Pyrex exploded

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I just had quite a scare.

I was making lamb shanks, and had just done the initial browning process in the oven at 450F for 30 minutes.

I took one of the pyrex baking dishes I know I've had at least 15 years, and started adding in some liquid that was at boiling temp, so at least 212F

All of a sudden BAM! I'm surrounded by shattered pyrex. I must have moved my foot when it exploded because I looked and a shard was sticking out the sole of my foot.

All I could think of was pieces going in my eye. I was really shook up and had a good cry a few minutes later.

I know you're not supposed to put extreme temp difference on pyrex, but I didn't think oven hot and boiling would do that. Maybe because I set the baking pan on top of the stove. It wasn't cold since the oven had been on, but wasn't hot.

All I know is, no more cooking in pyrex for me.

I looked up pyrex, and they are saying it's not as shatter proof as it used to be, but this was an old pan.

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@chai2,

The original makers of Pyrex (Corning) sold the company a long time ago (as well as all the "Corning Ware" brand) and the new company stopped using the old boro-silicate glass that "can go from freezer to oven". I always look for the original Corning stamp on the bottom of old glass to see if it is the real stuff. I found an original mixing bowl in a thrift shop last year when looking for college dishes for my son. He completely did not understand my enthusiasm.

This is interesting reading from Snopes. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/exploding-pyrex/

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@engineer,

Thanks. I had no idea.

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Ya'll are gonna think I'm making this up....

So since no lamb for dinner, I decided to first snack on a little bit of leftover rotesserie chicken.

I put it in a small 2 cup pyrex bowl, which I can't even remember buying, ever. Probably got from a thrift store 20 years ago.

So roland and I shared the snack in the living room, from the coffee table. I pick up the empty bowl to go to the kitchen. It slipped from my hands no more than 8 inches from the table, fell, and yes, shattered all over the coffee table, and 10 surrounding feet, mostly on carpet.

I have a theory the bowl and baking dish were lovers, and the bowl could just not go on without her.

At least now their pieces are mingled in the trash can.

I hadn't been planning on cleaning today, but there you go.

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I wonder if it could be that the glass was old or had some minor damage. I am not 100% sure if this sort of glass breaks down in a sense if it is really old but I do know if you have just some slight damage it can cause the glass to more easily shatter.

I had a tempered glass in an old fridge of mine. I took it out to clean it. Similar to you I didn't think the change in temperature was that much - I left it out enough it wasn't refridge cold - and I used warm water on it -- the minute I went to then touch it --- it shattered completely.

So maybe it was slightly damaged and you didn't know it making it more likely to shatter. Or I wonder if this type of glass breaks down after being old - I know the fridge was pretty old.

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@chai2,

chai2 wrote:

I have a theory the bowl and baking dish were lovers, and the bowl could just not go on without her.

At least now their pieces are mingled in the trash can.

That is touchingly romantic.

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@engineer,

Yeah. I’m just a sentimental fool.

Linkat, that’s what I was thinking to. Maybe over the years delveloped a weak spot. I mean, there is a big difference between 450 and 212 boiling temperature too, so maybe that’s it. But the fact I’ve done this before makes me wonder.

Like I said it really shook me up, as I was standing right in front of it. When I was cleaning up, I not only found pieces in the next room, but inside the Dutch oven from which I was ladling the boiling broth. The pot is probably 9” deeper more, so the glass also flew upwards. Who knows how high. Ugh. Just thinking about it gives me the willies.

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@chai2,

I'm glad you were not badly injured. I've never exploded a pyrex bowl, but I have dropped a double set of pyrex mixing bowls trying to slip it out from the cabinet...Shattered 5 of the 8 bowls. Well, also there have been a few times while making iced tea I didn't wait as long as I should have before pouring hot tea into a glass pitcher. Didn't end well.

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I exploded one, by accidentally putting an empty on a hot burner and walking away. Discovered the mistake a few seconds before it exploded.

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@edgarblythe,

Ha!

Edgar, I once got the bright idea to put a crock pot on a burner to quickly heat the stew up that I'd made the day before, rather than transferring to a regular pot.

Lesson learned there.

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@chai2,

I could see it as I read.

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Also, I knew better than to freeze water in Corningware, but had a lapse and put my biggest bowl of it in the freezer.

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@engineer,

I go to yard sales just to find lidded Corning labeled baking and shallow cooking ware. We use em in the RV and give em to the kids. They dont even know how good the old lab grade Pyrex was.

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@Linkat,

there are places on the dishes that do not take point shock well. Ive busted a pyrex dish full of ribs I was taking out to the grill. I picked out the ribs from the busted glass from the brick patio, washed em off, wauced em up, and put em on the grill.

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@edgarblythe,

jver blow up eggs in the microwave. I had no idea that would happen then I remembered the "Punch holes in everything going into the nuke" (I guess that means eggs too.

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@farmerman,

I was schooled on eggs the day I got my first microwave.

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@farmerman,

I was gonna try to save the lamb, but I decided there might be tiny shards, as I found many of them all around, like needles.

Maybe I'll look around for old corning ware.

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@chai2,

chai2 wrote:

I looked up pyrex, and they are saying it's not as shatter proof as it used to be, but this was an old pan.

You answered your own question. Do you really think that science and manufacturers have found a way to make things last a million or so years?

You shouldn't fetishize/overly sentimentalize the "back in the old days..." mentality where the proverbial they made things that lasted a millennia! Because ... manufacturers never did. They had design flaws back then like they do now.

Household items aren't perfect. Over years of use? Preexisting faults in a given item will inevitably be found. "I paid X dollars for this ______ and demand it last a 1000 years."

Not dismissing your shock. But you just shouldn't be this unrealistically critical against Pyrex. You experienced and survived a weird but inevitable fluke in manufacturing.

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I'm glad you're okay -- eek, that's skeery.

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@engineer,

engineer wrote:

chai2 wrote:

I have a theory the bowl and baking dish were lovers, and the bowl could just not go on without her.

At least now their pieces are mingled in the trash can.

That is touchingly romantic.

Boromio and silicate

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