Do not pour cold water into a hot Pyrex, unless you want a dramatic explosion. Especially do not pour cold water into a hot Pyrex if you have done it before and know what happens but forgot and your wife is standing there because she will probably look annoyed and then judge you and then post about it on the internet.
let’s get fat and sassy
What is it about pyrexes that make them especially susceptible to ‘sploding?
I read somewhere that Pyrex has lowered the quality of their manufacturing/materials. Just a couple years ago, my friend’s sister exploded one of our 9×13′s when moving it out of the oven onto the range.
Most bakeware is made of less brittle (metal, silicone) OR less thermally-sensitive (ceramics) materials. Pyrex stuff is heat treated to allow it to hold together at high temperatures, but dramatic changes in surface temperature (what you get when you throw water, boils at 212F, onto a dish at oven temp, say 350F) cause the cooled area to suddenly contract in volume. This contraction pulls on other parts of the dish and causes a lot of internal strain. As Pyrex is inelastic, it tends to relieve the strain on itself by shattering.
Why am I writing this after 1am? FOR SCIENCE.
Both Pyrex and conventional ceramics are made to withstand extremely high temperatures, but what is supposed to make pyrex good is its low coefficient of thermal expansion, right? In theory, it should be more resistant to this situation than just regular glass or ceramic materials, but the opposite seems to be the case.
oh god history repeats itself
Been there, done that, only in reverse with hot water into a cold pitcher. Net result: one severely burned foot, which probably would’ve been okay had I not been wearing socks, which kept the boiling water in contact with my skin.
Pretty nasty, but it did get me a week or two of being waited on hand and foot. And hey, a year later you can hardly see the scars.
I’ve had some strange luck with Pyrex. I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but once while making casserole I set the baking dish down on the counter and all of a sudden I hear a sizzle-pop and the thing kind of just divides into a bunch of jagged shards. The counter was wet, and I guess that was enough to cause an explosion. The chicken de vin could not be saved.
I didn’t even realize it was able to happen in reverse :/ Now I’m going to be incredibly paranoid while buying casserole dishes.