Broken Glass

8 Responses:

1. Lorelei Says:
   November 30th, 2007 at 5:45 pm

   How did you get superheated brownie batter?

   You might benefit from choosing high-quality metal bakeware. Not that I have anything against Pyrex.

   [.]

2. DoorFrame Says:
   November 30th, 2007 at 5:56 pm

   No, this was entirely my fault and was the end result of series of bad decisions.

   I was making Chicken Parmesan with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. I first cooked the chicken on the stove and then placed it in the oven on the glass dish to melt the cheese. After the cheese was well melted, I pulled it out of the oven and placed dish on the stovetop which I had apparently forgotten to turn off. I then went and ate my lunch.

   When I came back to clean the kitchen the glass dish had been sitting on the stovetop with flames baking its underside for quite some time. I didn’t realize this. I did notice a strange burning smell, but couldn’t immediately determine what it was. I touched the glass dish to see if it was still hot. Thinking it should have cooled at this point, I was surprised that it was indeed still hot so I got my oven mitt and moved it into the sink, which had cold water already running. As I was moving the dish I noticed that the oven had been on the whole time but didn’t take enough time to really ponder what that meant.

   I placed the dish in the sink, and turned about halfway back towards the stove to turn off the stovetop. Then the dish exploded. Pretty scary.

   Totally my own fault.

   Hard to clean up.

   [.]

3. Troeltsch Says:
   November 30th, 2007 at 6:25 pm

   Good thing you turned away. A similar thing happened once to me with ceramic cookware, but it only caused a big crack down the middle, not an explosion. As Lorelei notes, it’s important that you mentioned you used the glass baking dish to make brownies — a friend of ours contends that using a metal baking dish makes much better brownies than glass. And metal won’t shatter (though it will warp if you do the same thing).

   [.]

4. crazymonk Says:
   November 30th, 2007 at 10:48 pm

   I bet this pan makes good brownies:

   http://www1.fredflare.com/customer/product.php?productid=2962&cat=254&bf=hs

   [.]

5. Barzelay Says:
   December 1st, 2007 at 9:02 pm

   1. I did this about two weeks ago. Had roasted some chicken in a pyrex baking dish, and was going to make some gravy from the drippings. So I put the dish on the stove, turned the heat on, and after a minute or two, poured in cold water. The dish immediately shattered, sending glass shards flying horizontally in a 360 degree arc from the stovetop. Shards were later located as far as forty feet away. I was standing less than a foot away, but none of the shards penetrated my shirt. And yeah, it took five people about twenty minutes to clean up. And then it took about an hour to cut up and roast another chicken for dinner since the first one had tiny glass particles embedded in it.

   2. Glass vs. metal bakeware may be an anectodal debate, but from a scientific and culinary perspective, it’s a non-issue. Glass and metal simply have different properties, and cook brownies differently. Metal bakeware heats up more quickly and has more microscopic imperfections, resulting in brownies that get more crispy along the edges. If you like your brownies crispier, using the same recipe but with a metal pan (assuming it isn’t too thick) will accomplish this effect. Of course, the reason it’s all moot is because if you have glass cookware and want the brownies crispier, you can increase the oven temperature, or only turn on the bottom heating element, if your oven offers that option. Personally, I like my brownies gooey as hell, and only eat the non-edge pieces.

   [.]

6. Lorelei Says:
   December 1st, 2007 at 10:34 pm

   Well, I wasn’t trying to suggest that one type of pan makes better food than another, so much as I was suggesting that metal is less likely to shatter explosively and wound him.

   [.]

7. DoorFrame Says:
   December 2nd, 2007 at 1:03 am

   Thankfully there was no wounding. The glass appears to have shattered horizontally and remained entirely within the sink. Getting the shards out of the garbage disposal was a frightful experience.

   I also like gooey brownies — I often leave them so gooey they need to be left in the fridge for a while before they’re solid enough to pick up without a large spoon. They’re fantastic.

   [.]

8. Michelle Says:
   July 24th, 2008 at 12:18 pm

   Just wanted to say I recently had a 13×9 glass baking dish explode on me. Good information from the postings here. I had the clean dish sitting on the back of the stove. I turned on the wrong burner of the stove. I noticed the burner under the dish was red as I had turned it on high. I turned the burner off and decided to leave the dish there to cool down as I was sure it was really hot. I had my back turned to the stove and while still in the thought process about the situation, the dish exploded. What a mess, glass everywhere. The pieces were small specs to large chunks. The glass blew horizontally as mentioned and was all over the whole side area of that area of the kitchen. I’m not sure of the exact brand of the dish but believe it was a quality piece. I will replace it with a metal pan for now (I understand the difference and will work with it). It was a pretty scary ordeal and gladly no one was hurt (my two dogs didn’t know what to think). I wanted to post this because I and several people I have talked to, did not know that these dishes would explode under any circumstances.

   [.]

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