So glad all is ok @shrinkrap; it can be traumatic and upsetting. Hope no one got any serious burns.
Yum! I still love burnt marshmallows.
I did the exact same thing in my regular oven, during the holidays when oven space was at a premium. I placed the sweet potato casserole on top of another tray in the oven only to warm it and melt the marshmallows, however I didn’t realize sitting on top of another pan the marshmallows were touching the top heating element in the oven. Fast forward fire, blah blah blah…
What I didn’t realize is a lot of the marshmallows stuck to the heating element so the next time I used the oven I started fire # 2 which left me completely dumbfounded at the time because I had no idea the marshmallows left remnants.
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I’d never made sweet potatoes before or since that time with marshmallows. I prefer mine savory.
Having an audience of about 30 made the experience that much worse. We would do a series of classes before Thanksgiving very year and they were always very well attended. Many times the same people would come year after year. You know I would get comments every year thereafter. Kind like your subsequent fire.
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Just wondering how you make your savory sweets; I put a Jamaican twist to mine, or Cajun/Creole. Always keep my squash or sweet potato soups savory too @MsBean.
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I usually go with a Latin vibe - ancho chiles, jalapenos, lime, cilantro, etc Other times, I’ll also use some of the “sweet spices” - cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, etc - especially if certain family members are around who can be more traditional - but I’ll include fresh ginger for a kick. They know its different but so much that it sets off alarms. I do the same for my soups as well.
Thanks @MsBean, I’ll give the Latin way a spin. I often do squash soups with Thai curry spices and coconut milk. Mainly stick with the red pastes on those, but Panang would be great, and Yellow or Massaman would work too. Somehow I don’t think green would be a go, but maybe??
Never caught my clothes on fire at the stove. But suffered seared eyebrows and hair more than I care to remember.
My parents had a rudimentary gas stove in the '50s when I was a kid. In order to start the broiler (at the bottom of the stove) one had to turn the gas release for the broiler “on” and then ignite it with a match. If one were not quick enough with the match, the broiler would ignite and push out a fire ball to the opening of the stove. Quickness was the operational requirement!
At a certain age, younger than my teens, I was charged with firing up the broiler. We used that damned feature way to often to my liking. One, all of us loved toast in the morning for breakfast, and my parents were too cheap to buy a toaster. So the toast went under the broiler. Two, we never had kitchen matches, so all the fires had to be started using matchbook matches. So you turn the gas on the broiler, drop quickly to the floor, and hope the match you’re using strikes on the first pull across the matchbook. If it didn’t…
Went to school many a day with frizzed eyebrows, and a silly looking hair knot at my brow. Did learn quickly not to put butch wax on my hair until after breakfast.
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Jimmy’s story reminded me of setting a fire in the kitchen on purpose.
I had an elderly sort-of relative who lived in an apartment overlooking the slip where I then kept my boat. He was my wife’s sister’s husband’s paternal grandfather. We just all called him GGF (for great grandfather) to avoid confusing my nieces.
GGF considered cooking an observational activity and even in his late 80s had a coterie of lady friends who kept him fed. During one of my wife’s business trips I offered to come make dinner for him - we always had plenty to talk about. I discovered that his oven and broiler (the underneath sort that Jimmy described) had been unused and uncleaned since the passing of GGF’s wife nearly twenty years before. sigh There were a lot of spider webs and unidentifiable debris in there. Figuring I couldn’t really make things worse I fired everything up full blast and burned off as much as possible. Then I took the doors off, hunkered down on the floor, and cleaned with twenty year old oven cleaner I found in the pantry. Eventually it was clean (enough). Dinner was late but we ate salad the ribeyes broiled and the broccoli steamed.
Dinners with GGF became a regular thing when my wife traveled. To my knowledge no one other than me cooked in his kitchen until GGF passed. Even the lady friends just reheated things in the microwave.
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Bingo! Only a gas grill with my son peeking in the hole to see if it lit. Fire shot out, singed his eyelashes! Scared the hell out of me. Not him. He once let me remove a bee stinger from his throat with a forceps and then rush back to work.
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I’ve had a couple of flareups in the kitchen and to be safe used the fire extinguisher.
Understand if you use it you lose it, it has to be replaced.
I keep two in the kitchen.
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@RedJim, firstly I’m glad you survived to adulthood! Secondly your post reminded me of a long, nearly forgotten memory.
One time, long ago, and in a different lifetime, I was traveling the coast of Mexico with a companion. We stayed a few nights in a beach town named San Carlos, nearby to the town of Guymas, famous for their prawns/shrimp.
We were staying at a beach house that was being run like a pension with shared bathrooms and living spaces. It was very basic, but clean, and right on the beach. Most importantly, for young people, cheap.
The first thing I noticed about the place was an old torpedo being used as a decoration in the living room, which I found odd. Bear with me, this ties in.
Anyway, we were up in our room one late afternoon, when the newlyweds from down the hall decided to make dinner in the common kitchen. All of a sudden, a huge explosion rocked the house, and my first thought was that the torpedo had gone off!
What happened is the couple had turned the old fashioned broiler on without realizing they needed to light a match. (I didn’t know that either) The gas had built up inside, to the point it blew both doors off the oven, shattered the downstairs windows, and blew most of the cupboard doors off as well. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt, except for a few minor scratches. A scary experience, nevertheless - yikes!
Thanks for sharing your story, and prompting me to remember mine!
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Yes. Note that while some are rechargeable you have to find someplace that can and will do that. Annual inspections are important. You can self-inspect. You’re looking for leaks and rust mostly. For powder extinguishers you should turn them upside down and bang them vigorously with your hand to keep the powder from caking in the bottom.
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Never before, but yesterday I fried up a nice thick pork chop. I’d watched a Kenji Lopez-Alt video about cooking ribeye, and followed the same procedure (sprinkle with a good layer of salt on both sides and suspend it in the fridge for a few hours before frying). He used bourbon to deglaze, commenting that it might flare up. It didn’t for him, but I tried to use a splash of brandy and Whoosh! foot-high flames across the entire pan. I got the pan to the sink and popped the lid on it, smothering the flames. And I forgot about the fire extinguisher that was right there–thanks for the reminder.
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Oh wow, how weird, but good timing with the thread I guess. Glad you’re ok!
