Seeking solutions. Knives not involved!

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Jeff B
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Re: Seeking solutions. Knives not involved!

Post by Jeff B »

LaVieestBelle wrote: Wed Oct 07, 2020 4:28 pm Jeff....meet me halfway with the bourbon and saw.
The new truck should arrive next week, what a great way to break it in! :D
If God wanted me to be a vegetarian he wouldn't have made animals taste so good.
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Re: Seeking solutions. Knives not involved!

Post by LaVieestBelle »

Drum roll......THEY ARE APART!! Thanks, in the end, to a simple spatula possibly aided by a rubber mallet..

Despite all the web sites that suggested hot water and cold ice treatments, that never seemed to help. Tonight, while waiting for my fig-grape jam to cook down, I decided to kill some time and try again. I set the souffle dishes on a soft dish-drying mat and tapped the rim of the upper bowl for a bit with the rubber mallet. Nothing, no obvious change. Then I remembered a site that suggested slipping a spatula between stuck bowls.

I found a rubbery spatula and tried to insert it but it would not go between the bowls past the area of contact. Too thick. So I wedged it downwards between the bowls above the stuck area as hard as I could, and started bopping on the top of it.

There was a pop! The bowls came seamlessly apart as the spatula pushed in. And I am covered with the oil I had used in my experiment yesterday.

Sorry Ken--I never had to go to Lowe's for tools, but I will treasure your creative clamp compositions.

And no chain saws or other instruments of destruction were in the end used in frustration. Just a silly rubber spatula. Sorry too--no bourbon party. I know my knife buddies in neighboring states (yes Jeff) were ready to drive... But I may have a very big glass of something tonight, and raise it to everyone who provided ideas, support and sympathy. Now that I no longer have what I thought would be permanently conjoined souffle dishes, I am so happy.

To all who contributed, my thanks for a fun, warm, edifying thread. I am so relieved. I thought nothing would ever work.
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Re: Seeking solutions. Knives not involved!

Post by d_rap »

All's well that ends well.

Glad to hear it worked out.
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Re: Seeking solutions. Knives not involved!

Post by Jeff B »

Ecellent! But can we still have the Bourbon party, maybe in celebration... :)
If God wanted me to be a vegetarian he wouldn't have made animals taste so good.
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Re: Seeking solutions. Knives not involved!

Post by LaVieestBelle »

Jeff B wrote: Thu Oct 08, 2020 9:50 pm Ecellent! But can we still have the Bourbon party, maybe in celebration... :)
Meet you at the border.....
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Re: Seeking solutions. Knives not involved!

Post by False Cast »

I appreciate the update no less than I do the update pictures. Good thread. Top it off with some pics of food in aforementioned dishes.
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Re: Seeking solutions. Knives not involved!

Post by XexoX »

LaVieestBelle wrote: Thu Oct 08, 2020 9:43 pm Drum roll......THEY ARE APART!! Thanks, in the end, to a simple spatula possibly aided by a rubber mallet..

Despite all the web sites that suggested hot water and cold ice treatments, that never seemed to help. Tonight, while waiting for my fig-grape jam to cook down, I decided to kill some time and try again. I set the souffle dishes on a soft dish-drying mat and tapped the rim of the upper bowl for a bit with the rubber mallet. Nothing, no obvious change. Then I remembered a site that suggested slipping a spatula between stuck bowls.

I found a rubbery spatula and tried to insert it but it would not go between the bowls past the area of contact. Too thick. So I wedged it downwards between the bowls above the stuck area as hard as I could, and started bopping on the top of it.

There was a pop! The bowls came seamlessly apart as the spatula pushed in. And I am covered with the oil I had used in my experiment yesterday.

Sorry Ken--I never had to go to Lowe's for tools, but I will treasure your creative clamp compositions.

And no chain saws or other instruments of destruction were in the end used in frustration. Just a silly rubber spatula. Sorry too--no bourbon party. I know my knife buddies in neighboring states (yes Jeff) were ready to drive... But I may have a very big glass of something tonight, and raise it to everyone who provided ideas, support and sympathy. Now that I no longer have what I thought would be permanently conjoined souffle dishes, I am so happy.

To all who contributed, my thanks for a fun, warm, edifying thread. I am so relieved. I thought nothing would ever work.

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Is it asking too much that you post pictures of the soufflés you bake in them?
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Re: Seeking solutions. Knives not involved!

Post by salemj »

Yay!!
~Joe

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Re: Seeking solutions. Knives not involved!

Post by ken123 »

"Sorry Ken...." To the contrary - problem solved!! This shows excellent problem solving skills! Two intact bowls. No bills from Lowes

So how about some bread pudding soaked in burbon? Maybe even do something from KY like Makers. Could be a new thread :)

PS - don't get these stuck together again!!

Congratulations!!

---
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Re: Seeking solutions. Knives not involved!

Post by ken123 »

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/pat ... pe-1963214 as a suggestion. A friend of mine uses croissants as his 'bread'.

Ken
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Re: Seeking solutions. Knives not involved!

Post by jknife »

I was so inthralled by this thread that I'm left wishing there was a "bowls stuck together forum".
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Re: Seeking solutions. Knives not involved!

Post by taz575 »

Awesome outcome!!! Sometimes its the simply tricks that work best!
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Re: Seeking solutions. Knives not involved!

Post by Kalaeb »

Party pooper.

Sign of the times...when a thread about stuck bowls goes almost 4 pages.

"Matt, you were late to the last Zoom meeting. Sorry boss, had to get through a fascinating thread about stuck bowls".
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Re: Seeking solutions. Knives not involved!

Post by Ut_ron »

Good info on stuck bowls, thanks for sharing.
Home cook that enjoys sharp knives.
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Re: Seeking solutions. Knives not involved!

Post by jmcnelly85 »

Now that there are two separate dishes, that doubles the opportunities to crush them with a giant hammer.
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Re: Seeking solutions. Knives not involved!

Post by LaVieestBelle »

Wow--I had no idea this thread would become bingeworthy...... Who knew, lol.

First answer to all who asked--yes, as soon as I make my next souffle I will happily post pictures of the food. Right now the formerly conjoined souffle dishes are in the dishwasher to remove the oil that was used in one attempt. They are on different dishwasher shelves. They will never come close to each other again.

Since this was a days-long project, I thought it woulf be fun to just list what I did, and did not, wind up trying.

I tried:
Multiple sessions soaking the outer bowl in hot water while the inner one was filled with ice. No response.
Gladius's idea--one session with both bowls submerged in hot soapy water. No response.
paulME's idea--whacking repeatedly but gently with a piece of wood. No response.
d_rap's idea--a few days of hitting in various places with a rubber mallet. No response, but possible long term help.
Brushing copious amounts of oil along the conjoined area, followed by a return to the rubber mallet. No response, but possible long term help.
One attempt to shove a different spatula between the bowls. No response.

What I didn't try (though some ideas sounded appealing and worthy of remembering and listing for posterity):
Ken's Powertec clamps
Robstreperous's woodworkers clamps plus WD40
jmcnelly85's commercial high-temp dish machine
Ken's WD-40 with 2-way smart straw sprays
Robstreperous's hot oven idea
d-rap's lubricant plus near-boiling water
bourbon and a chain saw
Jeff's offer to bring bourbon and the saw
ronnie_suburban's confirmation that the above combination would solve many problems
Kaleb's idea of throwing it in the back of the car and driving it around Baltimore roads
turning it over to Kaleb's six-year-old
False Cast's freezer idea
Many more clamp ideas from Ken
Chefknivestogo sledge hammer (new item for the site, Mark?)

In a minute...thoughts on what did work!
Last edited by LaVieestBelle on Fri Oct 09, 2020 1:01 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Seeking solutions. Knives not involved!

Post by LaVieestBelle »

Continuing...

Here are two methods that just might have played in to the final success. It is impossible to tweak out the effect (or lack) of each...

Repeated tapping with the rubber mallet. For days it seemed to do nothing, but did it have an effect at the last moment before using the spatula? Who knows.
The cooking oil I soaked the stuck area with the day before. By itself it did not seem to help, but it might have made the final insertion of the spatula work in the end.

But the spatula did it. And not just any spatula. One day I tried the thinnest one I had, after the oil application. Nothing.

The successful one? I grabbed it but with complete pessimism because it looked too thick to be effective. I was wrong. It was stronger as well, and still soft enough to hopefully do no damage.
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Re: Seeking solutions. Knives not involved!

Post by LaVieestBelle »

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Re: Seeking solutions. Knives not involved!

Post by LaVieestBelle »

Last note. Fascinating how small differences in tools meant success or failure.

In both images, the top spatula failed to have any effect at all.

The thicker, stouter one on the bottom took just a few shoves and everything worked.

Check that difference in the distal taper lol.

I need to stop having fun with this...and go make a souffle.
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Re: Seeking solutions. Knives not involved!

Post by gladius »

LaVieestBelle wrote: Fri Oct 09, 2020 12:50 pm The thicker, stouter one on the bottom took just a few shoves and everything worked.
Check that difference in the distal taper lol.
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