From “Southern Living Magazine”:http://www.southernliving.com/southern/foods/tr_recipes/article/0,13676,605096,00.html
URGENT NOTICE REGARDING POTENTIAL FIRE AND SAFETY HAZARD IN RECIPE FOR ICEBOX ROLLS ON PAGE 154 OF THE APRIL 2004 ISSUE OF SOUTHERN LIVING
Click here for more information.
Please DO NOT USE the Icebox Rolls recipe that appeared on p. 154 of the April 2004 issue of Southern Living. Combining the water and shortening as described in the recipe may cause the mixture to ignite, is extremely dangerous, and could result in fire and safety hazards. DO NOT USE this recipe. For the corrected recipe, click here. It will also be reprinted in the May 2004 issue. If you have any questions, please call 1-888-836-9327.
(found via “Jessa Crispin”:http://www.bookslut.com/blog/archives/2004_03.php#001816)
{ 10 comments }
Andrew Plotkin 03.30.04 at 4:59 pm
If anyone has the original, hideously dangerous
recipe, I’d love to see it. Food geeks want to know.
Disclaimer: I am not a member of a terrorist
organization, and I do not advocate the overthrow
of the US government by cake or incendiary cinnamon
rolls.
Andrew Plotkin 03.30.04 at 5:00 pm
If anyone has the original, hideously dangerous
recipe, I’d love to see it. Food geeks want to know.
Disclaimer: I am not a member of a terrorist
organization, and I do not advocate the overthrow
of the US government by cake or incendiary cinnamon
rolls.
rea 03.30.04 at 6:06 pm
Uh–how can combining water and shortening cause the mixture to ignite? Inquiring minds want to know!
Dan F 03.30.04 at 7:16 pm
I did not see the original recipe. Southern Living has apparently replaced it with a safer version. The revised recipe calls for adding boling water to shortening in a bowl.
My guess: the original recipe called for adding the shortening to boiling water on the stove. Since shortening is less dense than, and will therefore float on, water, the danger would be that some of it might boil over onto the burner causing a flame which could then ignite the rest of the shortening.
Jeremy Osner 03.30.04 at 8:41 pm
Oh, here I was thinking the original recipe was using sodium methylate for the shortener.
novalis 03.30.04 at 11:03 pm
Hm, maybe the original involved adding water to hot shortening — this is quite dangerous, because the water will boil immediately and cause the hot shortening to spatter. Adding shortening to hot or even boiling water should not cause spatters, since water boils at a lower temperature than shortening.
DJW 03.31.04 at 1:08 am
Somehow this becomes less fun when people offer actual rational explanations for how this might happen.
Anyone else get an image of Homer Simpson pouring milk over cereal, only to watch it burst into flames?
steve_wmn 03.31.04 at 3:41 am
These excerpts was posted to a mailing list I subscribed to:
“1 cup water, 1/2 cup shortening” “Bring water and shortening to a boil in a small saucepan over high heat – boil 5 minutes. Let stand until completely cooled”
As someone mentioned the key flaw seems to be the risk of boiling over sending shortening all over the burners. Boiling shortening for 5 minutes seems pretty pointless to me when you could melt it perfectly well in simmering water in less than 5 minutes.
David Tiley 03.31.04 at 7:38 am
Either way, it can’t possibly be edible… at least not in my culture.
Platypus pie anyone?
personal cook 03.31.04 at 3:02 pm
I’m with djw. How prosaic explanation is. I didn’t get the Homer image, but one of some bright young thing in publishing pitching to a boss for a book of recipes to be
a) not published and
b)not followed.
The, not doubt, Powerpoint presentation might go:
“Perhaps a notional present for the cook who has all the mace graters he or she needs and certainly doesn’t want another recipe book. No purchase, no wrapping, no shipping, no nothing.”
Comments on this entry are closed.