Black goo from my griddle

[SLD]

So I had to clean my griddle today after quite some time. There’s a little metal container that fits on the far side and you can drain stuff from the cooking surface into this container. It was full so I had to empty it.

At the bottom of it was this black goo. I mean pitch black. This is the detritus of several weeks of cooking steaks eggs bacon and other things in this griddle. Lots of oils. Usually I just scrape the remains of the cooking through the little hole and into the container. It’s been there for weeks.

I wish I could chemically analyze what all it was. If I did what would I find? Anything alive?

 

[Elixir]

Anything alive?

How long since last used? Does the grease catch get hot when it’s in use?

 

[steve_bank]

Don't get any on you

I'd think most things from organic food and meat can be a source for bacteria to grow.

You could mail it to a chemical analysis service. Or a nearby college or university with a chemistry department. Somebody might be as curious as you are.

Breaking news from Alabama! A black substance from a grill is consuming people and growing into a huge black moving mass. ( just watched the old movie The Blob)

 

[ideologyhunter]

Relax. In the Trump family tradition, that's baby formula.

 

[bilby]

So I had to clean my griddle today after quite some time. There’s a little metal container that fits on the far side and you can drain stuff from the cooking surface into this container. It was full so I had to empty it.

At the bottom of it was this black goo. I mean pitch black. This is the detritus of several weeks of cooking steaks eggs bacon and other things in this griddle. Lots of oils. Usually I just scrape the remains of the cooking through the little hole and into the container. It’s been there for weeks.

I wish I could chemically analyze what all it was. If I did what would I find? Anything alive?

It's mostly carbon; What you get when the hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen are stripped out of your food. There's enough unburned hydrocarbons left to make it a gooey paste, and likely some acrylamide, heterocyclic amines, and polycyclic hydrocarbons - basically a bunch of different configurations of shortish carbon chains and rings, with mostly hydrogen and the odd nitrogen.

The darker it gets, the less oxygen and hydrogen are left; The nitrogen content is likely small to begin with. If you're in the habit of cooking eggs, there's a trace of sulphur in there too.

When produced, it would be at around 250°C or more and contain almost no water, so nothing would live in it, and it would take a very long time for even the hardiest bacteria to penetrate below the surface even once it cools.

If it's been allowed to sit at room temperature for weeks, it's likely to host some traces of surface bacteria and/or mould, but as the water content would still be very close to zero, and the hydrocarbons are hydrophobic, it's not an environment that is supportive of living organisms.

I would advise against eating it; Not because it would cause you any harm, but because it would likely taste vile, gritty, and bitter.

 

[SLD]

So I had to clean my griddle today after quite some time. There’s a little metal container that fits on the far side and you can drain stuff from the cooking surface into this container. It was full so I had to empty it.

At the bottom of it was this black goo. I mean pitch black. This is the detritus of several weeks of cooking steaks eggs bacon and other things in this griddle. Lots of oils. Usually I just scrape the remains of the cooking through the little hole and into the container. It’s been there for weeks.

I wish I could chemically analyze what all it was. If I did what would I find? Anything alive?

It's mostly carbon; What you get when the hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen are stripped out of your food. There's enough unburned hydrocarbons left to make it a gooey paste, and likely some acrylamide, heterocyclic amines, and polycyclic hydrocarbons - basically a bunch of different configurations of shortish carbon chains and rings, with mostly hydrogen and the odd nitrogen.

The darker it gets, the less oxygen and hydrogen are left; The nitrogen content is likely small to begin with. If you're in the habit of cooking eggs, there's a trace of sulphur in there too.

When produced, it would be at around 250°C or more and contain almost no water, so nothing would live in it, and it would take a very long time for even the hardiest bacteria to penetrate below the surface even once it cools.

If it's been allowed to sit at room temperature for weeks, it's likely to host some traces of surface bacteria and/or mould, but as the water content would still be very close to zero, and the hydrocarbons are hydrophobic, it's not an environment that is supportive of living organisms.

I would advise against eating it; Not because it would cause you any harm, but because it would likely taste vile, gritty, and bitter.

the dog liked it! He seems okay an hour after licking it up off the ground.

 

[thebeave]

Alright, you guys are back on your game I see. A Trump reference on the third post! Woo hoo! I wasn't sure how you would connect Trump to a glob of griddle goo, but I am impressed. Good job.