Cooking Accidents or The Dark Side of Cooking

Hi.

I am currently covered in burns on my one arm after having prepared myself a Vietnamese vegi stir-fry (Don Riina, don't say I deserved it for having made a VEGI stir fry!). I used two kinds of oil: peanut oil and sesame oil. I am quite an experienced cook. I started heating up the peanut oil and added the sesame oil second. When the oil was hot enough I added the onion and garlic. Parts of this literaly jumped right out of the pan again, covered in hot oil and landing on my left wrist and lower arm holding the wok. It really hurt and blisters developed shortly afterwards. I am not a chemist nor a physicist. Can anyone explain to me why this happend? Or how I could prevent this from happening again?
Thanks!
MajorB - once burned, twice shy.

I can only assume the water and sugar in the onion caused the mini explosion wen they came into contact with the really hot oil. Hope the burns heal quickly, that could be nasty. Good luck.

I don't know if this will help, but sesame oil burns very easily, and is usually only used right at the end of a recipe for a light flavouring. Just add it at the end maybe?

I thought the smoke point for sesame was higher than for peanut oil, and the reason that both are frequently used in wok cooking is because of this. But I also read that every oil producer will try and sell you there oil as a higher smoke point.
cooking oil smoke points

But this site agrees with UA

A bit fishy on the source???

and another to suggest that it is fine for stir fry Which to believe?

@UrbanAngel

Really? Does one use sesame oil like this? I have always used sesame oil alone thusfar for frying. I wanted to experiment this time, that's why I mixed the two.

I'd go with DD's idea. The water hissed and evaporated quickly, causing the onion to move erratically.

Two possible ideas for next time:

Put the onions in before the oil has gotten really really hot.

cut the onion into smaller pieces.

Hope it heals soon. Use some Aloe on it.

I use sesame only at the end as a flavouring as the flavour is quite strong.
Hope your burns get better soon!

Cooking...

DDbug is right

its the water that makes it "jump" and attack you. Since the oil can be heated WAY beyond the boiling point of water, thus, as soon as the water from the veggies make contact with the super hot oil, it turns into gas. This reaction pretty much propells the veggies at you. its similar to steam engine power, i guess.

and yes, i believe most of the times in Asian cooking, the sesame oil is either added at the end for flavor, or its incorporated in the marinating step.

@Showem, DDBug and UrbanAngel

Thanks, it doesn't hurt anymore, just looks like I have birthmarks on my arms today.

Ok, I checked and it seems that peanut oil and sesame oil have almost the same smoke points. Because of this I think Showem and DDBug might be right and that it could have been something in the onions themselves. But what if this has not happend before? I used shallots so they were already quite small to start off with. The garlic was chopped very small as well. The ingredients were dry.

Major Bummer, it probably hasn't happened before due to luck. The moisture is in the onions themselves. The oil was probably really hot. I'm sure you've heard them spitting and hissing before when cooking - this time is just was more.

I agree with the water on the onions/shallots idea. You probably had your oil too hot, turn it down or follow Showem's advice, or use less oil!!

@brokenm

Ok, I will try it out and turn down the heat. I never use lots of oil, I don't enjoy lots of oily in foods. Thanks for your advise!

No problem, but after tasting Katrina's cooking, I would also take her advice...or does this appear as too much begging for more invitations???

Cooking can lead to burns. I've had some really good ones in my time, so I can feel for you.

Ha ha!
Makes not alot of difference what you are stir frying, but vegetables are more likely to spit a bit because of the water content. (When deep frying shredded savoy cabbage as a "crispy seaweed" style thang, you know its cooked when it STOPS spitting, IE all water gone.)

Nope, don't do that. Wok cookery means serious heat. Get the oil smokin'. Keep your onions on the chopping board, and tip them into the hot wok using the board to protect yourself from any splashes of hot oil.

The sesame oil thing (contradicting information on smoking point) is down to the type of sesame oil. I've bought good strong dark oil here, but also some really clear stuff (from a German shop, and actually I did not buy it, it was purchased on my request). The clear stuff was MUCH weaker in flavour, and could have been used as a "cooking" oil, IE it could get hot. The stuff I more commonly know as sesame oil is dark, burns easily, and is so damned strong in flavour that one or two splashes is more than enough. Works well in marinades, and when added at the end of cooking, but not as a frying oil. You'd know you fucked up if you even tried to fry in sesame, because using that much in a hot pan would make the kitchen absolutely stink of sesame.

Ooops. Just learned something today. Thanks for the tips, Don!

A friend of mine in college shared an apartment with another student in our program. Although he was studying hard sciences, he was in many ways not the the brightest bulb in the package.

He was heating up some oil in the wok and stupidly forgot about it. When he remembered, he went into the kitchen to turn it off. As soon as he walked into the kitchen, the oil burst into flames, clear up to the cabinets above. He panicked and, having no lid that fit the wok nor any baking soda nearby, he grabbed the wok and attempted to run out onto the patio with it. Well, neglecting the physics of fluids in a moving container, he proceeded to splash flaming oil all over the rug and covered his arm holding the pan with it. My friend was chasing after him putting out all the little fires on the rug.

He learned his lesson that day and was in shock as he was brought to the hospital with his skin falling off. Oops

@IPJ

Sheeez. Guess I was lucky, huh?

@major bummer,
be happy you weren't hungry for pancakes!!!

hope you heal quickly.

Thanks Hockeywidow!

Yep, picked up many a burn. Mainly from taking things out of the oven but I always use the board to protect me as the chopping board covers the front half of the Wok

I burn myself all the time. Usually with a cookie sheet on my arm. I've got three ugly burns on my arm that, if they were lower, would make me look like a cutter.

I cooked oven chips for 7 hours once. Flat stank for 2 weeks. Also cooked one of those crappy 5 minute pasta mix things for about 6 hours. Same problem with the smell.

I'm also running low on saucepans and baking trays now.

@Wibble... Buy a microwave

Wibble: maybe you should try French cuisine instead?

Wibble: get married.

@Kay & MB you both just swore at Wibble !!!

@potbelly

have thought about a microwave - just too lazy to go and buy one

@kay

no comment

@mb

wouldn't be fair. One day I'll burn the flat down with me in it. Better if it's only me and not 2 people.

I think it comes from 'cooking' at 3 in the morning after 15 beers.

Even stranger story. Was once cooking vegeburger and chips in London, took the food out of the oven and then had a momentary blackout (hopefully because of the beer) and when I looked again all the chips wre covered in washing liquid - not even washing up liquid but washing liquid!!! Remeber thinking at the time - damn now my dinner is ruined. Got some very strange looks from my flatmates the next morning

@Wibble
Go for raw foods from now on. I once had a cake explode in the oven. It was a terrible mess to clean. I once had a cake on the floor. Was a terrible mess to clean. Etc. etc. No more cake.
You should drink less.

Keep trying to drink less but the weather is very beer garden conducive and my willpower works as follows.

evil friend: Beers this evening wibble?

wibble: no

evil friend: oh go on

wibble: ok - damn did I just say yes?

evil friend: yes

wibble: bollox

I have learned two things today:
First: how to cook with sesame oil. I usually use it as a marianade with my meat (amoung other ingrediants) and then add all of it to the wok and cook until it is almost done. Then I pour it out and add a bit sesame oil and stir fry the veggies until i through it all back in together. Now I will wait until the very end to use my sesame oil. (Tasted great to me before...but then I never cooked stir fry for anyone else)

Second: Fahrrad Frei means you can bicycle on the path!!

We weren't cooking per se, but this injury does involve a kitchen, stove and utensils.
A mate of mine was heating up some knives on the stove (as you do when wanting best errr value for money from a certain green plant) got them red hot and was just about to administer another friend a hit and dropped one of the red hot knives which fell directly down into his sockless shoe. To this day he has a scar in the shape of a butter knife on his heel.
Another bird friend of mine had a similar injury, but whilst trying to self administer, managed to slip with the hot knives and get herself accross the lips. She struggled somewhat with an excuse for her manager at the bank as to why she had a butter knife shaped burn across both lips.
Anyway, I guess the moral of the story is: buy/build a vapouriser

Timmeh, maple syrup is much better for you.