And this is the Maxwell & Williams version I received, which all seemed well and good.
Only when I went to christen it this afternoon (to make Bill Granger's zucchini & tomato baked risotto), this is what happened:
Yes, that's right. It exploded!!
Mere seconds after I was idly thinking as I stirred away at my onion, extra-virgin olive oil and salt, I wonder if I should have checked instructions on the box to see if it's okay to cook with this pot on the stove-top? ... Nah. It'll be right!
Then bang! I screamed and jumped.
Oh and there was a warning on the box.
Can't you see it? Oh that would be because it's written in extremely small letters.
not suitable for naked flameSo I can't ring up and demand a replacement. And just as well I checked because who wants to be called an idiot for not knowing the difference between how you cook with cast iron products and how you cook with stoneware? Not me. I feel like the person in that I.T. joke.
And also very fucking pissed off.
Oh my goodness...that would have been scary! And so very annoying... I'm sure that writing wouldn't pass the reasonable man test.
ReplyDeleteGlad the risotto was nice though.
I don't want to rub salt into your wounds...but we were given a (hideously expensive)Le Creuset casserole dish as a wedding present and it is the most used item in our kitchen. We use it for everything from risottos and stews through to slow-roasting legs of lamb.
Now I dont know if this makes you feel any better (and I am feeking a bit shaky I have to say seeing your photos - I actually gasped out loud) but I have managed to shatter two pieces of le creuset (supposedly indestructable) - not through not reading the instructions but simply by being an IDIOT - I would certainly have assumed you could cook with that pot on a naked flame - Mary
ReplyDeleteoh no! Hope it wasn't too much of a hassle to clean up.
ReplyDeleteI have to say, this sounds like something I'd do... which is why I don't do the cooking in our household ;)
Ah, yes...but you could call and complain -- LOUDLY -- about the very tiny print.
ReplyDeleteYou have my blessing to get all dramatic on them, embellishing facts as needed.
-J.
Scary! My hairdryer blew up on me once when I was using it. The noise scared me so much I didn't realise I had a nasty burn on my wrist from the explosion! Love the Bill Grainger risotto recipe - it's one of our favourites. So simple but very tasty! Hope you manage to get a replacement for the casserole dish, give it a try I say, the worst they can say is "no".
ReplyDeleteOh my!!
ReplyDeleteAnd you never know with stoneware, cos some you CAN put on the stove - bugger!!
I have the (slightly) cheaper version of the le creuset pot, made by le chasseur - use it LOTS, best $120 I ever spent - and they are WAY cheaper at Peter's Of Kensington than anywhere else....(le creuset same size is $230!!!)
Bummer... but surely you deserve the Le Creuset now?!
ReplyDeleteI'm with Jac - after that nasty experience, some Le Creuset Compensation should head your way!!
ReplyDeleteI'd be pissed off too!
ReplyDeleteI had a Le Creuset casserole dish (wedding gift) that cracked in half on its first use (in the over). Hmpf!
Good grief! Cooking with a difficulty level of 9.8! I'm glad that you were OK, I once knew a lady who was cut very badly in a similar circumstance.
ReplyDeleteYou should send them a letter in very tiny print.
That looks very scary...you were very lucky to get away unscathed as the broken shards are as sharp as glass
ReplyDeleteI found the exact Le Creuset casserole dish as pictured at a fete filled with cutlery..and covered in dirt..for $5.. I use it all the time ..(once it was cleaned it was in near new condition)
Narrow escape!
ReplyDeleteConfirms my longstanding belief ...
ANY kind of housework is dangerous and should only be attempted when clad in a suit of mail ...
Or maybe a suit of male?
Now theres a thought ...
Wot Joke said.
ReplyDeleteI had the Creuset version (probably spelt better) and it did the exact same thing but unlike yours it didn't come with any instructions and they still wouldn't replace it.
ReplyDeleteI would call and complain loudly, too. Maybe tossing in the fact that there were small children in the vicinity and they could have been MAIMED and KILLED and so forth and so on.
ReplyDeleteI have a teeny, tiny Le Creuset pot, suitable for making one serving of vegetables or maybe melting butter. It's ancient and I love it. I stole it from my mother.
Holy cow! I hope the pot is the only thing that got damaged and that you're okay.
ReplyDeleteI don't blame you for being P.O.d. Who would have thought that you couldn't use it on the stove top? Cast iron skillets and the like are pretty standard, and we have an aebleskiver pan of cast iron.
I am with Joke! Go the buggers! Well worth a try, & you could embellish with plenty of mention about your small sons, who might well have lost an eye due to too small print.
ReplyDeleteWhoever it was that gave you that pot, go back to them and tell them thanks, but that is NOT what was on your wish list. They now owe you a Le Creuset.
ReplyDeleteI have been eyeing off those Le Creuset dishes in Peters of Kensington for soooo long, I want one badly.
I would settle for the Chasseur one, they look just as good.
BUT! MDH, who, if we are gonna buy stuff like that and spend lots of money, wants the Le Creuset. So we end up with neither.
Because, he heard the sales woman say at POK "Le Creuset are made in their own molds, Chasseur re-use the mold. Le Creuset last 20 years, where Chasseur would last about 10"
BAH! I reckon they would go much longer than that, both of them. I had a $50 set of stainless steel saucepans that I used for 20 years, and it was only meeting MDH with his Scanpans that saw their demise.
Thanks for listening...
:)
Wow, that sucks! Glad no one was hurt. I once exploded a Pyrex dish because I tried to keep the contents warm on the flat stove top. Shards of glass were EVERYWHERE.
ReplyDeleteI'm another than has the Chasseur cheaper version and it works perfectly fine - made risotto in it over the weekend in fact. No exploding, thank goodness, that would have scared the crap out of me.
ReplyDeleteNot that that means I haven't claimed my grandmother's Le Creuset pots when my mother is no longer using them.
Oops. How terrifying! Glad the risotto still turned out.
ReplyDeleteand what joke said
and what riseoutofme said
Bloody hell. (I wouldn't have checked the box either though). If that experience hasn't scarred you for life, ask for DJs vouchers for Christmas and get a Le Creuset at the sales, 40% off. I LOVE mine with an overwhelming passion; everything tastes so much nicer, including plain old spag bol sauce. I DO know someone who broke theirs, and got a free replacement. Thought they had a lifetime guarantee?
ReplyDeleteAbject sympathies from another kitchen disaster queen.....
ReplyDeletewhat a mess and if that happened to me I would have wee'd in my undies for sure ( from fright not just because!)
ReplyDeleteBastards! Mocking up their inferior product to look like a Le Creuset. It would be like making a fake BMW that exploding upon ignition. And it having written on it in tiny tiny letters, not to be driven.
ReplyDeleteGosh - after all these stories I am glad I went for the IKEA cast iron version ($100) which I have used and used and used and cannot find any fault with and I use it over a naked flame. Is there much difference between a crockery and cast iron pot (asks a cooking novice!)? If not try a cast iron one I say - but make sure you've done you weight lifting sessions beforehand ;-)
ReplyDeleteAnd sorry about missing your blog anniversary - but happy belated wishes for the next year :-)
Oh what a bummer!!! I so want a Le Creuset casserole dish too - in blue I think! I had a plate explode in my hand once as I had mistakenly put it on the stove top that was still on. The plate was full of suasages - so I yelled out "dinner will now be served on the floor!!"
ReplyDeleteI think we had take away!
Scary. Very scary.
ReplyDeleteI'm really glad nobody got hurt.
I tend to drop pyrex dishes sans warning on occasion; that's always fun, too. sigh
Good heavens, did you never watch your mother in the kitchen carefully frying things in saucepans before transferring it all to ovenproof container to go in the oven? !!! What a horrid thing to happen, but I don't trust pyrex or stonewear or china sort of stuff on a hotplate.
ReplyDeleteI looked at Peter's of Kensington and their Le Creuset range longingly only this week (lusted after the blue one), feeling I needed a larger one (you can never have too many pieces of decent kitchen equipment) but regretfully decided that they are too bloody dear, and, what's more, MUCH too bloody heavy, especially once you put food into them. It's ok if you are only 40, but if your bodily decrepitude manifests itself in weak arms, there is not much point buying something you have trouble lifting. Even the le Chasseur version.
I make my own risotto (naturally superb - I have a wonderful parsley risotto) in a stainless steel copper bottomed saucepan, and if you want one for Christmas, let me know. For baked risotto, use saucepan and then transfer to ovenproof dish and put in oven. I have beaut tomato and parmesan cheese version - but first make your own tomato sauce. See your Patricia Wells book Trattoria.
I don't think the warning was nearly clear enough. Definitely ring M&W on the basis that as it was modelled on a Le Creuset dish you fully expected it would act like one. I'm feeling all "lawyer-y" about this one and I'm not even a lawyer.
ReplyDeleteOh, poor you! But don't phone, except to establish the managing director's name and then write to him/her. I'm a great believer in this. I've only done it three times: once when Daughter 1's pushchair cover was so badly designed that she could kick it off the press studs that held it on - and she therefore got wet whenever it rained; once when my just-out-of-guarantee vacuum cleaner kept breaking down; and once when Daughter 2 couldn't get her electricity supplier to send her and her flatmates a bill. Magic results each time.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
Cookware + stove = explosion? Now, that just doesn't add up does it? I would send them a nasty note that says: tiny print + explosion = angry customer = not buying your products ever and telling all my friends not to either.
ReplyDeleteOh dear! I'd offer to lend you my bifocals so that you could have a better view, but I think you'd need a microscope for that! [anyway my bifocals are too mucky to lend]
ReplyDeleteCheers
I will train my every synapse to find a solution to this.
ReplyDelete-J.
I've thought about this some more...Definitely write a letter to the managing director of the company with attached photos of broken pot , small writing (warning??) on box, and (forgive my crassness) children in shock/upset or the cutest photo that you can find of them...let them know of the amount of bad publicity that can be generated by a pissed off mother and cook...radio talkback,blog etc. go get them!! they don't call you STOMPER for nothing!
ReplyDeleteOMG - you could have lost an eye !!
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't say this very lightly, knowing as I do a one-eyed man ( tiling project ), and I actually had to get my eye paralysed once so they could pluck a slice of enamel and/or ceramic out of my eye without me blinking ( kinda cool and surreal actually ).
That was a 'restoring a lamp' project gone wrong.
Yet I still don't wear goggles when i mow the lawn.
One day we can compare 'how I lost my eye' stories, yeah ?
Farque.
If it's any consolation I hear the le creusset version explodes if dropped. So you could, you know, squint and pretend...
ReplyDeletelol- Oh shit. I just realised I bought some of these for my 21 year old daughter's 'glory-box.'
ReplyDeleteBetter warn her if she *ever* leaves home.
I love my le creuset. It's the best thing I own. My mum gave it to me, it's ancient. Every day I peek into the cupboard and worship for a little while.
ReplyDeleteHow scary (exploding casserole).