BS: Glass frying pans?

Subject: RE: BS: Glass frying pans?
From: Slag
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 05:28 PM

Maryanne! Stop doing that! Not only is it dangerous to apply ANY glass or ceramic material too an electric burner, Pyrex, Kimax and even borosilcate glass has a habit of weakening over time and it will sooner or later fall apart as attested to above. I had a Pyrex pitcher drop apart in a series of rings in dishwater.

Electric burners get much hotter than the dial indication, reason being the heat will be dispersed over a wider area. Glass holds heat well and does NOT desprse heat quickly. Melting can occur at points of direct contact. Also, even though Pyrex and like material is prestressed, such great variances between the coil and the mean temperature of the vessel will exceed its ability to expand uniformly, that is to say, it may explode like a glass grenade!

Subject: RE: BS: Glass frying pans?
From: Penny S.
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 05:13 PM

I used Vision for a while, mostly for vegetables. The food stuck in the frying pans. They brought out ones coated in Teflon for a bit. The Teflon didn't stick well.

I remember seeing an ad, once only, with Keith Floyd, in which he showed a pristine pan and said "here is one I burned earlier" to emphasis its easy clean nature. It was edited out of following showings!

My sister has taken my Dad's pans. I will tell her about this thread.

Subject: RE: BS: Glass frying pans?
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 05:25 AM

The good thing with glass 'Vision' cookware is that you can see how the cooking is doing at a glance but the best pan that I have used was a lidded cast iron hob to oven pan. It did hold the heat so I had to make sure I was wearing extra thick oven gloves but it was a good solid pan and being able to transfer it to the oven saved me from having to transfer the food to a casserole dish and also left the hob free for anything else I wanted to do.

Subject: RE: BS: Glass frying pans?
From: maire-aine
Date: 26 Aug 10 - 05:54 PM

Not a frying pan, but I use a pyrex sauce pan on an electric stove a lot. I sometimes spray the bottom of the pan with Pam or something similar, and I keep the heat low to start and raise it gradually, so the food doesn't scorch. I fell more comfortable using glass than aluminum.

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: Glass frying pans?
From: gnu
Date: 26 Aug 10 - 05:33 PM

Hahahahahaa

Subject: RE: BS: Glass frying pans?
From: mayomick
Date: 26 Aug 10 - 04:13 PM

I'd like to see one made out of a mixture of water and washing up liquid

Subject: RE: BS: Glass frying pans?
From: Charmion
Date: 26 Aug 10 - 12:09 PM

I'm another survivor of a Corning Visionware cooking disaster -- in my case, a covered skillet that cracked from side to side, dumping the contents onto the stovetop. God, what a mess, and very fortunate that it happened before I had lifted the pan clear of the stove where it could splash stew and broken glass all over my feet and legs.

I gather that the problem was material fatigue accelerated by exposure to extreme direct heat.

A cast-iron skillet is still the Directing Staff solution to most frying and stewing problems, up to that dreaded moment when age and arthritis weaken the cook's ability to hold the skillet over a dish with one hand while serving, especially the stage when you tip it to scrape out the last drops.

Subject: RE: BS: Glass frying pans?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 26 Aug 10 - 10:41 AM

The glass pans in the UK did not work very well. They tended to burn the contents and discoloured very fast. The handles also got very hot - the whole thing being glass. I got rid of mine fairly quickly. I've been using Prestige Stainless Steel pans for the past 26 years and they still look good and cook the food well.

Subject: RE: BS: Glass frying pans?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 26 Aug 10 - 09:08 AM

"still nothing sticks to it"

... so how do you pick it up? ... :-P

Subject: RE: BS: Glass frying pans?
From: Melissa
Date: 26 Aug 10 - 05:19 AM

I had a set of Vision, used it once and the only piece I kept was the skillet..I thought it looked like a really good catfood dish.

The cats seemed to like it just fine.

Subject: RE: BS: Glass frying pans?
From: I don't know
Date: 26 Aug 10 - 04:38 AM

Just posted & it has disappered! Avoid glass. Had the amber cookware, one saucepan exploded for no reason & everything stuck. Now use stainless steel saucepans & my mother-in-laws old cast iron frying pan. One of the first none-stick pans on the market about 40 years ago & still nothing sticks to it.

Subject: RE: BS: Glass frying pans?
From: Sooz
Date: 26 Aug 10 - 02:58 AM

I've got one somewhere, but I haven't fried anything for years. It was good for tarte tartin because you could put it in the oven.

Subject: RE: BS: Glass frying pans?
From: mousethief
Date: 25 Aug 10 - 08:56 PM

Had Vision™. Stuff sticks. Avoid.

Subject: RE: BS: Glass frying pans?
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 25 Aug 10 - 08:41 PM

Back in the day there we owned a set of Corning's Vision Cookware. It was translucent brown or deep amber glass, which could be used directly over a gas flame (don't know about electric range coils). As I recall it took a little longer to cook things as the flame needed to be a bit lower. The other draw back was that if the pot or pan got scratched it needed to be discarded.

We still have a largish casserole pot with cover, but probably haven' used it in 25 years. Think maybe put it on eBay or give to a thrift store. Or maybe we'll throw a party and use it...naah.

Subject: RE: BS: Glass frying pans?
From: pdq
Date: 25 Aug 10 - 07:49 PM

"just because you can doesn't mean you should" (Mike Auldridge, I think)

Subject: RE: BS: Glass frying pans?
From: Bettynh
Date: 25 Aug 10 - 07:49 PM

I went searching around, and did find that Corning made glass pots and pans, including skillets. They seem to be discontinued, although I found a couple on Ebay. My sister in law had a set of this in the late 1980s. While she was boiling something (on a gas flame) in a saucepan it suddenly exploded - very fine slivers of glass in a 4-foot radius, with hot water all over. I don't know if she knocked it, or if there was any triggering event. She trashed the whole set. Before that happened, she was very happy with the pots - heat transfer, and thus the rate things heated up, was very good. The ones I remember were all amber-colored.

Subject: RE: BS: Glass frying pans?
From: Slag
Date: 25 Aug 10 - 07:39 PM

Dow Corning made "Corningware" for many years and that included a Corningware electric skillet. My Mom used one but who knows where it got off to. And of course, this was before glasstop ranges.

One of the potential problems with class cookware is that of bonding. That is, if one item gets too hot or is left too long on the "burner" the glass will weld together and that is the end of the range, the cookware and that night's dinner!

Subject: RE: BS: Glass frying pans?
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 25 Aug 10 - 07:24 PM

They have had pink glass pots and pans for some time..I think by Pyrex but not sure. I can't remember if there were skillets or not.

Maybe glass is not the right word but they were pink and clear and pretty. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Glass frying pans?
From: Ebbie
Date: 25 Aug 10 - 05:30 PM

I have never heard of a glass skillet. The last I knew, a glass (pyrex) coffee pot needed a wire star to distance the glass from the burner. I should think the wire might scratch a flat top range.

Subject: RE: BS: Glass frying pans?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 25 Aug 10 - 05:08 PM

It probably is feasible, but I haven't seen a commercial product offered.

Corning made a giant leap in thermal tolerance for "glass" many decades ago with the introduction of "Pyrex" which was simply very high purity silica glass. A problem in commercializing that material was that the high purity resulted in very high temperatures for casting/molding.

Some time ca. the 1960s or 70s they introduced a new material that I believe was called "Vycor." With this material, they cast the parts as "Pyrex," then chemically leached out the remaining impurities, and re-fired it at ultra high temps to re-fuse the remaining, almost "transistor pure," silica. (Dimensional control was mediocre, since the re-fusing resulted in about a 15% "shrinkage and slump" of the part, although some things could be ground to tolerance after final fusing.)

During their first attempts to commercialize Vycor I watched a demo in which a rod, about 2" in diameter, was heated to "cherry red" and then plunged into liquid nitrogen with no ill effects, after which the demonstrator used the rod to drive a 16p nail into a block of wood.

Vycor had little commercial success, due to the expensive processing required; but I've recently seen releases about a "new glass" that very much resembles it (from the scant info in press releases), so it would seem quite possible that someone could make you a glass skillet. With progress in plasma beam heating, one could theoretically heat the glass without heating (as severely) the mold(?).

I'd expect it to be very expensive, and perhaps even heavier than cast iron.(?) Probably not likely to appear in my kitchen any time soon.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Glass frying pans?
From: Slag
Date: 25 Aug 10 - 04:58 PM

I 'd love to find some, perhaps made of Corelle. I have a glass top range which I love, completely flat, no buttons or dials and i have to be ever so careful to not scratch it. I also wonder if there is such a thing as a cast iron skillet with a glass bottom?

Subject: RE: BS: Glass frying pans?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 25 Aug 10 - 04:31 PM

Don't.

Subject: BS: Glass frying pans?
From: gnu
Date: 25 Aug 10 - 04:06 PM

Comments?