Boiling rocks?

lkelly

lkelly

Members
Not my kitchen, but saw this posted on a FB cichlid group. A cautionary tale...

11953280_887489844621558_9135465337731206505_n.jpg
 
spazmattik

spazmattik

Members
The lid almost looks like it was a pressure cooker? Maybe its just my phone..

I like to boil my rocks until al dente
 
FishEggs

FishEggs

Well-Known Member
Looks like a pressure cooker to me too. Plus there are veggies and seasonings next to the stove. Unless they were making some sort of rock soup I don't think this pic has anything to do with boiling rocks.
 
Tangcollector

Tangcollector

Active Member
Staff member
From what I have read it is the fact that there may be different types of rocks in one rock and these may expand at different rates. When one is inside the other it can cause the rocks to explode. I have never had a problem soaking and scrubbing rocks in a bleach solution and hot water.
 
JLW

JLW

CCA Members
Certainly that, or a pocket of gas (air) inside of a rock could cause the rock to split or otherwise break -- but the water around it would slow it down a great deal. I just can't see it causing an "explosion," and definitely not even so much as damaging the pot it was in.

I'll believe it when I see it. :p If we were talking 200 degrees plus, maybe, but ... 100-degrees? Not going to cause anything worse than a crack or two in the extreme, especially not since I don't imagine anyone is dumping the rocks into boiling water. The rock is going into nice, cool water and being slowly heated to 100-degrees. Nope, not going to happen.
 
chriscoli

chriscoli

Administrator
well, hypothetically speaking...since this isn't a real photo of someone boiling rocks anyhow....

if you were doing it in a pressure cooker (which is what is in the photo) it's not likely that the rocks exploded, but that the pressure release valve got clogged. As a big fan of pressure cookers myself (ask Bruce about his 45 minute beef barley stew, or his faux-risotto with shrimp and asparagus) one of the BIG no-nos of pressure cooker use is putting anything in there that will foam up and clog the pressure release valve. This is one of the reasons why you only fill a pressure cooker part-way (never to the top) and you NEVER put dairy in a pressure cooker. If that valve gets clogged and you continue to apply heat....boom.

BUT, I also know from my past lab experience, that rocks and sediment act very differently than you'd expect with heat. Once hot, they retain it like you wouldn't believe. I had a project in grad school where we were trying to examine the long-term survival of E. coli in stream sediments. We had set up an experiment in a natural setting, using naturally contaminated sediments, but we also needed a lab control because we knew that there are lots of really awesome critters in sediments that will prey on bacteria and affect their survival. So we took some sediments (which were quite gravelly and full of small rocks) back to the lab. I had to sterilize them and then re-inoculate with some of the same strains of E. coli that we had found in the creek. Well, it is VERY difficult to sterilize sediments and gravel. They broke every container we had....plastic and glass containers would come out of the autoclave with the bottoms popped out or shattered. Once those sediments were heated, they'd stay hot and cause all sorts of heat stress on whatever container they were in. We ended up opting for a low and slow "pasteurization" cycle, rather than a hot and fast sterilization cycle and accepted that there would be some spore-forming microbes that weren't killed.
 
spazmattik

spazmattik

Members
chriscoli said:
well, hypothetically speaking...since this isn't a real photo of someone boiling rocks anyhow....

if you were doing it in a pressure cooker (which is what is in the photo) it's not likely that the rocks exploded, but that the pressure release valve got clogged. As a big fan of pressure cookers myself (ask Bruce about his 45 minute beef barley stew, or his faux-risotto with shrimp and asparagus) one of the BIG no-nos of pressure cooker use is putting anything in there that will foam up and clog the pressure release valve. This is one of the reasons why you only fill a pressure cooker part-way (never to the top) and you NEVER put dairy in a pressure cooker. If that valve gets clogged and you continue to apply heat....boom.

BUT, I also know from my past lab experience, that rocks and sediment act very differently than you'd expect with heat. Once hot, they retain it like you wouldn't believe. I had a project in grad school where we were trying to examine the long-term survival of E. coli in stream sediments. We had set up an experiment in a natural setting, using naturally contaminated sediments, but we also needed a lab control because we knew that there are lots of really awesome critters in sediments that will prey on bacteria and affect their survival. So we took some sediments (which were quite gravelly and full of small rocks) back to the lab. I had to sterilize them and then re-inoculate with some of the same strains of E. coli that we had found in the creek. Well, it is VERY difficult to sterilize sediments and gravel. They broke every container we had....plastic and glass containers would come out of the autoclave with the bottoms popped out or shattered. Once those sediments were heated, they'd stay hot and cause all sorts of heat stress on whatever container they were in. We ended up opting for a low and slow "pasteurization" cycle, rather than a hot and fast sterilization cycle and accepted that there would be some spore-forming microbes that weren't killed.
Click to expand...

I will definitely have to ask for the recipe for beef barely stew :)
I have not thought to put milk in my pressure cooker yet but good to know i should not!
 
JLW

JLW

CCA Members
Matt, the Beef Barely Stew is quite simple.

Combine 8 oz of dried barley with 4 cups of milk. Add 6-oz of shredded beef. Place in pressure cooker for 20 minutes, then add 2-cups of creme. Continue cooking for another 30-40 minutes.

If still intact, add rocks.
 
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