The Type Of Glass To Avoid Putting In Your Oven At All Costs

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Glass cookware in the kitchen has become a staple for its beautiful and clean look, which makes it easy to see how your food is cooking. It's also recognized for its versatility, allowing it to transition quickly from the oven directly to the table for eating. And honestly, who doesn't like a one-dish meal? It's necessary, however, to emphasize the fact that not all glass is created equal. You can't use any handy glass dish for cooking in your oven. There is one type of glass in particular that you must avoid putting in your hot oven at all costs: untempered glass.

Untempered glass, also called annealed glass, looks like any glass baking dish you might use, but unlike oven-safe glass, it is far more fragile. Tempered glass can withstand high temperatures, whereas untempered glass undergoes a rapid cooling process to reduce its processing time, making it unsafe for high heat. The reinforced structure of durable tempered glass allows it to handle temperature changes and sustained heat from your oven. This process makes it up to five times stronger than untempered glass. If you put an untempered glass dish in your oven, however, it's like a ticking time bomb. The glass is sensitive to heat, and when it heats unevenly, stress builds, and it can explode and shatter, leaving you with a potentially dangerous, messy kitchen disaster.

You must avoid a kitchen catastrophe in your oven by checking glassware before using it. Tempered glass is often stamped "heat-tempered" or "oven-safe" to indicate it can be used in the oven, but there are other easy at-home ways to determine if your glass product is heat-resistant. One noticeable difference between untempered and oven-safe glass is their edges; tempered glass typically has smoother, rounder edges than untempered glass, but not always. If you are unable to locate a stamp or mark indicating whether the glass is tempered, assume it's untempered and avoid using it in the oven. You may also want to check the manufacturer's instructions regarding temperature limits for your glassware.

Pyrex is a well-known brand that uses tempered glass dishes, with products that are oven-safe up to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. So, you can use a dish, such as this Pyrex 3 QT Glass Baking Dish, in the oven fairly safely. However, it is worth noting that even when using tempered or oven-safe glass, there is still a risk of your glassware breaking or shattering in the oven. This is more likely to happen when you take a dish straight from your cold fridge and stick it in a hot oven, because of the drastic change in temperature. However, tempered glass is constructed to break into smaller, less jagged pieces than untempered glass, so cleanup is a bit easier and less dangerous.