A Sense of Doubt blog post #4042 - Letter to Dad #26 - the Dangers of Cooking

A Sense of Doubt blog post #4042 - Letter to Dad #26 - the Dangers of Cooking

Hey Big Guy (Dad),

Once again, I am postponing my "Seeing Bowie Live" post with photos of your little black books to work on it some more.

And I had a big kitchen accident yesterday, worth sharing.

These are not my pictures. I forgot to take pictures. Faced with a huge mess, I just focused on cleaning it up and keeping the dogs out of the kitchen where there was a mine field of broken glass.

I was baking a beef brisket. I had not read the directions closely enough as they clearly instructed me to use a ROASTING PAN.

However, I was very focused on using this Pyrex pan, which had Shawarma Chicken in it. I knew I need to transfer the chicken and clean out the pan.

The recipe called for a dry rub and baking at 350 for an hour. Then remove the pan, add beef broth, and cook at 300 for two hours. 

I took the pan out and started adding room temperature beef broth, and the Pyrex pan exploded.

I wanted to save the brisket as it was expensive. The bottom of the pan splintered in whole, big pieces with the sides exploding in all directions.

I examined the meat, and I was pretty sure it did not have glass in it.

But we decided not take chances. Swallowing glass is a bad idea as you can imagine.

I spent the next couple of hours cleaning up, and a day later, I still need to mop the floors, which I was going to do anyway.

APPARENTLY, this is a thing about Pyrex pans.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Pyrex_Love/comments/1i9pkut/anyone_ever_have_a_pyrex_pan_explode_on_them/

"Sadly, this is typical of pyrex (all lowercase) pieces. They are made of soda-lime glass, which is not made to withstand extreme temperature changes.

PYREX (uppercase) is made of borosilicate glass, which IS built to withstand temperature changes."

Also, 

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/tempered-vs-borosilicate-glass/


Also, https://foodwhirl.com/blog/exploding-pyrex

The Jan. 2011 Consumer Reports has an article on Pyrex & Anchor Hocking baking dishes exploding. In brief, these companies changed the kind of glass they used somewhere in the 1980’s and the cheaper glass  shatters at lower temperatures than the kind used in older models and European bakeware.

The cautions:

***1) always place hot dish on a dry towel or pot holder. Never on  a cold or wet surface, the top of the stove, a damp towel, a countertop, or metal trivet.

2) Don’t place directly on a burner or under the broiler.  (Probably not in a toaster-oven either)

3) Always preheat oven before putting in dish.

4) Cover bottom of dish with liquid before cooking meat or veg.

5) Don’t add liquid to hot glassware.  (basting in or out of the oven)

6) Don’t take dishes directly from freezer to oven or vice versa.

7) Discard any with chips, scratches, or cracks.

Number 1 is probably the most important and one I did not know.  Most of my pieces are old and probably okay—but I won’t be buying any more!  Higher temperatures also seemed to be a factor, so I will cook dressing in a big corning ware roaster!

Undeterred, I am going to get another brisket and try again, this time in the metal roasting pan even though I am not sure how to "cover it tightly" other than with aluminum foil.

In other news, I got 100% scores on both assignments causing me angst last week.

I took Ellory to the vet for diarrhea and lack of appetite yesterday, and we going to try antibiotic treatment plus de-wormer and probiotic. We are also going to check for cancer as she has lost ten pounds since January.

Before I start all that (except the high potency probiotic) I had to get a stool sample of her diarrhea. She doesn't like me to see her poop. I followed her outside almost half a dozen times until she finally pooped this morning, and it was a fully formed poop! Not diarrhea. So now I don't know what to think unless the probiotic I gave her last night worked so fast to heal her gut that it stopped the diarrhea.

She's also been eating more. So, that's good.

I am struggling with depression, and now that I am studying to be a mental health provider, I can text myself. I rated myself a 17 on the PHQ-9, which indicates moderately severe depression. I told my therapist that I rated myself a little higher than what's true because I always rate myself well under what is happening. In any case, after talking about it with my therapist, I feel much better, like a veil had lifted, which is weird. I don't think it was JUST talking to my therapist but that was definitely a large part of it. I am always tempted to write him about these follow ups but I also respect his time and know that sharing these things is what the appointments are for.

I am re-reading DIE, which I wrote about Sunday and will write about this Sunday.

Time to deliver the poop sample and get another brisket.

Love you Dad.

Saying I miss you (and Mom) at the end of each of these messages does not convey how much I actually miss you.

But I do miss you a lot.

Love, 

christopher

Ellory Queen 2602.22

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2603.12 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 3906 days ago & DAD = 560 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.