trivet: noun
1. a small metal plate with short legs, especially one put under a hot platter or dish to protect a table. 2. a three footed or three legged stand or support, especially one of iron placed over a fire to support cooking vessels or the like.
This trivet, would be steel......since a magnet sticks to it.
How old is this trivet? Who knows. Mother had it for at least forever, meaning it is older, or as old, as yours truly.....60+ years. There is a memory, from WAY back, asking as to the use of this object, aka, the steel trivet. Mother explained it was, in laymen's terms, to transfer heat. Meaning, if the pot that was used for cooking needed to cook for a rather long length of time, placing the trivet between the heat source and the pan would keep whatever delicacy was in the pan, from burning. Perhaps, a good way of describing radiant heat.
Mother has been gone over 14 years and of all the things she held dear to her heart, bird figurines, candle sticks (that had no mate), teapots (mostly brown ones) and other items, the steel trivet has made the journey with me. It has traveled a thousand miles away from what was home and back again. It has been used on flame, electric coils and glass top electric stoves, all without incident.
The call of duty was mac&cheese. Again, Mother's recipe. It is the bestest of the best and always a crowd pleaser. Since it seemed a good idea to double the recipe, for a large family gathering, the trivet, which always sits within inches of the stove, would be a useful tool.
This glass top cook stove has a burner that is rarely used. The reason it is not used often would be that it has a TURBO setting. Being married to a gear head, turbo should only be used for something that has 4 wheels and a small block under the hood.
The chosen pan for this project was a medium sized stock pot. This pot is not "Cooking TV" style. Its metal is thin and has had many a dish chiseled out of the bottom of it.
Looking back, boiling the water in this pan, without the trivet, would have probably worked just fine. As of yet, there's never been a story about burning water in a pan. Yes, they can be boiled dry, but this was not the case. The trivet was set on the burner, the pan, full of water, was set on the trivet, the knob that controls said burner, was set on nearly turbo.
It did seem to take a long time for the water to boil so.....the knob was cranked up to turbo. It wasn't long before a rolling boil had been achieved. In went two pounds of macaroni. Of course, anytime something is put into boiling water, it takes a bit of time for the temperature to reach boiling again. Once achieved, the temperature was cranked down to a nice mid simmer. Macaroni can be a funny animal, cooked too much, it turns to mush....not enough and it may still retain a crunch. This macaroni was to be perfecto.
The timer had been set for 8 minutes, when it sounded the alarm, the pot was taken off the stove, the macaroni drained, the burner turned off.
The trivet was still on the burner.....but.......the burner was off.
Since the dish was not going to be baked until morning, time was taken to make sure all the ingredients were added to the same pot that had cooked the noodles. It was, after all, a large pot and a double recipe. If you are aware if my kitchen antics, using the same pot to mix up all the ingredients seemed like a no brainer.
As all the ingredients were being placed in the pot, a loud cracking noise was heard. The TURBO burner had basically fractured the glass and sent shock waves through its side of the stove top, leaving it to look like some ancient map of dried up waterways.
It could have been a lesson in science, physics or welding 101, but there seems to be a part of the glass stove top that actually melted.
The trivet sits silent on the counter, next to the stove, waiting for its next assignment.
