Preventing Kitchen Disaster: Damage from Leaving a Flame On

[wadesgirl]

I had to go get my taxes done last night so came home and made some spaghetti real quick for dinner. I had the sauce on low heat while the garlic bread was in the oven. I swear I turned off the heat right before we ate. I left around 5:30 and didn't get home until almost 9 (ran some errands while I was in the area). Right away I noticed that the flame was still on low under my 12" skillet!!!!! DH put the sauce in the fridge right around the time I left and there was a little residue in the bottom of the skillet and the Chef's Tool Spoon was sitting in the skillet. Nothing happened to the Chef's Tool Spoon and it wasn't even that hot to the touch but what damage do you think I did to my skillet?

 

[PChef_ang]

I too left my skillet on for a seriously long time one night on very low heat, I haven't noticed any adverse reactions from it.....

 

[kaseydee]

Thank the Lord nothing caught fire! My party last Sunday @ my house (b/c the host had a small apt) was so "hot" it set off my smoke alarms. That would be b/c my brand new candle in the bathroom above our jaquzzi tub broke the glass at the top evenly around & had a big fire going. My bedroom & bath were both filled w/smoke it took 20-30mins to get it cleared out. Thank goodness one of the ladies there new flour or baking soda would put out a fire......I had no idea. I tried to blow it out - didn't work. I tried to throw water on it - made it worse. Then I started to run across the street to get my neighbor Mr. Fireman & that is when the lady brought me MY flour & told me to throw it on the flame. It worked........out of the 8 people there only 1 knew that tip.

 

[wadesgirl]

Wow Kasey, that could have been bad. Nothing looks wrong with my pan and the spoon wasn't melted or anything. It was on the lowest heat setting on a gas stove.

 

[janetupnorth]

You are basically smothering the fire with the flour...depriving it of oxygen...