‘The pot completely shattered while I was making bolognese’

A mum was left in shock after a popular Target saucepan broke on the stove, but after watching the viral video, many have said they could see it coming.  

After a mum shattered a ceramic pot on her cooktop on Instagram this week, it seems we need a little refresher on what saucepans and pots can you use on your stovetop.

Stainless steel? Yes. Cast iron? Definitely.

The rules get a bit murky when it comes to glass, ceramics and earthenware, in which case you’d usually refer to the manufacturer’s instructions.

And that’s exactly what Shannen Gunning did before she put her new $10 Anko ceramic casserole dish from Target on the cooktop and started sauteeing carrot, onion and celery to make Bolognese.

“I just got this new pot today.  It was only $10 from Target,” Shannen said, narrating a video of herself making pasta sauce.

“I hope this pot is big enough.”

The eagle-eyed among us might have noted a different problem, not that Shannen would run out of space in her pot, but that the pot might not survive the heat of the burner.

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Innocently making bolognese. Photo: Instagram/Shannen Gunning

Mum’s Anko pot shatters while making Bolognese

Everything was going well until Shannen added a tin of tomatoes and water straight from the tap.

Suddenly a loud pop was heard and the pot split completely in half, leaking sauce all over the burner.

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Shannen jumped backwards, still holding the water jug. In the background, someone could be heard asking what happened.

“The pot cracked. It’s shattered. It broke,” she said, laughing.

The Anko brand pot, which can be found at Kmart and Target, was originally listed on Target’s site as being able to transition from the stovetop to the oven.

The listing has been updated to reflect Kmart’s description, saying the dish is “oven, microwave, dishwasher and freezer safe”.

“We encourage any customer who experiences an issue with a product to get in touch with our customer service team to ensure that it can be investigated properly,” a spokesperson for Target told news.com.au.

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It was all going so well until she added the water. Photo: Instagram/Shannen Gunning

It seems that although Shannen’s dish was shaped like a cooktop pot, it wasn’t actually meant for the cooktop.

Why does glass or ceramic break when heated or cooled?

Besides the fact that the Anko dish wasn’t built for making cooktop Bolognese, the reason it broke was because of “tension”.

“Like most materials, glass [or ceramic] expands slightly when heated up and shrinks the same amount when it cools down,” the Corning Museum of Glass says in a post. “If one part shrinks or expands faster than the part next to it, then the two regions tug against each other.

“This pulling, called ‘tension’ in engineering, can be strong enough to shatter glass.”

One commenter on Instagram called it. “It was the cold water that did it. It was the COLD WATER,” they said. It was actually the disparate temperature change, but we’ll give you that one.

Originally published as ‘The pot completely shattered while I was making bolognese’