Butter bomb

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

We just had a rather interesting experience. While melting butter on the stove on low heat, the liquid butter essentially exploded, sending hot butter raining all over the kitchen.

 

This doesn't make much sense to me. What exactly would cause something on low heat to gather enough energy to splatter the entire kitchen?

 

 

(One of our cats immediately decided the floor tasted rather good. That was funny.)

[Flashman]

Superheating... essentially a liquid may get hotter than it's boiling point. When something disturbs it, a slight knock or inserting a spoon, it boils over. Most often happens when you microwave a drink, superheat it, set it on the counter or drop sugar in it, and it boils over.

 

Here's a better explanation....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superheating

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

You think something as impure as liquid butter can superheat? I mean, it's got lumps in it and stuff. From what I recall with water superheating, you usually need a clean mug and pure water to make it work particularly well.

[Flashman]

For superheating it appears to be homogenity rather than purity that counts. It does sound unusual that it still had lumps in when this happened, but then a molten lump of butter isn't really going to have sharp edges that might have worked as nucleation sites (and those edges will presumably be rather cold.)

 

However, there appears to be another effect for some milk/water/starch combinations where it will boil over in a flash, if it was not pure butter but a blend. That article does not have much detail, but I presume it might be a result of emulsifiers working to keep small bubbles in suspension until a critical point is reached.

[iNow]

No, it's probably a ghost. Duh!

 

 

EDIT: Sorry for not contributing anything useful. I, too, think it was somehow superheated, but am not sure, so I went with the cheap joke instead. I'm such a lame-o, I know.

Edited November 12, 2008 by iNow

[Flashman]

Yeah sorry, classic sign of poltergeist activity, arm yourself with a bible, crucifix, a catholic priest and an alternate residence the other side of a body of running water.

[Phi for All]

New terrorist profiling at the airports: anyone with a baked potato or a lobster bib gets wrestled to the ground immediately.

[Glider]

Butter has water in it. As the butter melts, the water sinks to the bottom (oil & fat floats). The butter prevents the water from vaporising until it reaches a point where it flashes into steam (this can be quite violent if you are using a high heat).

 

It's the same effect as throwing water into a pan of hot oil (and why water shouldn't be used for chip pan fires).

[Flashman]

Butter shouldn't have a lot of water in it, a "Butter flavored spread" or margarine might.... thinking back to way back when, when we did the compulsory 6 weeks of home ec. in school, I think we were told to use a double boiler for melting butter/marge.

[mooeypoo]

btw, Capn, not to rain down on the parade, but are you sure this wasn't a prank or something? Someone pulling your leg?

 

Just.. getting rid of options here

[iNow]

Butter has water in it. As the butter melts, the water sinks to the bottom (oil & fat floats). The butter prevents the water from vaporising until it reaches a point where it flashes into steam (this can be quite violent if you are using a high heat).

 

It's the same effect as throwing water into a pan of hot oil (and why water shouldn't be used for chip pan fires).

 

This response makes the most sense. The oil/fat serve as a "blanket" above the water, preventing the heat from escaping, the water gets superheated unitl it violently flashes into steam, splashing the oil/fats which were laying above the water all across the kitchen walls and ceiling.

 

Or, as Moo suggested, there was a hidden cherry-bomb in there somewhere.

[Phi for All]

btw, Capn, not to rain down on the parade, but are you sure this wasn't a prank or something? Someone pulling your leg?

The cat is at the top of my list of suspects.

[John Cuthber]

Butter shouldn't have a lot of water in it, a "Butter flavored spread" or margarine might.... thinking back to way back when, when we did the compulsory 6 weeks of home ec. in school, I think we were told to use a double boiler for melting butter/marge.

 

Butter is typically 80% fat and a lot of the rest is water. Since that water will expand over a thousandfold when it boils...

[Skye]

Be careful if this happens because the "explosions" can happen multiple times if oil and water remain in the container. The oil may be at around 130 C, the container probably at a higher temperature. So these are transferring heat into the remaining liquid water, which heats up until some of it turns to gas, explosion. The process repeats until there's no water or oil left, or until the temperature of the oil and container drop below 100 C.

[Flashman]

Ah right, if it's 15-20% water that makes sense, I was thinking of 3-5% with it well bound up.

[swansont]

Butter-flavored gelignite?

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

This was one of those semi-artificial "healthy" butter things, so I'm guessing it did have more than the usual amount of water.

 

So what would be a good way to prevent this? I'm guessing the first option is to take the melted butter off the heat soon after it has completely melted to keep it from continuing to heat up. Any other ways to stop it?

[Flashman]

Double boiler would avoid it, use a pyrex vessel in/on a pan of water. Preferably supported off the bottom of the pan.

 

Think last time I bought one of those products, with a name strikingly similar to "I can't believe it's not butt hair" it was 45% water. Made toast unbearably soggy anyway.

[iNow]

I'd imagine gentle stirring would facilitate a gentle "off gassing" of the heat... Opening up pockets in the fat layer to allow the heat to escape from the water. I'm really uncertain, but it seems logical.

[Mr Skeptic]

You could just be lazy and put a lid over it.

[CaptainPanic]

Could it be possible that some water dripped into the molten butter?

 

If you have some liquid at 180 deg C, and you drip a bit of water into it, it will explode (don't try this at home).

 

the other option is that the butter de-mixed. Butter is essentially a stable emulsion, but the stability of an emulsion is temperature dependent. If a water phase forms at 180 deg C, it will also immediately boil off... and that looks like an explosion.