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Alright so here's what happened. Some scumbag stole my pot (cookware, not weed) a few days ago (share kitchen with dorm floormates so yeah it's my own fault I guess), and I needed to cook. I decided it'd be fine to borrow someone's pot since I'd clean it after using it and nobody would know, so I rinsed it off with water (faucet) and threw it onto the electric stove, turning up the heat to high and pouring in some vegetable oil.
30 seconds later, some greyish-white smoke starts fuming from inside the pot, and I think "well okay I guess there was some leftover crap that I should've cleaned out" and continue chopping away at my cauliflower. The smoke shouldn't be an issue since I was cooking under one of those hood things that vacuum out the fumes. Another 30 seconds and this pot is going wild, smoke starts to build up and it smells REALLY BAD, definitely not normal smoke. I open the window, put a lid on the pot and take it off the stove and wait for it to cool down. The lid is glass and the smoke is very light grey, and some oil seems to have condensated on the other side of the lid as well. After I'm sure the pot has cooled down, I remove the lid and let the hood suck out the smoke, and there's this disgusting dark-brown grime at the bottom of the pot. It doesn't come off with soap / scrubbing, and I don't happen to have organic solvents on me to clean a pot.
Did I do something stupid or is this actually really weird? The pot looked like a very standard polished aluminum pot. The owner of the pot kept a bottle of grapeseed oil next to the rest of his stuff, though I don't see what (chemically) would be different between grapeseed and vegetable oil to produce this weird reaction under heat. For now I'm trying to figure out whose pot this is so I can tell him/her that I ruined it  .
TL;DR -- Heated up vegetable oil in someone else's pot, destroyed pot and inhaled fumes. Also I'm hungry.
My questions are:
- What the hell just happened?
- Am I going to die from these fumes?
  
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I wouldn't worry about it, however be happy that you didn't cook anything and started eating it. Then you would have a reason for being worried.
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dude you have to say that ur not talking about weed.
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On November 14 2012 10:43 mooseman1710 wrote:
dude you have to say that ur not talking about weed.
My bad... edited haha
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United States5162 Posts
So I'm assuming you do this with the pot you normally use and it doesn't burn like that? Is it the same kind of pot as the one you borrowed?
I suspect that you burnt the oil because it was thin aluminum and you had it on high. When it started smoking at ~30 secs I think it told you it was hot, not that it was contaminated, and when you let it keep going without putting anything in it went too far.
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haha who the hell steals pots?? tell ur friend hes fucked!
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On November 14 2012 10:43 mooseman1710 wrote:
dude you have to say that ur not talking about weed.
LOL
For me it just seems like to burned some oil (overheated it, veg oil tends to burn fast). Chill the fuck out, nothing will happen to you or your lungs.
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On November 14 2012 11:15 sorrowptoss wrote:Show nested quote +On November 14 2012 10:43 mooseman1710 wrote:
dude you have to say that ur not talking about weed. LOL For me it just seems like to burned some oil (overheated it, veg oil tends to burn fast). Chill the fuck out, nothing will happen to you or your lungs.
I've burned oil before, and I can say for certain that the smell was very different :/ And in my experience electric stoves don't tend to burn oil at all...
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my best guess is that grapeseed oil probably was rancid (oxidized) and formed free radicals and a lipid peroxide -- which you ended up burning to form those fumes..
btw: i am not a chemist despite my user ID, but I do have a biology degree..
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^from Stanford, no less :D like a bawss.
That's a real WTF moment though....must have scared the crap out of you T_T;;;
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Why don't you ask the owner of the pot? Maybe he has an idea? Maybe he didn't clean the pot last time he cooked X in it.
(Also, can you let us know the conclusion of this story when you eventually find out?  )
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and what is the lesson here?
Always carry around an organic solvent.
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The proper way to use frying without getting any problems:
1 Make sure the pan or pot is cleaned properly.
2 Make sure the pan or pot is dy.
3 Turn up the heat under the pan or pot after your are done chopping and cutting all the food.
4 Wait between 30 seconds and 2 minutes for the pan or pot to be really hot, test by dripping in 1 drop of water - it should be boiled into vapor instantly.
5 Add oil and wait 10 seconds while spreading the oil over the bottom of the pan or pot.
6 Add the foodstuffs in the order of your recipe, and never leave the pan or pot while cooking / frying with oil.
What you did was burn your oil in a thin pan, you are not going to die, but cleaning that is a pain.
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EPT
