I'm surprised to read that one can't put hot items on marble. I do it all the time.

Tea mugs, plates and serving dishes with hot food, cookie sheets with cookies just out of the oven, many types of hot pans just off the cooker (examples: all-clad sauce and saute pans), metal roasting pans, etc., are frequently set on my marble. What I would not put directly on marble while hot are my glass double boiler or any hot pyrex (including Corning Ware), but that's to protect the pot from thermal shock rather than to protect the marble.

The only two types of pots that I would automatically trivet (on any surface except a spider grate on my cooktop) are heavy (and very hot) cast iron or enamel on cast iron. I wouldn't hesitate to set down a cast iron skillet I had just scrambled eggs in, but would think twice with the same skillet I had just used to broil a steak.

So I don't believe you need to trivet any eating utensils (plates and mugs) or most pots coming right off the cooktop (woks may be the exception, I'm not familiar with them) or most metals used in baking and moderate temp roasting. But for heavy pans with residual very high temps would probably be a good idea to use a trivet. And of course any hot clay, glass or ceramic vessel that might get a thermal shock from the much-colder mass of marble would need protection from it.

I don't drink coffee so I'm not familiar with the mechanics of a french press. I wouldn't have my Chemex (glass) coffee pot on the marble when I poured boiling water into the filter, however, because I wouldn't want the pot to break.

My marble counter is antique (unknown type) white and grey-streaked (probably) Vermont stone. We inherited it from my MIL, and she had recycled it from some other purpose before that. It is not polished or sealed. I don't think of (my) marble as being delicate in any way. Perhaps there are other marbles that are?

HTH

L.

Like liriodendron I put pots and pans straight out of the oven or off the cook top on my marble and have never thought twice about it. I also put plates that have been warming in the oven right on the marble as well as hot cups of coffee and tea. I only use a trivet if I have made a casserole in a very heavy pot, like the larger size Le Creuset double oven, but even then I am not sure I need a trivet. I don't think that you need to baby marble as much as some GW's seem to, but then again I would feel terrible if I told someone to put something hot on their marble and it cracked -- yikes!!

Madeline - fantastic question; I've wondered about this too but didn't think to ... ask. ?!

I was told not to put hot stuff on my rainforest green -- it's of very highly variable composition of minerals so perhaps this changes recommendations. I've little doubt that those who told me this don't know anything particularly about the stone but are just making the most conservative guess possible ("don't do it"). Still, for our purposes here, it probably does matter which particular stone we're talking about?

I'm a little more careful than liriodendron and lillyvt. I use the marble island as landing space for cooky sheets from the oven, but not heavy baking dishes. I don't put anything there from a really hot oven, 450 or above, or directly from the cook-top. And I wouldn't put a glass pie plate on it, directly from the oven, because of the above-mentioned potential thermal shock to the plate. The marble is honed and unsealed, because I roll out pie crusts, biscuits, etc., on it.

All my previous kitchens had laminate, so I'm used to using trivets.

If you're reading every thread you can possibly find on marble counters (which is what I did, LOL), you can see the marble table project here:

Here is a link that might be useful: Marble table/island, scroll forwrd for info on etching/honing.

The fact that people have put hot things down on marble with no ill consequences is irrelevant. Virtually any stone may be vulnerable to thermal shock. You can rest a hot roasting pan on your counter 1000 times, but the 1001st time, it may be just hot enough and in just the right place on the stone to cause a crack.

I would never put a pan out of the oven or off my cooktop on any counter surface...and NEVER my marble! Yikes! I've read here 100 times to never put anything that hot on the counter. I'm a self-confessed non-gambler though. (I hear you can do that kind of thing with soapstone, but, although I've never owned soapstone, I can't imagine I'd set a tray of cookies out of the oven on it either.)

I do put my freshly brewed latte cup, warm (not boiling) bowl out of the MW, steaks on a plate off the CC rangetop, etc on my marble. I don't put the hot metal milk steaming pitcher fresh out of the espresso machine on the counter though. Seems like too much of a risk. I think I naturally gravitate towards old lady things anyway, like trivets, cutting boards, coasters, etc.

A good rule of thumb is if the temperature of the stuff in the pan is above boiling, or it's a large heavy mass, then use a trivet. That means a cake out of the 350 oven or a skillet where you pan fried chicken should all go on a trivet. A cup where you pour hot water could just be set on a folded kitchen towel rather than a trivet, but I would want a bit of insulation between the two. If the mass of the object is large, like a big heavy Le Crueset pan where you are slow simmering a pot of beans, even if it's not boiling, should also use a trivet.

Thanks for sharing your experiences and advice.

Marcolo, great point about the 1001st time.

Breezy, I'm not a gambler either, and have already started to collect some old lady things, lol. Even bought some funny rooster trivets.

Live wire, great rules of thumb. Another point about the Le Creuset is that they can develop a ring of rust around the bottom, which could cause a significant stain, so I was planning on always having those on a trivet anyway.

I think I'm going to play it safe. Nothing out of the oven, no pouring boiling water into the French press while it sits directly on the marble, etc.

Thanks again!

I think that marble and the granites are pretty similar as far as heat tolerance - generally they will do okay but there is the possibility of some weak point in the stone that will crack with temperature differences or sharp temperature change. With my quartzite, I generally don't worry about temperature up to boiling.

For a french press if the coffee is brewing, I would put it on a pot holder or something for the same reason I do with my tea cup when the tea is steeping - the conductivity of the stone might cool the water down and interfere with maintaining a good brewing temperature. Once the tea or coffee has brewed, I would put it on the stone.

Anything hotter than boiling like pans out of the oven or a pot that I've been frying in, I avoid putting directly on the granite. But others in my family sometimes do and I don't freak out if it happens. So far it hasn't caused any issues and I don't really expect it to.

I have taken pans of cookies and other things out of my oven as high as 450 degrees and set on my soapstone without any consequences. Also, the stone takes the heat right out of the baking sheets/pans. Within a minute or two I am able to pick them up without pot holders. I also routinely remove pots of boiling pasta, etc and place them on it as well. If you can do it in a laboratory, I can do it in my kitchen. It is the main REASON I got soapstome and not another material. They make OVENS and FIREPLACES out of this stuff...there is no reason not to think I can't place something out of my oven on it. My fabricator (M. Tex) told me so as well.

Just because you have done it and nothing has happened, doesn't mean it won't next time.

This thing cracked the granite in my old condo. I wouldn't put crockpots/slowcookers on stone either.

I figure if it is too hot to touch, it doesn't go on the stone without some sort of protection. And its just easy to use the glass cooktop as a landing zone.

One of the reasons we went with stainless steel counters was to eliminate these concerns. We've only had them in for 2 weeks - but they've had hot stuff on them several times already.