats and veggies in a pyrex baking dish you need to add 1 inch of liquid to the bottom of the pan. Or when for example the fish releases liquid in the dish after being in a pre-heated oven the cold liquid from the fish will shock the dish. This is called Thermal Shock. Never set a Pyrex dish ontop of the stove weather the oven is preheating or you are taking it out of the oven. Use and Care instructions come with these products for a reason for you to read them. Or your warranty does not apply. any questions feel free to email me.
I don’t know if I should be the one to do the cooking! I much like your cooking style and the very creative dishes you create. Why should I cook when you are obviously the one that has the talent!?!
Okay…just 10 minutes ago I had a very similar scenario happen. My dad was cooking fish (from frozen) in the oven, and i was standing in the kitchen, eating an apple, When I suddenly heard a huge bang, and saw a large amount of steam come out of the oven. I then looked through the glass window of the oven, only to see shattered glass everywhere and let out a “wholy crap!”. My dad then ran into the kitchen and showed the same expression as I.
Now when I examine the situation, nothing makes sense. The glass dish that we had used (8x 12 inch I beleive)was part of the family for some 15-20 years, and had bene used in the oven many times. Also, it was not like the frozen fish and the heat had suddenly cracked the glass, because the fish had been in the oven for some 20 minutes. This “explosion” must be explainable…any takers?
Ha! I had an Anchor Hocking 8×8 brown colored baking dish explode about18 years ago. I had baked some home made macaroni and cheese. I took the dish from the oven and placed it on the table on a hot pad. It sat there for a while, I don’t remember how many minutes, then it just blew all over the place! I took pictures and even saved the wreckage in a plastic bag. I eventually threw it out. Can anybody explain that one?
I did the exact same thing when I was growing up. My exploded pyrex dish actually melted holes in the linoleum floor, which ended up having to be replaced.
The casserole was good. Luckily no crunch to it. We ate a bit later than normal, but not bad. Not our favorite, but that could also have been because it was a bit dried out. If we have it again and it comes out well, I’ll post a recipe on it.
So how was the casserole? A bit crunchy i’ll bet…
I saw a guy on TV once eating glass… he said it was rather tasty in fact. I dunno about the blue stuff though…
Send me a recipe!
It’s possible (and in fact, quite likely) that this one wasn’t Pyrex. It was a very thick, heavy, cobalt blue color that we’ve had for some time.
It is also quite likely that it was a surface scratch or some other issue that caused it to happen.
Having worked in the glass industry I find your experience puzzling. Most Pyrex like glasses have a nearly zero expansion rate so rapide heating and cooling don’t put undue stresses on the material. Pyrex is a Corning brand name. Perhaps your dish was defective in some way. Perhaps it wasn’t properly annealed during the manufacturing process. Also surface scratches can add additional stresses that can cause premature failure.