Cookaholics Bulletin Board

This morning I oiled my cheap Ikea cast iron grill pan and put it on the stove to heat up to smoking point as is my cast iron custom. I left the kitchen for a couple minutes longer than I should when a sound like a shot came from the kitchen. I ran in and saw that my pan had a huge crack and the cast iron handle had fallen off completely. The poor dog, who was having his breakfast at the time, did the dog equivalent of a split tried to leave the kitchen as fast as he could. He was pretty quick considering his splayed legs.
My glass top was fine... that was my first thought when I heard the noise. Well my very first thought was zombie apocalypse, but just for a second.

Mary

"zombie apocalypse"

Glad no one got injured! You're right, that has never happened to me, but my 12-year-old baking stone blew apart in the oven the other night. Funny thing was it didn't make a sound. I just opened the oven and it was splayed in three pieces. Luckily the pizza was nearly done when it happened so no big mess.

I had a 10-inch Griswold skillet crack last year, but the noise must've been pretty quiet, because I never noticed it. I did try to scrub this weird line that had appear in the bottom of my skillet for about 15 minutes before it occurred to me to turn it over and find out that the weird line was indeed, a broken skillet.

Zombie apocolypses have more of a shuffly moaning sort of sound, at least until Bruce Campbell shows up.

Losing the pizza...now THAT would have been a tragedy.

Never had a pan explode or break on me (except my LC DO, which thanks to saute, I was able to warranty)...but I am the woman who can manage to burn soup in a pan that it then takes THREE days to clean. Given the choice, I think on some pans, I'd prefer the breaking to the burning. It takes what? five seconds to throw out a pan?

Amy

That was my second thought and then I went straight to fearing for the induction.

My baking stone split in the oven a couple weeks ago, but the pizza wasn't set. I had cheese all over the rack and the oven floor.

The stupid part is that I didn't run the cleaning cycle right away. Just a quick wipe up when it cooled. Next time I used the oven, the smoke alarm went off.

Scary, my baking stone is getting whiskers. No cast iron or LC yet, tho.

On a positive note I saw some really nice grill pans from LC and de Buyer recently and think I might just go that route. Look at me! I am now on the slippery slope to sous vide and all I can say is WHEEEE !!!

Mary

Mary,

Huh, that's a new one on me. Cast iron shouldn't be vulnerable to thermal shock ... at least not on its own. Maybe because it's cheap? Or did you drop it in the recent past?

Baking stones, on the other hand, are extremely vulnerable to thermal shock. I've done in two; it seems likely that it's inevitable than any baking stone will crack given enough use. Thickness is a factor; the thinner the baking stone, the sooner it cracks (because it cools/heats faster).