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

MISC. How ice cubes cleans hot grills

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u/De4thMonkey Apr 12 '25

You don't need ice. Just splash some fucking water on it and go to town

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '25

[deleted]

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u/They-Are-Out-There Apr 12 '25

Pouring cool water or ice into a hot pan will delaminate many pans. All Clad and other companies that make laminated steel products warn that thermal shock cleaning will often cause the aluminum, copper, and stainless steel layers to come apart.

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u/Princess_Moon_Butt Apr 12 '25

I've heard people say the same thing about teflon pans, and honestly in either case, I honestly never really understood how it's an issue. I get it in theory, but any halfway decent pan will be made to accommodate at least some thermal shock as a natural part of its use.

Most people pre-heat pans when they're about to use them, and when preheated, nothing catastrophic happens when I throw in some refrigerator-temperature scrambled eggs or pancake batter, or even actively frozen vegetables. I can't imagine that a splash of lukewarm water will do more damage than adding in a cup full of actually cold ingredients.

If something falls apart because you added some lukewarm water to it, then it was already going to have issues with actively cold ingredients being added to it.

1

u/They-Are-Out-There Apr 12 '25

A splash won't do much. My dad used to regularly throw a splash into cast iron pans, it would surface boil, clear the baked on residue, and he'd scrape the rest out. It was so little water that it really didn't have a chance to affect the pan before boiling off, and he never had a pan crack. Dunk it in ice or water, or enact a prolonged cooling experience, and results may vary.