What a skillet!

[Constance]

The other night, I was making mac & cheese, and I had Kim fill the pot and put it on to boil. I went in the bedroom to put on my shoes, and he came in to talk to me...said he had the burner on med/high, but took the lid off the pot so it wouldn't boil right away. We chatted for a while, and when I finally opened the door, the whole house was filled with smoke. (Evidentally, we need new batteries in the smoke detector.)
He had turned on the wrong burner, and my 12" calphalon sautee pan, which had leftover oil from frying potatoes had smoke pouring out from under the lid.
I quickly moved it off the hot burner, and it flared up as I did, but quickly went out as it was getting no air.
We opened up the house, but the smoke was so thick that we had to go back in the bedroom and shut the door. It took and hour before I could get back in the kitchen.
I was sure the skillet was ruined, and it stunk something awful. I didn't even look at it until the next day. The lid took a little scrubbing with a plastic scrubbie to get the black off, but the pan came clean as a whistle with a dish brush.
It does still have a little of that smell...probably needs a wash with baking soda or something. But I was amazed at how well it cleaned up.

 

[lmw80]

Wow! That is quite a story! Glad everything turned out ok!

 

[Constance]

Me too! I'm also glad my husband did it instead of me. I would never have heard the end of it.
I have a new smoke detector and kitchen fire extinguisher on tomorrow's Walmart list. Both are 20 years old.

 

[KellyM]

Me too! I'm also glad my husband did it instead of me. I would never have heard the end of it.
I have a new smoke detector and kitchen fire extinguisher on tomorrow's Walmart list. Both are 20 years old.

Well, in my case, I did it myself, except with a Farberware 12" skillet. I had cooked up some bacon that morning, and for some reason just never got around to removing and cleaning the pan. Just lazy that day, I guess, especially since I then went on to break my own rule of never cooking in a dirty kitchen. I was only going to make coffee, though.

I went to boil some water, and turned it on high. (I use a french press.) I can only say in my defense that it was a new stove, and I wasn't yet familiar with the controls. (I know, I know, how hard can it be? )

Well, I walked out of the room for a couple of minutes, and when I returned to check on the water, the bacon grease was on fire! A column of flame a foot tall and a foot wide was sitting there on my oven.

Well, I got the fire quenched, and figured the pan was ruined, but it came through fine. I'm really glad the house did as well. Color me sheepish.

Kelly