Friday Fact – Silicone Rubber

Years ago, when I was on the cusp of realizing that I myself could wield powers in the kitchen, I was at a birthday party. I think it was for my mother.

A gift was given.

Red plastic muffin tins.

The moment the stuff was revealed beneath the gift wrapping, the giver of the gift began to ramble excitedly about a thing called Silicone – and it’s amazing super-plastic abilities. Cooking muffins in rubber tins? Oh yes, it is possible. For the amazing silicone does not melt. In fact, what it does is make it a million times easier to remove the muffins from the tin after baking.

A MILLION TIMES is a lot easier! Just a snap of the wrist, and voila! Rolling muffins across your toweled kitchen counter! Warm, delicious, and free from sticking to the sides of a metal muffin tin where its little muffin sides would have been ripped from it with a cruel metal spoon.

That was a time when I stubbornly wanted to believe (a bit more so than I do now) that people like Super Man and the X-Men really did exist, and were just in hiding. So I took the super-power properties of the Silicone plastic in stride, deciding that it was a phenomenon that someone discovered by accident – perhaps unearthing it while exploring a volcano in Tahiti – making that someone very rich. Silicone had a questionable reputation before it made its way into the American kitchen – being used for less savory jobs having to do with anatomy. But then! Muffin tins, cake pans, bunts, measuring implements, and yes – the rubber scraper. Silicone became popular, desirable, coveted.
If I am a domestic queen, and the kitchen is my kingdom – my red silicone rubber scraper is my scepter.
I looked up what the deal is with Silicon, and found out a lot of mumbo jumbo about polymers and carbon backbones, but the thing is – this stuff is dang cool.

Silicone is used quite a bit in the medical field. Non-dyed silicone rubber tape is used in aviation and is completely non-flammable. You’d think it would feel self-important, right?

But no.

From Wikipedia: “[Silicone] can be found in every room of a typical home. From automotive applications; to a large variety of cooking, baking, and food storage products; to apparel, undergarments, sportswear, and footwear; to electronics; to home repair and hardware, and a host of unseen applications.”


A host of unseen applications, you say? So Silicone is also a SPY!

So use your silicone with confidence, my friends. Some day, it may save your life. MacGyver style!