Pyrex Elimination

I have long been a fan of using glass bake ware in my kitchen.  I have always found it sturdy, it cleans easily no matter how burned on something is, and it’s relatively inexpensive.   Well, last fall we experienced something that caused me to stop using almost all of my Pyrex immediately.  I had been making dinner and set a 9 x 13 dish on my stove after it came out of the oven.   I walked away from the stove to put something in the garbage when the sound of gunfire exploded through our tiny house.  I turned around slowly, the kids leaned around from the living room slowly, and we were all rewarded with the sight of thousands of tiny pieces of Pyrex ALL. OVER. the kitchen.  That pan exploded, my friends. All we could do was stare for a few minutes- how one pan generated so much debris, I’ll never know, but we all realized how much more serious this situation could have been.  Had I still been standing at the stove, or had one of the kids chosen that moment to walk through the kitchen to the bathroom… I don’t think there was enough force to pierce skin deeply, but there surely was enough force to severely damage an eye.

I set my rectangular Pyrex baking dishes aside immediately.  A quick internet search revealed that this is actually a fairly common problem with glass baking dishes.  All it takes is one sudden change in temperature to cause that glass to shatter in an explosive manner.  I’ve read all sorts of stories about how simply taking a dish out of the oven caused one to break, or how one casserole was set on a table in front of an open window, and that was enough of a shock to cause breakage.  I was convinced I did not want to use this bake ware anymore.   We decided to continue using the Pyrex storage dishes that we store leftovers in, and I decided to keep my stack of pie plates for now.  I have ten of those, and it’s going to take a bit of time to seek out the perfect replacement for those.

At roughly the same time, it seemed that every one of my beloved Pampered Chef stoneware pieces also decided to give up the ghost.  One small, round baking dish simply broke into pieces as it sat in the drawer where I store it.  My perfect pizza pan was ruined when I set it on a stove burner that was cooling, but apparently wasn’t cool enough.  That broke into three pieces.  And then one day as I baked a beef roast in my oval roasting pan, we were sitting at the table playing a game when we heard an ominous noise come from the stove.  I didn’t even need to open the oven up- I knew exactly what it was.  Sure enough, the baker was cracked clean in half.  At least it was stoneware, I was able to take the roast and put it on a metal baking sheet to finish it’s cooking.

This all happened in a matter of a few weeks.  I want to say all the Pampered Chef pieces were all between 12 and 14 years old.   It’s been a long time since I ordered stoneware from PC.  Between the Pyrex and the stoneware, I was suddenly in serious need of replacements.   It’s been slow going, because I think I’m finally at the point in life where “something cheap” just isn’t going to cut it.  I’m not just going to reach for a less-than-excellent product because it’s affordable.  Christmas brought me some wonderful replacements from family.  My mom gave me a spectacular steel 9 x 13 pan that works fabulous for cakes, brownies and cinnamon rolls.  It’s a USA pan- which can be found on Amazon.  I’m eagerly looking at getting a few more sizes of that bake ware, as it’s made from a safe material, AND made right here in our country.

Andy also rose to the occasion.  He gave me my first piece of Le Creuset- an enameled stoneware 9 x 13 baking dish that has been absolutely wonderful for every casserole and lasagna I’ve thrown in it.  You’ve seen it in my recent pictures.

It cleans so easily and so far I’m more than pleased with it.  I already knew I wanted some Le Creuset enameled cast iron, but have been surprised at how great the enameled stoneware is.  I definitely wouldn’t mind another piece or two.

But the piece I really popped on today to praise the virtues of is my new pizza stone.  For Christmas I also received a generous gift card to King Arthur Flour, and I went back and forth for several days on what to use that card for.  I love so many of their products, but the fact is that I can actually buy a lot of their flours and baking ingredients locally at a few grocery stores, so I decided I should use the gift card towards my need for new bake ware.   After reading review after review and searching all over the internet, I settled on this gorgeous Emile Henry baking stone.

First of all, when it arrived, I was completely blown away by the packaging.  It was clear there was care put into the packaging- short of being run over by a dump truck, I don’t think there was ever a danger of this stoneware piece being damaged in transit.   When I opened it up though, I could not believe how heavy and sturdy this stone was.  I had to slide it into the oven right away to see if it would even fit! It did- but barely.  According to the directions, this stone was durable to temperatures beyond what I am capable of- it’s acceptable to use it in a wood-fired pizza oven or over a fire- neither of which I intend to do, but I could.

I really like the raised handles on the sides for getting it in and out of the oven.  Flat pizza stones can be very difficult to slide around because they are so heavy.  The handles make it easy to take it from the oven and move to a cooling rack.

It also happens to make spectacular pizza.  The crust ends up crispy and delightful, and evenly baked all the way across.  This stone is large enough that it makes plenty of pizza for my family in one pan.  I used to have to make two pizzas when making homemade pizza, but this stone makes one massive pizza.

I have also used it for a few other baked goods.  It worked well for biscuits and calzones, although I had issues with a calzone leaking, and because there is no lip on the stone, the dribbles went right to the bottom of the oven.  It worked very well for a loaf of artisan bread also.

If I have one complaint about this stone it is that the color has changed from use.  Where it was once a vibrant red, it is getting darker and darker the more I use it.  It’s still nice to look at, and the color change is such a minor thing in the grand scheme of things, but still, I liked the bright cherry red.

Overall, I absolutely love it, and am considering Emile Henry for replacing my pie plates.   Emile Henry has dozens of pieces that I’d like to try- the dutch ovens almost captured my gift card use before I found the pizza stone.  My only word of warning would be that this piece is extremely heavy.  Think cast iron heavy.  I know people who have trouble cooking with cast iron because of it’s weight, and to those people I would suggest they avoid the Emile Henry as well.  But other than that, it really seems like it’s durably made and well worth the expense.