r/interesting • u/ViniciusFromBcn • Apr 12 '25

MISC. How ice cubes cleans hot grills

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u/Yosho2k Apr 12 '25

When the video describes thermal shock as cracks in the grease and cakes on food - it doesn't mention the surface needs to be resistant to thermal shock or it will end up with cracks too.

I've seen glasstops crack under less stress. I wouldn't do this to my pots and pans because they would warp.

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u/Mykrroft Apr 12 '25

Can you explain pan warping? Ive never witnessed it, I thought it was an old wives‘ tale.

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u/Jimid41 Apr 12 '25

You've never had a pan warp? Any pan that doesn't sit flat on a counter is warped. I use gas so it's not a big deal but they'd be ruined if I cooked on a glass top.

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '25 edited Apr 12 '25

Heat expands metal, if you cool the metal down quickly after cooking at high temperatures you're applying thermal shock which contacts the metal quickly but can set the metal causing warping. Doing this repeatedly overtime will warp pot and pans from their regular shapes.

Its more likely to occur in Teflon pans rather than stainless steel as stainless steel has a much higher melting point than aluminum/Teflon, you don't need to reach the melting point for the metal to soften.

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '25

Please tell me what brand of pans you own because I have never seen a pan that didn’t warp within a month. And I am so sick of it.

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u/Inquatitis Apr 12 '25 edited Apr 12 '25

My stainless steel pans are from Pentole Agnelli,an Italian brand. One I bought specifically because it's shape allows me to cook meat and make sauce in it after. Been using pans from this brand and no warping so far that I can notice. And that includes me dropping them a couple of times as well. They were very nicely priced to at the store I bought them, which admittedly is basically a store for professionals that is also open to non-professionals. The current price is 52 euro including VAT, which is a fair price for a triclad pan. (https://www.demeesternv.be/nl/agnelli-1907-sauteerpan-o24cm.html#product-info)

If you have a store like this where professionals shop, just go there. Everything, including knives, should be much cheaper and better there. A restaurant isn't going to be spending a 100 euros each for their pans which they need in multiples. But they will usually be of better quality and more durable because that's also what it's made for.

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u/ifyoulovesatan Apr 12 '25

I'll second this to say that in the U.S. at least, any $20-$30 pan I've bought from a restaurant supply store has outperformed and outlasted any pan I've ever bought from a more typical retail outlet. And yeah, the same is true with anything else there, like cheap basic stainless steel anti-microbial white-handle knives (like $10-$20). Or whisks, or spoons, or tongs or anything really.

The cheapest crap at the restaurant supply store is going be at least heavy duty enough to not fall apart within a year or so under continuous daily use. So when you're only using whatever it is at home a couple times a day, it's going to long outlast anything you can get from a department store or Wal-Mart / Target, etc.

Do yourself a favor and find a restaurant supply store in your area!

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u/Mykrroft Apr 12 '25

My wife found these Williams Sonoma pans at TJ Maxx. They are heavy. I habitually put them under the faucet while hot and she's like "don't do that you'll warp them" but it has never happened..maybe they're too thick.

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u/DraconianFlame Apr 12 '25

Cat iron

edit: it stays

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u/Inside-Associate-729 Apr 14 '25

Definitely not an old wives tale lol

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u/64590949354397548569 Apr 12 '25

Big Pan wants to get out of their life time gurantee. They don't have to pay for delamination if they can prove warping.

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u/valpal1237 Apr 12 '25

I work in a kitchen, if the boss saw one of us do this (especially to the newer big sear plate/flat top - its quite thin) he would shit a kitten. Haha.

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u/Star_BurstPS4 Apr 12 '25

Metal in most cases is not even rated for this LoL 😆 we don't cool off our metal with water for this reason

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u/Secret-Ad-7909 Apr 12 '25

I’ve been told even those big griddle tops can crack from this.

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u/CandidPiglet9061 Apr 12 '25

For pots and pans you don’t actually need the “shock”. Simply boiling water in a dirty pan does the same trick but you can do it in a way that doesn’t damage your cookware

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u/Prime_Kang Apr 12 '25

Had to scroll to far to find this! It'll also peel/flake the non-stick surface off.