Somnambulism

[NotHardUp1]

Common name of a cemetery.

 

[Vannie]

Two words: Shady Pines

Sleep walking at Shady Pines? It would be like Night of the living Dead meets Stuffed Cabbage night

 

[frankfrank]

But, people have also been known to jump out windows, so they don't always see or behave competently.

Wow, I've never heard of this before.

Autodefenestration is a bitch.

 

[NotHardUp1]

How do you know that it wasn't ghosts?

OK, so it's time to double back to this theory.

I was cooking breakfast this morning for a friend who was visiting from Albuquerque. While I was at the sink, suddenly there was a very loud bang. It sounded like a large slab of stone had been dropped flat on the floor.

My friend came from the hall and I asked him if he heard it. He did. I asked if it came from his area or mine. Mine.

I walked into the den and looked about on the wood floor. Nothing had fallen or anything.

Back in the kitchen the same. Then I checked everything on the counters, and to my amazement, the 9-inch cast iron skillet I had been heating to dry after washing it had a crack in it. I had placed it on one of the rear eyes on the glass cooktop, so I am guessing the eye being smaller than the diameter of the skillet by about an inch all around caused it to heat the iron unevenly enough to break it.

But if it is the ghost, it must be stuck there at the stove, as the oven is right next to it with the broken glass.

 

[Thad1527]

And ruining a second-hand toaster oven is hardly the way to spook someone. '

Something new under the sun! If I include this incident in my mystery novel (oh, it really cries out for a backstory!) you're getting full credit.

 

[Telstra]

Yeah, I thought about that too, but it seems expensive when I can just test other ways. I know I talk in my sleep, plus snore. Hell, I'll never get a mate now.

get a cheap securely camera from ebay.
cost $20 usd ...

 

[NotHardUp1]

Ha. Write away. I love unusual twists in stories.

Sadly, it was my only iron skillet, so I'll have to go foraging. I had bought that one in Connecticut, and put it in a fire here to burn the crust off it.

Will have to get shopping soon, as I need to make cornbread before long.

 

[cityboy-stl]

Good grief. How hot to you have to heat a cast iron skillet to dry it? It seems like it would have to be awfully hot to crack cast iron. But I am happy to hear you were not doing it while sleep walking.

 

[NotHardUp1]

I have dried it many times before, and it was not really hot when it broke.

At first, I thought I might have damaged the iron's tempering when I put it in the bonfire to clean it months ago, but as I posted, it occurred to me that the eye was only about seven inches in diameter, so it may have heated the center of the bottom but not the perimeter evenly, which may have caused it.

Was really scary when it popped, as it was as loud as gunfire.

 

[Alistair]

I wouldn't think the bonfire would be an issue since that's how you season it to start. I could see possibly that heating it unevenly would effect it, especially if it had a built in flaw.

 

[NotHardUp1]

I did a bit of reading on the web, and cast iron cracking isn't unusual. A flaw or damage can form a very small invisible crack which can suddenly propagate if heated. There was a lot of discussion about whether a brand was at fault, but the pros all said any cast iron could, and heirlooms often fall prey to it.

The ones I read did tend to be electric stoves, so I wonder if others like me had also used an eye too small for the pan. Stove manufacturers always tell you to use one that is the right size for the pan.

Another cook had also only been heating her pan for a minute when it exploded. That was pretty much my situation, but maybe it was 2-3 minutes. Certainly wasn't even hot enough to smell hot.

 

[Kahaih]

A common warning often heard where campfires are permitted is never place wet rocks around the fire. The steam inside the small cracks will expand enough to make the rock explode. Very dangerous.

Maybe your heated skillet started out with only a small crack that water got into when you washed it. Steam opened it up/completed the crack with a bang - might even have 'jumped' enough to add to, or cause the bang when it landed.

 

[Alistair]

It's like the exploding Pyrex I'll be afraid to use my skillet now

 

[NotHardUp1]

A common warning often heard where campfires are permitted is never place wet rocks around the fire. The steam inside the small cracks will expand enough to make the rock explode. Very dangerous.

Maybe your heated skillet started out with only a small crack that water got into when you washed it. Steam opened it up/completed the crack with a bang - might even have 'jumped' enough to add to, or cause the bang when it landed.

I wondered about that. I had just poached eggs in it, and had rinsed that water out to use it to cook something else, hence drying it.

As for Alistair's Pyrex, I blew up an 8" x 8" square pan as a kid when heating my stepfather some lunch on the stove. I was home sick from school and my mother had told me I had to heat up his lunch. I didn't know you could not put Pyrex on open flame, and I warmed his smothered steak in the pan from the fridge. Grave everywhere and hundreds of pebbles of Pyres. Safe explosion though. No sharp glass.

 

[Yooper]

Sorry about your pan. When replacing, insist on only LODGE. Only manufacturer still in the Good 'ol USA, and guaranteed quality, instead of that imported stuff.

I'd hook you up, but won't be home for another week.

 

[NotHardUp1]

A little more reading reveals my haunted relic has been around quite some time. It is an older Wagner Sidney 8" without the smooth bottom. It must date to before Griswold acquired Wagner and before Wagner switched to smooth outer bottom skillets. It may be over a century old, and likely from Ohio.

http://www.castironcollector.com/wagnertm.php

My wounded warrior:

 

[rareboy]

Hang it on the wall. It merits trophy status.

We stopped using the rangetop elements to dry out cookware after reading about someone else having a cast skillet crack. Now we just turn it upside down on the stovetop and let it air dry....or turn on the burner for a minute, turn it off and let residual heat dry the pan.

 

[NotHardUp1]

I do think it is related to wetting it, and steam. I always preheat my skillet and longer than this did.

But, as the web discussions stated, there can be a tiny flaw present, and it just grows until one day it erupts.

 

[tarallucci]

It's my spirit that lingers for something to eat.

Maybe you just don't remember bumping those objects while cooking and you're seeing the cracks now they are more evident.

Damn you're worse than Vannie at blowing things up in the kitchen.

I know I talk in my sleep, plus snore. Hell, I'll never get a mate now.

I'd know how to stop that.

I've had some minor episodes of sleepwalking, sleeptalking and sleepmasterbaiting.

 

[NotHardUp1]

The skillet had just been used, so it wasn't cracked to any degree then.