Fishrat's Law: If I ever take my eye off anything I'm cooking for anything more than 3 seconds, it becomes charcoal. That's why glass saucepan lids are useful for me.
Trouble is, condensation always builds up inside the lid, and you can't see through it. What you need is a version of the Saucepan Lid Windscreen Wiper to allow clear vision through the lid.
Poundshop version: Heat resistent edge allows cook to grasp lid. Coffee grinder style handle allows you to turn interior blade to wipe condensation from inside lid.
Gadget Shop version: Pressing lid handle initialises motorised interior wiper for one revolution. Motor cunningly hidden inside the handle.
Novelty shop version: Wiper blade shaped like a carrot or wooden spoon. Probably plays the theme tune to "Can't cook, won't cook" while rotating.
FarmerJohn Version: As gadget shop version, but one rotation takes exactly one minute, and is actually a tiny jet of water. Water will turn blue (due to a tiny injection of food dye) when three minutes are up, and you egg is boiled.-- Fishrat, Oct 22 2003 How Bliss Watches Pots http://www.halfbake...idea/Pot_20Watchers [Fishrat, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] Ecosphere Version http://www.abundant...tore/ecosphere.htmlScroll down to the heading "Cleaning Your Ecosphere" for complete instructions on how to make two penny magnets clean the glass surface. [jurist, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] Rhyming Slang http://www.cockneyrhymingslang.co.uk/Explains some of the annotations... [Fishrat, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] Ok, but I'm not cleaning it...
...and why would you want blue water in your cooking? +-- k_sra, Oct 22 2003 [k_sra], I quite like the idea of multicoloured eggs. Especially if I could watch them cooking. Maybe you could change the food dye to suit your mood?-- Fishrat, Oct 23 2003 [Fishrat] seeks ultimate and total control of his cooking.-- k_sra, Oct 23 2003 What you need is a lid that spins (it’s rim, the contacting point with the saucepan, doesn’t move). The spinning motion will not allow water to build up due to centripetal force.
Ways to make the lid spin:
A thermoelectric generator powered by the difference in temperature between the inside and the outside of the lid. It could be mounted in the rim, where it’d obscure your view the least.
A steam turbine. As steam exits the pot, it imparts some of it’s momentum to a geared turbine, which then spins the lid. Also rim mounted. This version would have the advantage of proportional spin – the more steam, the more spin.-- TIB, Oct 23 2003 Another, and much easier method, would be to create a lid that has built in insulation. Instead of a single dome of glass, use two, thinner panes with a vacuum between them. This way, the water inside the pot will not have a cool surface to condense against. An added advantage would be safety: you could press your nose up against the glass for a really close view of the boiling stew, without getting burned.-- TIB, Oct 23 2003 //you could press your nose up against the glass for a really close view of the boiling stew, without getting burned.//
Warning: You might set fire to your tie, [TIB], especially if you're using gas.-- Fishrat, Oct 24 2003 It could have a large red warning label prominently displayed: Warning, Do Not Press Nose Against Lid, [TIB], Especially If You're Using Gas.-- benjamin, Oct 24 2003 "Blacken my eye, set fire to my tie, as we dance to the Masochism Tango..."
A heavy glass pot lid that fit reasonably tightly wouldn't need any gears to rotate. Visualize a lid that fits like metal lids do, with a lip that fits inside the pot, while the lid hangs over the pot's rim. If that inner lip were thick enough, you could cut channels in it at an angle. When the lid rises high enough that steam can escape through the channels, the friction between the pot and the lid is minimized, so the smallish force of the steam is enough to turn the lid. Of course, you'd have to do a lot of experimenting to find the right balance of weight vs. temperature vs. aperture to come up with something that would spin fast enough to clear the water, but be heavy enough not to lift too high and let the steam out...-- darksasami, Oct 24 2003 --what k_sra said about "cleaning", except for me, that's NOT ok. I'd much rather be blind to see what's inside than have one more thing to try to clean, especially things with moving parts, which always get gunk built up in the gears, pivot points, etc.
If you really can't wait for the lid to clear itself, then you could just pre-heat the lid by putting it on the range/oven/heat source directly to so you won't get any fine condensation.-- sophocles, Oct 24 2003 Or, if you really want to stay low-tech, for just a few pennies you could use the same system Ecospheres use to clean their sealed glass globes of condensation and algae. Merely place a magnetic disk on the inside of the pot's glass lid and place a corresponding magnet on the outside of the glass lid. The two magnets will keep each other tightly clamped to the surface of the glass. But when you want to clear a peep hole to see through your steamy lid, just slide the outside magnet gently around the surface, and the inside magnet will clear the inside of the glass. Both magnets, in this case, are easily removed when you wish to clean the pot and its lid.-- jurist, Oct 24 2003 Doesn't heat degrade ferromagnetism?-- darksasami, Oct 24 2003 That's a genius solution, jurist.-- waugsqueke, Oct 24 2003 I'm not so sure about that, [UB]. I think your top would be difficult to spin depending on the viscosity of the stew, plus the displacement when you shove it in and start spinning would probably ruin dinner entirely. Let's stick to the magnets.-- lintkeeper2, Oct 25 2003 <looks up "pressganging." adds to vocabulary>-- bristolz, Oct 25 2003 I love the magnet idea, [jurist], but I definitely want them shaped as vegetables. <off topic> If you haven't a scooby about what [Rods] and [UB] are on about, I've posted a dictionary link. </off topic>-- Fishrat, Oct 27 2003 //If I see an "a" in definitely, one more time, I'm gonna...//
...add it to the broth, and call it alphabet soup.-- jurist, Oct 27 2003 ...tippex your screen in protest? That's what I'd do. Which probably figures. Anyway, it's fixed now.
I'm half tempted to do it again, just to see what you do, [UB].-- Fishrat, Oct 27 2003 random, halfbakery