Pork Rib Tip Explosion

[Randy Korr]

We had a little safety incident at the house. It's not really wood related, but wood does figure into it if you read closely. In any event, I spent an hour of my life cleaning up a big mess when I could have been doing something else.

I had heard of such a thing, but never saw it happen on a kitchen stove before. I’ve seen it happen with a microwaved glass of water, but I pretty wwell dismissed that it could happen in a steel pan full of food. I was cooking some pork rib tips. These are pork ribs sawed about 1 1/2 inches long. Wal-Mart sells them in big plastic tubs. I had actually cooked them the day before. I cut them into individual one-bone pieces and boiled them in water for about 45 minutes. Then I let the pan cool and put it in the refrigerator.

The next day, the pan was cold, and there was a hard white layer of pork fat on top of the pan's contents. I wanted to cook the ribs for another hour or so before adding vegetables, and I sat the pan on the stove on Medium High. I sort of propped up one side of the lid with a fork so they wouldn't boil over. After a little while, I lifted the lid, and as I did, the pan exploded. It sounded about as if I had slammed the pan down on the burner pretty hard.

Bang! My wife was across the kitchen, up on a step stool, and it must have been pretty loud where she was standing, to judge from her reaction. My daughter was standing behind me, and she got startled, I don't know if it was the loud bang or Mommy's reaction, but she was yelling "aye-yi-yi-yi" just like Mommy was. (My wife tends to use that as her default startled interjection, and I intentionally taught it to my daughter around the time she turned 1, because it is hilarious when my wife says it and the baby repeats it.) I'm the only one who got splattered, and not badly.

About 2/3 of the 6-quart pan's contents had been ejected. There was liquid on the 8' ceiling and all over the stove, backsplash, hood recess, and nearby cabinets. Ribs were on the stove and on the floor and stuck behind the stove, and little pieces of pork were on the cabinets and backsplash and coffee maker and toaster and microwave oven. The worst of it was the pork fat, which solidified wherever it got, which was everywhere. It took me about an hour to clean up the mess. No, I think the worst of it was that this stove was installed about 50 years ago, and you do not want to see what’s under a kitchen stove that’s sat in the previous owner’s kitchen and not been cleaned behind for 50 years while you’re cooking dinner. In fact, I’m making a mental note to take an non-scientific survey to see whether I observe plumbers to be skinny and underfed-looking in general.

I figure this was a case of superheating. All the pores in the pan and the food were probably liquid-filled, and all the dissolved air had likely been driven out of the pan contents by boiling. The solidified fat probably acted as a good barrier and kept air from dissolving in the cooled pork broth overnight.

I'm sure that somewhere there is a recommmended method to prevent superheating in the kitchen. It would be really tedious and stupid to stand there stirring a pot the whole time it's coming to a boil. Nobody does that except maybe with cream sauces and stuff like that. I guess if I had stirred the pot before heating it, the air that would have dissolved and entrained in the cold liquid might have provided an air/liquid surface for the hot liquid in the bottom of the pan. At least, I’d have cracked that hard pork fat vapor barrier. Come to think of it, I think I remember a long time ago hearing a recommendation to stand a wooden spoon in a pot before boiling it, and that would make a lot of sense.

[Honorary Bloke]

In fact, I’m making a mental note to take an non-scientific survey to see whether I observe plumbers to be skinny and underfed-looking in general.

You must be kidding, mate.

I'm sure that somewhere there is a recommmended method to prevent superheating in the kitchen.

Yes, order Chinese takeaway.

[Shedgirl]

Aaaargh, what a mess! Lucky no-one ended up wearing too much hot pork fat, especially Bubba, or she might have learned a few new exclamations. That's a good reminder to be mindful with re-heating, especially microwaves. We've all blown up an egg in the microwave (haven't we??? It's not just me that does these things, is it?) just to see if it really worked; it's almost worth the tedium of cleaning egg off the oven walls for the next hour or so. I think breaking the pork fat, or starting on a really low heat to melt it, would have done the trick. Of course, you could have removed the fat layer, but that would defeat the purpose of ribs, wouldn't it?

Your tale reminds me of the time I put a stovetop espresso maker on which had a dodgy seal. Coffee suddenly started to erupt out of the top in great scalding fountains, and all we could do was laugh hysterically as we hid under the table and watched the ceilings, walls, cupboards etc turn brown.

[Termite]

I think you will find that the water that condensed on the underside of the lid had the normal reaction that it does when dropped onto the pork fat when you lifted the lid.
Water and hot fat has the same reaction as dropping water into acid.

[Honorary Bloke]

We've all blown up an egg in the microwave (haven't we??? It's not just me that does these things, is it?) just to see if it really worked

It's just you.

[Wild Dingo]

We've all blown up an egg in the microwave (haven't we??? It's not just me that does these things, is it?) just to see if it really worked; it's almost worth the tedium of cleaning egg off the oven walls for the next hour or so.

Well... no actually... as Bob says its just you

HOWEVER!! having said that... I must admit that me an youngest son about a year ago he caught a frog... not a big frog just a medium sized frog... now not too long prior said son had see a thing on the net about a frog in a blender yep you guessed it he stuck said frog in the microwave.. by the time I figured out why he was cryin his eyes out it was way too late poor froggie

But then he asked after we had cleaned the muck an mess up... "But dadda everbody does that dont they?" to which I responded in me best Dad to littlest son voice "No mate they dont see frogs have a right to live too just like you an me an they keep the flies and mozzies down too good creatures are frogs but no I dont think anyone does that matey" his wee eyes brim full of tears he stammered "Bu bu but daddy!!! Everne MUST do it!! I saw it on the innernet!!" Bloody internet!! he hasnt been back on the computer since poor wee buggar

[billrule]

Randy,
while I am a scientist of sorts, this explanation comes with no warranty of any kind. It is a "known" fact that the lipids (in fats) can react under certain conditions to produce small amounts of nitroglycerine. The glycerol from the fat, and as the muscle tissue is broken down by the cooking process, the nitrogen-rich protein supplies the nitrates/nitrites..? whichever, to enable this reaction to occur, albeit at a very low efficiency.
Once formed, ignition of the material is reportedly very easy. As I said, this may be merely theoretical rather than plausible, but an interesting possibility.

Cheers,

Bill

[keju]

Used to love ribs, but gave up on them after I had the fire department come.
Lived in army quarters in Germany.... big multi storey apartment houses.... built on a circle....
I had ribs in shallow dish in the oven, wanting them nice and crisp .... don't like the boiled soggy kind.... next thing I knew they were on fire... pulled the plug, tried opening the door to put flour on them... just made it worse.... so in desperation called the fire department.... told them I just wanted information on how to get the flames out.
Next thing I knew two big fire engines and the fire chief's car were coming around the circle street, sirens blaring , lights flashing..... needless to say every kid in the neighbourhood came running.
I was sooooo embarrassed and my kids thought it was the best thing ever. Next day I received a fire estinguisher courtesey of the US army.... never did live that one down!
juvy