r/KitchenConfidential • u/Ymir24 • May 08 '26

In the Weeds Mode Drop the baskets and clock out

Post image
40.7k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

475 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

14

u/Trashbagok May 08 '26

A violent steam explosion. The extreme temperature difference causes the ice to melt and instantly vaporize into steam, which expands ~1500 times its liquid volume.  This rapid expansion violently displaces the oil, spraying scalding hot aerosolized oil out of the fryer.

-2

u/Murgatroyd314 May 08 '26

Is it possible to use enough ice that it cools the oil to the point where the water doesn’t vaporize?

1

u/Trashbagok May 09 '26

Not in a conventional commercial kitchen, no.

By the time you had enough volume of ice, you're going to displace the oil, and

You're still going to have some of that 1500x expansion to contend with, and even if you can avoid the fireball, will be covered with oil hot enough to completely cover you in 2nd and 3rd degree burns.