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I washed my cooking pot and put some water in it, and put it on the stove.
When the water came close to boiling, I started hearing crackling sounds and there was a thin coat of some substance on the surface.

I thought maybe the pot wasn't clean enough, so I washed it once again thoroughly, but the same thing happened again.
Then I used another pot and everything went fine.

My question is, obviously, what was going on with the first pot, and how do I avoid it?
The obvious theory to me would be that there was still some oil in it, but I did wash it properly and don't even remember putting oil in it recently.

Edit: I'm using electricity to cook (the oldschool 3D round thingie, no glass and no induction) and the pot is made out of stainless steel.
The crackling sounds are not from the pot being wet, they're similar but a bit different (and the pot was dry).
They could be from the pot expanding, but that wouldn't explain the thin layer on the surface of the water.

Edit2: video

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  • What kind of pot is it? The cracking is probably just the metal expanding as it heats up.
    – ElendilTheTall
    Nov 20, 2015 at 10:20
  • @ElendilTheTall: I edited the question to answer your questions.
    – iCanLearn
    Nov 20, 2015 at 15:19
  • is your stove fairly old, and do you get the same sound from that pot on another burner on the stove? I think it's the burner, not the pot, making the sound. I think the sound is unrelated to the film. I'm writing an answer but felt the questions were better suited to comments than including in the answer. Regarding the film, were both pots cleaned in the same manner and are both the same color (for visibility of the film)?
    – NadjaCS
    Nov 20, 2015 at 16:53
  • I think maybe I should write the answer after going home and maybe making some experiments and possibly even videos of my own to support the "not the pot" theory. ;-)
    – NadjaCS
    Nov 20, 2015 at 17:01
  • Curious. I hear that a lot even with dealing with dry-bottomed pots when using electric heaters.
    – Joshua
    Dec 4, 2015 at 2:54

2 Answers 2

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I am making a guess here, but a guess based on my own experiences.

You have an induction glass top stove, and you are putting the pot down on top of it wet. The water is getting trapped under the pot, and once it is able to reach boiling (just before the water in your pot does). It is starting to pop (like popcorn).

It pops because it is trapped. Because the pot is wet it gets "sealed" to the stove top, and the steam can't escape until it builds enough pressure to lift the heavy pot just enough for the gas to escape violently.

The way to make it stop is to dry the outside of the pot after you wash it and/or before you cook.

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  • +1 for the effort, but no. I'll edit the question to add extra information.
    – iCanLearn
    Nov 20, 2015 at 15:14
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I experienced this too and the same happened with that pan on an adjacent hob. After I removed and washed the pan and it had cooled down it continued even 5 minutes later, on the draining board, to make several more cracking sounds! An identical pan is fine on both hobs, so the fault is in the pan as it heats and also as it cools. My solution is to replace the pan which is about 6 years old and under guarantee, but I did not keep the receipt

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