cheesedicers

Probably everyone who reads this has at least one burn scar or disaster story related to the kitchen and cookware (this doesn’t take into account the untold hordes who have burned themselves with smores around the campfire!). Many stories involve young children and are truly horrible. Harnessing fire was a big step forward for mankind, but its dark side in the kitchen bares constant scrutiny.

Modern kitchens are filled with heat sources. Stove tops, cookware and ovens are the primary source of potential burns. Gas fired burners are an obvious danger source. Heating elements are less so, especially those that show no obvious sign of heat, like metal discs. I’ve always felt manufacturers should be required to put warning lights adjacent this type of burner to indicate ‘on,’ instead of relying on lights mounted on the front edge of the stove and totally out of normal eye scan.

Open flames, bright red coils, and lit glass-top heating elements are clearly hot. Except for small, curious children, we are unlikely to contact something so obvious.

(As a side note, I found it easier with toddlers to use “Hot!” as a general danger warning simply because, for them, this was usually one of their earliest and strongest concrete lessons about the world, and the transfer was powerful enough to elicit an immediate pause in their actions. For a while, anyway!)

Ovens pose no problem generally with the door shut, but when adjusting or removing food, everything becomes a potential burn source – oven door (don’t forget sides!), racks, cookware, and even the food itself. A few months ago, my wife had a glassware dish ‘explode’ as she was removing it from the oven. Luckily, she was using oven mitts and no one else was near enough to catch the spatter or step on the glass shards. (The thermal properties and safety issues related to glassware were covered in an earlier blog.)

Exploding glassware aside, different cookware materials pose different burn hazards. Materials that have high diffusivity (heat spreads quickly through the material), heat up and cool down quickly, e.g., copper. Cast iron, on the other hand, has low diffusivity, meaning it stays hot once heated and cools down slowly. Most camp cookers know this well! Moving heated cookware to a neutral spot for cooling – even after the food is removed – is always a smart policy.

Keeping well-insulated mitts or thick potholders handy is the first, best step as long as you use them. Using cookware with insulated or heat-resistant handles is a more costly solution, but if you’re adding pieces to you collection, keep handle construction in mind. Look for non-conducting materials – wood or plastic – or for hollow construction. Let your cooking style be your guide.

Don’t allow cookware handles to stick out over the floor. This is too big a risk for curious children and can catch on passerbys and result in in dangerous spills. Turn handles to the side, but not over adjacent burners. If possible, use rear burners only if children are present. I call this out-of-reach cooking – very safe!

Also, don’t forget that lids also retain heat, so handle them carefully and place them out of the way once removed. Some cooks like to leave a potholder or mitt on the heated lid to let others know it is still hot.

Make sure everyone in your household respects kitchen burn risks and follows your rules. Unless we plan to eat only raw (cold) foods, learning to live safely with ‘hot stuff’ is a must. And remember, an ounce of prevention is still cheaper than an ounce of burn ointment, but keep the first aid kit handy just the same!