Saturday, July 2, 2011

Exploding Molasses?

Just a quick note to find out if this has ever happened to anyone else.  So, I'm making my five bean baked beans and I go to get the  molasses out of the pantry. I grab the botttle, and as I'm walking to the counter with it, I put my hand on the cap to unscrew it. And the cap blows clear up to the ceiling and ricochets around the room like its a bullet! And then moloasses start oozing out of the bottle!

I have been cooking for decades, and always have molasses on hand. I have never had the cap blow, though. Obviously I'm tossing the whole bottle. Does anyone have a clue as to why this might have happened? Any thoughts and theories are welcome because that is just weird.

9 comments:

  1. Something in the bottle caused gas to build up, and when you started to release the pressure, it exploded. Sort of like opening a soda bottle too fast.

    Hope you are ok!

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  2. LOL!!!!!! Thanks for that laugh :) Read this though: http://www.boston-discovery-guide.com/great-molasses-flood.html

    Makes your flying lid seem like small potatoes!

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  3. Okay --- so the flying lid not such a huge deal comparatively.... but weird occurences seem to just follow me around. And yes we all are all okay --- I ducked like it was a gunshot and the pups hid under the table.

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  4. It is possible, although unlikely, that yeast are to blame. If you opened the jar before or there was some way the yeast got in. Yeast loves molasses -- although usually you need to water it down a bit before the yeast thrive.

    When yeast ferment anything they produce a lot of gas. Without a way to escape, pressure builds, eventually it goes pop.

    The fact that it was oozing, in my mind, supports the yeast theory. The CO2 from fermentation often becomes dissolved into the liquid and when the pressure drops and it tries to come out of suspension, it can cause overflow like that.

    I brew and I've seen just about every kind of fun thing happen. Sometimes the outlet for the gas gets blocked and pressure builds until it ends up shooting sticky mixture everywhere. Sometimes the yeast just go nuts and are working so fast that you end up with liquid blowing out the top even though gas has a way out.

    Fun times. But yeah, toss that and don't cook with it unless you intended for it to happen. It is almost certainly yeast (in my mind) but it could be some other nasty bacteria or bug causing a reaction that releases gas. Don't take chances.

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  5. Wow! Thanks for the info --- not sure how yeast would have gotten in there, but its possible when you've got holiday baking central going on (which wasn't the case 4th of July, but was in December when I last used the bottle!) It definitely went in the trash.

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  6. This happened to me today. I was opening a brand new bottle (maybe past the expiration date, though) and the lid flew off and molasses spewed all over my sink and counter top. Some of the molasses near the top seems thinner and lighter colored than the rest of the bottle. Could be yeast. I'm throwing this bottle out.

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    Replies
    1. Just happened to me too, unopened bottle that had a thin stream down side of jar, started to clean it off and took off lid and it started oozing like a volcano.

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  7. my plastic molasses bottle exploded the bottle and lid landed on the floor on the way it covered two walls and the front of the pantry drawers molasses everywhere

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  8. Just happened to me too. I had two plastic bottles with a squeeze sealing lid that it sits on. One new, one open. The new one built up enough pressure to pop the lid off and molasses leaked into the drawer. The used one remained sealed but when I clicked the tab on the lid open, the pressure released just like opening a soda bottle. I also assumed fermentation, but how did the yeast/bacterial get into the new bottle?!?

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