1. Home
  2. Tea Connoisseur's Forum
  3. Exploding Water (again)

Exploding Water (again)

Bringing back an older discussion, "Good Eats" on the Food Network here in the states just had an episode addressing food myths.

Perhaps the most useful to me, personally, is the debunking of the myth that mushrooms absorb a lot of water so you should brush them off rather than washing them. While they do absorb some water, it really is very little. So just rinse the 'shrooms off and don't waste time brushing them.

Anyway, they also addressed the "water exploding in the microwave" myth. All of the issues we had brought up here - superheating of the water, nucleation sites, etc -- were mentioned. The "on air" demonstration did, in fact, explode.

The point that was made, however, was that the water has to be kept still. They used a Snapple-type bottle, which had a relatively small opening compared with the volume of water. When it exploded, it emptied about 2/3 of the water.

The suggestions were to always use a wide-mouth container, and to stir it every couple of minutes. This prevents the stillness of the water which is necessary for superheating.

So, in conclusion, we appear to have come to the correct conclusions.

Reply to
Derek
Loading thread data ...

I think AB should repeat that experiment with some 6oz bellas that are showing a lot of gill. they're damn sponges.

White button mushrooms? meh, nothing's gonna make 'em worse. Well, short of putting them in a can.

Reply to
Eric Jorgensen

I dunno. I have my doubts. As I posted previously, my personal experience of exploding water was out of a 32 oz Pyrex measuring cup (wide opening) on a turntable (moving, not still) although I wasn't stirring it because I didn't know that water could explode so, maybe the water remained too stable despite the movement of the turntable, a manual wind-up model.

There was another show late last month or early this month, I think it was on the Food Network, that agreed with the FDA's recommendation of adding a foreign material before heating the water. The TV show noted that it may be anything that's microwave-safe such as one of those plastic stir-sticks that fast-food places provide for coffee or a wooden spoon or stick. Why not serve two purposes by using that microwave thermometer, the link to which you(?) posted in another thread?

Reply to
Bluesea

I had one of those Pyrex measuring cups explode altogether on me on the stove. I found out that in this case, Pyrex is not lab pyrex. I always thought it was the same stuff, hence the whole selling point of so-called "Pyrex" glassware. Apparently not. Says so right on the darn cup--my bad.

Steve

Bluesea wrote:

Reply to
Steve Hay

I've had two microwave explosions: one was clear broth in a microwave safe, glass soup bowl - diameter of bowl was about 8 inches, soup half-filled it. The other was a Pyrex "custard cup" or ramekin - about 4 inches in diameter, and water was a bit above the half way mark.

I was told (by Corning) that they probably had small scratches on them, and the scratches were actually the culprit, but that gently "disturbing" the liquid, or cooking them with a chopstick or other microwave safe item in it, would work.

Since then, I always slowly put a spoon in and stir before touching it - and it hasn't happened again. Could be luck, could be technique, but I'm not giving up the technique.

Reply to
Serendip

My satellite service has a channel of English broadcast Chinese Central TV. I've been keeping an eye out for something about tea. No luck so far but interesting subjects like Chinese/Russian border towns. Apparently the Russians like to party in China. One of the shows has an English girl doing features who can speak Chinese like a native. I'm going to send her some email about puerh. Who knows.

Jim

Derek wrote:

Reply to
Space Cowboy

I do believe that I was the one who suggested a microwave thermometer.

Reply to
Derek

That's interesting because the physics behind the explosion would suggest that the scratches would act as nucleation sites and promote the formation of bubbles, not suppress them.

In fact, the "explosion" of water is actually the formation of one big bubble that has nowhere to go but up.

Reply to
Derek
Reply to
Eric Jorgensen

DrinksForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.