That only tells you how it tastes raw, @yossarian. I wouldn't eat raw chicken either. Roasted to perfection, on the other hand...

so pyrex is getting some fairly bad press from Consumer Reports

they are allegedly much more prone to catastrophic failure than the manufacturer claims, Anchor Hocking too

I've recommended Pyrex to people too :-\

it's in the Jan 2011 issue, and online

yeah, i've been reading about that quite a bit lately

it seems like it's only been since the change from borosilicate to soda-lime glass, but i'm having a hard time finding an exact reference as to when that happened

it was whenever World Kitchen took over the Pyrex name, apparently

nevermind, Snopes debunked that! snopes.com/food/warnings/pyrex.asp

(about World Kitchen)

i'll be keeping an eye on how this plays out, i love my Pyrex - luckily it was handed down to me, so it's the older stuff, but like you @hobodave I recommend it to everyone!

hey @stephennmcdonald

mine is the new stuff :(

i have one or two of the new ones, but my most often used are a couple old pieces

from what i'm reading, the people say they're exploding, scary stuff

yea causing blindness, severing tendons

wounding children, wtf

world kitchen is settling an unknown number of lawsuits, all with gag orders

sending C&D letters to websites reporting this, and even asking consumer reports to see their report before it was published

oh wow, i didn't hear about the last part

I find it funny that they didn't try to C&D consumer reports

that would be game over

yeah, that could get ugly

I'd never heard of this. I think I actually still have a subscription to CR that I never bothered to cancel.

Sounds terrifying.

Did I get to all your vita-mix questions @aaronut?

I still don't really understand the whole tamper thing.

It looks like it just moves things around as opposed to pushing them down.

It's a bit like a sword with a hilt.

So you can pull it in and out, but the hilt makes sure it won't hit the blades.

Ahh, okay, I get it.

So you can use it to stir, or push things down towards the blades. It works well with thicker liquids.

I kind of figured it would have more surface area, but I guess it's useful.

for peanut butter or things of a similar texture, it works great.

For thinner liquids, it's not necessary.

So I'm reading this report on the Consumer Reports site. It looks like "exploded" is a bit of an exaggeration. The only place that word is mentioned is in the headline, and in a quote from someone talking about someone else's incident.

well, that's less terrifying.

In every direct report, they say it "shattered". The one who cut her tendons - it probably shattered while she was carrying it and dropped on the floor, sending out splinters, although I'm guessing a little there.

In another case, it shattered in the oven, and in the third, it shattered in the microwave.

And the one with serious injuries - she used the broiler, which they actually warn not to do.

There's another article that actually analyzes a bunch more cases. According to that one, 3/4 are temperatures under 375° F and more than half shattered in the oven.

Hmm, okay, the second report seems to indicate some actual explosions.

Three of them. And there was one case that ended in a gag order.

Honestly, it sounds like freak accidents to me, I mean, more people than that get food poisoning every year. Still, I guess the message is, be careful with your glass.

"a secret killer in your kitchen? Is your oven a ticking time bomb? Will your pans explode, severing all of your tendons? Find out after this commercial break!"

Haha... I finally did get through all the reports, including a video, and it seems abundantly clear that the soda lime glass isn't as safe as the borosilicate.

They basically broke the safety instructions, putting hot pans onto a wet granite countertop. But it's interesting, the soda lime pans broke every single time, the borosilicate ones were fine up to temperatures of 450° F.

@Aaronut what I found interesting is the one story about the woman who thought it was a freak accident, but she had 2 other people at her job that had similar horror stories

Still, what I see in this video is clearly shattering, not exploding.

There's a world of difference.

could just be coincidence, but still if the manufacturer is claiming 1/100th of a percent of people having that, that's a hell o a coincidence

Well, yeah, there were 163 cases in how many millions?

Maybe some people don't report them, but how much of a fudge factor are you willing to accept.

(and how many of those people didn't follow or even know about the safety instructions)

well then that's a coincidence on par with winning the lottery to have 3 people be working at the same job

Not really.

there's actually several hundred reports, the website confumeraffairs has been apparently making a ruckus about this as far back as 2005

well I'm not here to argue

Hobodave, you of all people should understand the birthday paradox and law of very large numbers.

If this "coincidence" happened in hundreds of different places then yes, that would be cause for concern. But a cluster of 3 people happening once, at one time, in the entire world - is almost a certainty.

Just what I was going to say Aaronut.

As I said, I did watch these safety tests and you definitely need to be careful with the new Pyrex (the soda lime stuff). The borosilicate is clearly a lot more durable.

the videos are really pointless

But they used extreme heat and flagrantly violated the safety instructions. It doesn't appear to be the Pinto of bakeware. ;)

Why are they pointless? I find it useful to see exactly what happens when they shatter.

anyway, I'm going back to work. I'm happy to talk to you when you're feeling less confrontational

lol, what? I'm just giving you the facts, I just read through about 10 different articles on their subscription site.

From what I can tell, the safety claims appear to have a good measure of truth to them but also a whole lot of exaggeration.

@Aaronut, just to jump in (I'm at work and can't research right now unfortunately, deadline at EOD), a few of the reports I read on other sites were people who didn't flagrantly violate the safety instructions

for example, one that stands out...

I'm sorry if that sounds confrontational. It's my interpretation of the reports.

Wait, what?!? The media sensationalized and exaggerated the actual risk?!? That's ridiculous.

Yes @stephen, that was definitely true, some people were claimed to have followed the instructions.

a woman was baking at 400. she took something out of the oven, put it on a dry tea towel on her counter, bent down to pick something up, and it exploded over her head, sending shrapnel into her back

i don't see any violations of the safety instructions there

but i do agree that any glassware is going to be dangerous, this just seems to be more prone to freak accidents than most

They're "theorizing" that it's due to stress, cracks, etc.

But, @stephen, you also have to take these reports with a grain of salt. People are going to claim that they followed the safety precautions even if they didn't. Especially if they want to win a lawsuit.

well, yes and no, that report was on a forum with a woman who made no mention whatsoever of being interested in litigation

these aren't from the people who are reporting to news outlets

just random people warning others, before this became a big deal

but i agree with you in theory, for sure :)

I know, and I'm not saying the reports are false, to be clear. Just possibly unreliable. Think of how many e-mails you get "warning" you about some ridiculous virus, or not to use your cell phone at a gas station.

and any report where the person was actually talking to reporters, i assume they're exaggerating, for sure

They're all from well-meaning people.

oh, absolutely

the one where hundreds of microscopic glass shards ended up in some ladies face, blinding her for a couple months, is the most disturbing

It seems evident that they ought to stop using this soda lime crap and go back to the borosilicate that they used to use - but I'm not going to throw all of my bakeware out the window.

@hobodave, where is that report? I must have missed it.

my take on the issue is, i've never had first hand experience with said explosions, nor has anyone i know, but it seems plausible and i'll take the reports as the universe warning me to always be careful with my glassware....especially my pyrex now

yeah, i remember reading that one @hobodave, that one was scary

@Aaronut it was mentioned in the main CR article on their website, it's also on consumeraffairs.org

@hobodave: What's the title? The first article that comes up for me is that "3 in 1 workplace" thing.

Yeah, I agree with that, @stephen. I don't think they're taking it seriously enough.

what I also found interesting is that the difference between soda lime and borosilicate is well known, but there are some who are saying that the older soda lime is more durable than the current day soda lime

suggesting that WK may have altered their manufacturing process, and affected the tempering

@Aaronut looking

HELLO

Well, in one of CR's tests, they tested a really old piece that apparently survived even the worst tests.

But I'm pretty sure that would have been borosilicate, since that's how they made it back then.

What is the best way to bind breading to steak when cooking Chicken Fried Steak?

the other bit I found particularly damning is that the manufacturers ahve been getting the CPSC to stay away by asserting that when these do shatter, that the pieces are not sharp, and ar harmless

egg wash

I really hate the CR website

or flour then egg wash.

Yeah @chacha, I use eggs when breading just about anything. Flouring it first can help.

Is there a trick to making sure the breading sticks? The last time I made it, most of it fell off

Well how did you make it?

Steak > Pounded flour in -> Egg Wash -> Breaded it -> Fry

sup :DDDDD

@Aaronut the main article: consumerreports.org/cro/magazine-archive/2011/january/…

that article spans 12 pages btw

@Chacha: The only thing I can think of is maybe you fried it too long; if you get too close to burning the breading then it's going to be brittle and flake off.

paragraph 4

Ok, that one did not show up in my search at all.

yea their site sucks

it took me 5 minutes just to find it again

but yea that's the article in the Jan 2011 issue

Oh wait, yes it did, it's just the name's inconsistent.

consumeraffairs.com/…

they're the ones that have been collecting the complaints, and have articles going back to 2005

Now I've forgotten what I'm looking for in that article.

glass in eyes

Oh, the face thing.

the page I linked, paragraph 4

Oh, this one's one of the lawsuits.

nasty

I dunno... the gag order makes it suspicious but the claim itself sounds pretty outlandish.

I'm not trying to be argumentative, but on the whole we're talking about the same kinds of people who sue McDonald's because they spilled coffee in their lap. These reports are extreme but they're also unverified. I want to see this kind of thing recreated in lab conditions, otherwise it might as well be cosmic rays.

There's clear evidence that the soda lime glass isn't as safe as it ought to be. There's clear evidence that it may shatter given the right conditions. There's very little evidence that it's going to explode sending flying shards of glass into your eyes.

Just my interpretation.

yea, I thought CR's report was very responsible

and I think it's good that they're calling on the CPSC to look into it

I have to admit that this is a little ridiculous: Never place hot glassware on top of a stove, on a metal trivet, on a damp towel, in the sink, on a cold or wet surface, or directly on a countertop. You know what, I think I'd rather just use the Corningware.

yea that's a bit ridiculous

Just out of interest, where the fuck am I supposed to put it?!?

I've always put it either on a countertop or on the stove... if WC itself is saying that's not safe, then IMO that means the bakeware isn't safe. You should be able to put it directly on a countertop or stove as long as it's not sopping wet.

only on a dry towel

ever

Yeah, and not a damp towel! It must be bone dry!

yeah just keep it away from the WC

It's so hard to get at the real facts when you have a hyper-litigious public pitted against a legally paranoid corporation. I guess we'll just have to wait for the CPSC testing, if it ever happens.

what do you guys do to remind yourself that there is something cooking in the kitchen

sometimes i just lose track of time

Yeah, it's the same reason that so many Sous Vide cook books suck. The health concerns are such that no one wants to go out on a limb and expose them selves. So everything is too hot and too long.

Stay in the kitchen!

thats so hard when the tv is on

turn the TV off!

:D thats totally what i would say to a girl tho

its bad for me, the last time i set a vessel on fire , it had some clarified butter ,

A friend left hot oil warming up for popcorn shrimp. The whole kitchen had to be repainted.

Hahaha, what a burn.

Try a kitchen timer. ;)

Figuratively and literally.

Why do you need to remind yourself? Honestly, I've never forgotten that I have something cooking. I can usually smell it. I only use the oven timer so that it automatically turns off.

And it was his girlfriend's uncle's house and he wasn't supposed to be there (she was house sitting).

And they got home 3 days early. They were pissed.

im reading the julie/julia project, shes a really good writer

@yossarian: Who walks away from the stove for deep-frying? Honestly.

You'd have to meet this guy. He went down stairs for a beer and got distracted by the dj rig I'd left there for the previous night's party.

lol

Although, he's a chef in Savannah who's starting to get some good press from his new place and his previous one.

Which raises the question, why would anyone ever let a college kid house sit? Have you never seen a movie?

if you have pets in the house you sometimes have to settle for anyone willing to housesit

i really need this kitchen timer

thing

i dunno i just have a short attention span when it comes to cooking

@Gabe, we have a timer on our oven, does yours have that feature?

it's not a bake timer, the stove doesn't have to be on, it works like a kitchen/egg timer

@stephennmcdonald nope i dont

darn, worth a shot :)

how about moving the tv so it's visible from the kitchen :D

i like the airplay feature of OsX that way i can get the movie i was watching to my iphone

that's actually why i listen to podcasts on my phone when i cook, so i don't feel like i'm missing anything in the living room

someone should make an opensource implementation

perfect, just get a small mount for your phone and stay in the kitchen :)

i actually put mine into a pint glass, so i get better sound

thats a great idea man

but, i'm listening not watching, so i don't mind it being obstructed

yeah anything will do so that i am not distracted ,

If your oven doesn't have a timer then get yourself an egg timer. My mom refuses to use the oven timer, she always uses that stupid egg timer.

Get one of the analog ones that ticks loudly, so that you're constantly reminded that something's cooking, even if it's not done yet.

haha, yeah it took me months to convince my wife to use the oven timer instead of that egg timer, it finally came down to, the oven timer doesn't shut off unless you press the button, whereas our egg timer only rings for a few seconds

Or just, you know, stay in the kitchen while you cook. Even if something's in the oven for a half hour or so, you can use that time to clean up.

yeah for me the kitchen is my relaxing place anyway, i've always got something to do in there, if not cleaning, some kind of organization or meal planning

Hah. That annoys me too @stephen, how did you resolve it?

no resolution yet, unfortunately :(

i think my record time in the kitchen must be 10 minutes

D: half an hour seems like ages

i'm the exact opposite :) if i go in there for 10 minutes i end up being in there for an hour!

that is true for me when im painting :)

or sketching

but its not that i dont like cooking , i love the act that goes in cooking , but i just cant stand there and watch something come to a boil and so on

ah, yeah i can understand that. that's why i rarely have one thing at a time going. for example while the water is coming to a boil, i'm chopping onions and garlic. or washing the dishes from last night. or figuring out a new way to organize my spices :)

but sometimes i just stand there and pet my dog and listen to podcasts :D

that dog in your profile picture ?

aww its cute

the kitchen is where my Martini is. Why would I leave?

lol, I have to ask, if you've never cooked for more than 10 minutes, why would you be on a cooking site... or in a cooking chat room?

actually i cook in bursts

like multitasking

where else would you learn to cook?

@stephen, I do the same with my cat, except not so much "petting" as "chasing him off the countertops so he doesn't get hair all over the food and burn his paws on the stove."

im sure there are a lot like me

@yossarian: I learned to cook the old-fashioned way. Mom and books. :P

my wife taught me. But in this new fangled intraweb era, that just seems so...passe

Of course these days it's often me giving the advice, haha.

@Gabe: Most of us multitask, I think the difference is that we have multiple culinary tasks, of which TV is not one...

When I told my parents I wanted cooking equipment for my b-day last year, my mom said, "Did you ever think you'd be asking for kitchen stuff for your b-day? What happened to you?"

They now get upset that they're not invited to dinner more.

Oh, you just reminded me, do you know anything about immersion blenders?

I was going to get one as a gift to replace my mom's 20-year-old duct-tape abomination.

No. I don't have one.

Hmm. Too bad, I thought you were an expert on all blenders.

Actually, I knew this already didn't I... from your question about the foam.

Ha. After talking my wife in to a vita-mix (read: going out and buying one and not getting in too much trouble), I'm not going to broach the subject of more blenders for another year or two.

@Aaronut yeah well i cant do that , i dont cook more than 4 dishes at a time ... and i agree my mind is all over the place , tv was just an example .. its mostly my guitar

yeah, but I don't really expect you to remember all the questions I've asked.

throw a strap on and then just sling it across your back while you're playing. That's what I do.

Well, I'll tell ya, you could've tossed that lobster bisque straight into an iSi Gourmet Whip, charged it up for 3 seconds and had a perfect foam. So if you can't get an immersion blender, get one of those!

hehe. Yeah. that's part of why I asked for one.

I guess in all fairness, I'm not always multitasking in the kitchen. My favourite lazy Sunday dish is pulled pork; that just sits in the oven for 6 hours.

But in cases like that, I don't need to be reminded; I open up the oven whenever I'm getting hungry.

Oven?!? You don't smoke your pulled pork?!? Sacrilege! Burn the heretic!

I live in a condo apartment, whaddaya want from me.

I do use a healthy amount of smoked paprika so it actually does taste smoky. Honestly, with the right rub, I defy anyone to tell the difference between the oven version and the smoked version.

happy holidays guys , talk to ya later

Hmmm. I'd take you up on that challenge.

Same for ribs - OK, it's not quite as good as 3 days of smoking and BBQ pits, but throw some liquid smoke flavour into the braise and baste 5 or 6 times with a good BBQ sauce and it's better than any ribs I've had from a restaurant.

speaking of blenders, I bought one a few weeks ago, I love it

Of all the ways to cook a boston butt, I don't like anything as much as smoking, and I've tried a few times for convenience during the winter. You'll have to share your rub!

what did you end up with hobodace?

dave

It's mostly smoked paprika, cumin, onion and garlic powder, oregano, thyme, chipotle chili, ancho chili, cayenne pepper, and black pepper. There may have been something I forgot.

@yossarian Kitchenaid 5 speed

And it goes into a spice grinder, can't just mix it.

And it has to be cooked slow.

But that's fine, I fire it in at noon and it's done by 6 or 7.

this guy amzn.to/gwGISw

I've done it sous vide a few times, and the meat is incredible, but it doesn't have any of the flavor of smoking.

I've been making a lot of smoothies

@hobodave, don't you have a stand mixer? I thought you could buy special blender attachments.

@Aaronut I do, but I've never heard of blending with one

hehe. We did like 2 months straight of smoothies when we got the vita mix. Bit cold now though...

@yossarian, I never do sous-vide, I just make it with a tiny bit of water in a cast iron pot (my "dutch oven"). I assure you it's smoky.

I'm on a diet :(

gearing up for a turkey fest?!?

Smoked paprika is your friend.

Turkey fest, what?

trying to get back in shape. Since moving to Chicago I have grown outward

I know the feeling... I somehow managed to gain 15 pounds last year. 12 years I tried desperately to gain weight and never an ounce. As soon as I stop working out, that's when it all comes on.

But screw diets, it just means I need to work harder.

You should live somewhere that you can go outside in the winter! Much healthier to stay active year round instead of just 5 months of the year.

I've been getting more exercise this winter than I did last summer!

same

There's a gym in the complex... it's a shitty one, but it's better than nothing.

yeah, I just lost my gym membership.

I've gained over 15 lbs a year since moving here

Sounds about right. My brother is having the same issue.

The bike trainer in a spare room is doing ok so far though.

now I'm on a very low calorie diet and doing exercise 3 days a week

1200 calories a day, fun

I got lazy this week because it was so close to vacation. But other than that it's been 5 or 6 days a week, basically whenever I'm not too sore.

1200 calories, what is that, an apple?

Anyway... there's nothing like getting dressed for a semi-formal event and realizing that you can't fit into any of your dress pants to galvanize you into getting regular exercise.