How to almost burn your house down (and a lesson in carryover cooking)

Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes
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Well, this was actually a little scary.

We’ve all done it, throw something in the oven (in this case, a baked potato), leave it there while worrying about other things in life. Nice smooth 350F, no rush, life is good.

Then I noticed a burning smell coming from the kitchen. “wtf”, went to investigate. Some burnt food smoke coming from the oven and it felt hot to touch. “wtf??”. Opened and lots of smoke came out and the heater elements were glowing red hot. Turned the oven down, but it didn’t react to the knob. Even at “Off”, the “Oven on”-indicator light was still on and the elements were clearly at full blast.

Went and pulled the circuit breaker to get the oven off. Came back, ventilation, the usual stuff, and I thought hmm wtf happened and how hot was it.

This was the inside wall temperature in the oven about 5 minutes after turning it off.

oven1
oven11848×4000 790 KB

And here’s “Oven off”, when it still was on.

oven2
oven21848×4000 596 KB

Anyway, to make it “epicurean”, this also broke my personal best of carryover cooking. When this happened, the baked potato internal temp (yes I use a thermometer for potatoes) was 135F. I pulled it, the skin (well, the blackened shell) was almost 500F. I expected the potato to be ruined and I would have to eat my Flannery Ribeye by itself.

About 30 minutes later the potato internal temp was 202F and it actually turned out great! It was actually one of the better baked potatoes I’ve done. Nice smoky char and soft and cooked all the way through.

Now time to find a new oven that is not a GE. This could have been a lot worse. I’m glad I didn’t have anything with olive oil for example in there, as I would likely be making a totally different kind of a post right now.

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Not worth it :grin:

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I had a similar situation. Had just purchased a new Viking stove and my first cook was going to be an expensive veal roast and a roasting pan of various expensive mushrooms. I got things in the oven, maybe set for 350 degrees, and went to do whatever doing the roasting time. Maybe 30 minutes later, the smoke alarm went off and the kitchen was filled with smoke. Turns out there was a defective thermostat and it was running about 700. Turns out it also had insulation wrapped around the convection fan’s shaft.

I contacted Viking and told them it had a defective thermostat and maybe needed a new fan. They send a service guy out two weeks later, and he says yes, you need a new thermostat and fan, I’ll order the parts and they should be here in six weeks. I said I already told you that, why aren’t the parts in your truck? It would have been a 1 hour fix. Needless to say, the Viking is no longer in my house.

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At least I could eat my potato after my event!

You’re not the only one who has had poor experiences with Viking. I have two friends who have them and they will end up replacing theirs with another brand. Poor QC and very poor CS.

The scary part in this was that not only was it running completely out of control, it also did not react to the knob so you couldn’t turn it off. Good reminder that one should always be familiar with your electrical panel and it should always be accessible.

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Better starch would be carry-out noodles, which are only boiled. :grin: :grin:

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Glad you are OK.

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Glad to hear your place is OK!

To quote an old friend of mine, “Any machine is a smoke machine if you use it Wrong Enough”.

also, re: GE did you hear that General Electric’s aircraft engine division was just purchased by the Italian airline, Alitalia? The new company will be known as “Genitalia”.

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I had posted that on eBob, years ago.

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there are no new jokes, just …new subjects and contexts… and people who haven’t heard them before.

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This sounds like a cascading failure. I would want to see the FMECA as it should be an extremely low probability occurrence. Otherwise, it should have been redesigned so that it can’t fail in this manner. But I have my doubts that they even considered cascading failures.

As you said, good thing you were thinking clear enough to pull the breaker. If this happenws to most people, expect the outcome would have been much worse.

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If I was an oven engineer, my control logic would have a simple temperature model (element power v. time = assumed temperature inside the oven), and the thermostat temperature would be compared to the modeled temperature. If the deviation is too large, it shuts itself off.

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Previous neighbours had friends from SC whom I met when they came up to CT on a visit–they were currently living in a rental while their home was being repaired from a house fire started by an air fryer that was turned off but was still plugged into the power outlet.

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On more than one occasion I’ve spent lots of time prepping a dish, started a slow braise, fell asleep and woke up to a dutch oven filled with a smoking block of charcoal.
635º is scary though.

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I never did until we got the Anova Precision Oven w/steam. The baked potatoes (baked with steam to a certain internal temp then finished with some oil on the skins at a higher temp and no steam for another few minutes) were the one dish that convinced my wife that it wasn’t just a fancy albatross that didn’t really make any difference.

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This was a common problem for Vikings for a period of time. Some friends lost their entire kitchen the first time they used theirs

They have Wolf now

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When I was a kid our family used to laugh and be annoyed when before every vacation our Dad, after everything and everybody was packed in the car, would return to the house and proceed to unplug every device in the house.
I think he was only satisfied knowing that everyone was out and couldn’t plug something back in.

I admit now I do it myself as well, helps you sleep better when away.

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I use an analogous technique, 4 mins in microwave, then coat with olive oil (or garlic olive oil sometimes);, a few sea salt flakes and a pinch of chopped herbs, bake at 375.
I like the skins really crispy.

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Doesn’t everyone? I normally pull it at 202 degrees, but after your story, maybe I will pull is sooner and rely on the carryover.