How often do you injure yourself?

[CDRFloppingham]

Yesterday, I sliced open my left third ("bird") finger cutting a mango in my hand. Whoops!

How often do you cut yourself cooking? Let's define cut as drawing blood. We also need to normalize for cooking intensity. For instance, if you only cook one meal a year, you shouldn't be cutting yourself very often. If you're a professional, we expect more often.

Me? I'd say about every 8 weeks and I'm a non-pro cooking 80% of our meals.

How 'bout burns? Defined as at least first degree. So it's more than transient pain, say from small droplets of splattering grease. At a minimum, a burn should leave a mark that hurts for a couple of days).

For me, burns are distinctly uncommon. I did get a nasty second degree when I was in college cooking a burger on a hot commercial cooktop and a big splash of grease nailed my thumb.

[Domestic Goddess]

Hubby calls me his sweet little dumass. I always manage to give myself bumps and scrapes (on the elbows, shins and head) whenever I move around the kitchen (kitchen cabinet doors and dining table are hazards you know). And there's those times when I would stub my toe while carrying a heavy pot filled with hot stews or soups.

I also almost always drop something on my toes and you betcha its a heavy stockpot (thankfully empty all the time) or the whetting stone. I've also managed to draw some blood (when cutting with my hubby's super sharp knives) but its bandaid-manageable. Let's say I get a burn-blister about once every two weeks since I love frying pork and fish that always pops in the hot oil.

Now you see why I'm called a dumass?

[nibor]

I burned my right forearm on the top edge of my new cast iron frying pan twice since I got it about 6 months ago. Its sides are higher than those on my previous pan, and my aim was off going in to stir things around. Bad burns - I have scars from both.

As an aside, my husband thinks that my cooking has improved a lot recently. I time this to the purchase of said frying pan. I don't have a lot of kitchen items and previously used my one non-stick skillet for everything. Now it gets used for eggs only.

[PopsicleToze]

I rarely if ever cut myself, but burns can be somewhat frequent. Just a few weeks ago I had placed a skillet in the oven to broil something to finish it off then grabbed it out forgetting an oven mitt. Now, that hurt. The good news is that due to the frequency I've developed asbestos hands and things don't hurt so much.

[gfron1]

I rarely burn myself, but cuts used to be frequent (every other week), until I read Chad's book. I still get a nick here and there, but they are much less frequent and much less severe.

[Shelby]

Depends on how much wine I've ingested

[Batard]

Depends on how much wine I've ingested 

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I cook every day, but since I'm not in a rush or under pressure, I rarely cut myself. But when I do, 90% of the time I'm drinking wine. Ditto for burns.

[I_call_the_duck]

Not many cuts, but I often burn my tongue because I sometimes forget METAL CONDUCTS HEAT.

Edited March 9, 2009 by I_call_the_duck (log)

[christine007]

How timely.

I'm currently nursing along a pretty nasty burn on the inside of my wrist (where I always manage to burn myself, WTH is up with that?)

I recently moved, and went from an electric to a gas stove and was taking something out of the oven when my wrist brushed against the upper oven shelf.

It's not infected, but it's bad to look and and is going to leave a swell scar.

[howsmatt]

I work at a restaurant that is pretty fast-paced. I cut myself twice in a year, 1 with a mandolin, 1 with a knife. I burn myself all the time and hardly notice. Big burns maybe 2 in a year also.

If you do decide to cut yourself I suggest avoiding your nail. Here's my latest, it's still is a mess a month later. Also, cauterizing your finger with silver nitrate HURTS- A LOT-REALLY.

Edited March 9, 2009 by howsmatt (log)

[BarbaraY]

OW!!!

I don't cut myself often but do get burns occasionally. Right now there is a small one on my left hand that I didn't even know I had until after dinner was over.

When I worked I often got the wrist burns getting things out of the oven.

[Lilija]

I don't think I've ever cut myself prepping food, but I do cut myself from time to time, through other accidents. Lame. Last good one was because I tried to catch an 8" chef knife that I knocked off a counter. It was totally reflexive, and wouldn't ya know it, I actually caught the damn thing. I also cut right down to the bone, at the base of my pinky.

I burn myself about every other day, so much so that I don't even notice. I have lousy depth perception, and I'm always accidently brushing the roof of the oven or toaster oven, or grazing the edges of hot pans.

[Peter the eater]

Depends on how much wine I've ingested 

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I cook every day, but since I'm not in a rush or under pressure, I rarely cut myself. But when I do, 90% of the time I'm drinking wine. Ditto for burns.

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Same goes for me, and people I've observed.

There must be some stats out there -- at 0.05% blood ethanol nobody in my group of cronies is stupid enough to drive a car or mow the lawn, but high-speed knifework or fearless barbecuing for a crowd is another story.

[scubadoo97]

I rarely burn myself, but cuts used to be frequent (every other week), until I read Chad's book.  I still get a nick here and there, but they are much less frequent and much less severe.

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After a nasty finger cut a couple of years ago I finally decided I had to improve in the claw technique. It has saved me from a few further mishaps and it is becoming more 2nd nature. Most of my cuts are now very small and usually come from coming in contact with the sharp heel of my Japanese blades.

[paulraphael]

Periods of laziness/spaciness have led to clusters of burns and cuts. I'll go months without any, and then subject myself to multiple abuses over a period of days or weeks.

I find the old addage that a sharp knife is safer to be true, up to a point. A dull knife is disasterously unsafe. But an obscenely sharp knife is not without issues. Case in point: when my main chef's knife was a heavy German one, kept respectably sharp on a steel, I went over five years with only one cut ... and that was done while washing the knife, drunk. To this day that knife hasn't cut me during prep.

Then I started using thin Japanese knives, and sharpening on stones and with a strop. I got addicted to the kind of edge that fillets arm hairs, but found myself bleeding, often inexplicably, all the time! I realized that sometimes it was just from bumping into the edge while it was sitting on the cutting board. Other times I have no idea what happened. I'd just look down and see a trail of blood leading from the cutting board to ... me.

I've worked out an accord with these knives, but it's tennuous. One lapse into inattention or overconfidence is all it takes before the veggies get seasoned with a briney, sanguine splash.

Now I keep cots and band aids in my knife bag, and have gotten pretty good at closing wounds with super glue.

[LindaK]

Rarely, but recently my pinky had a close encounter with a Microplane grater (no alcohol involved). It wasn't pretty. Three weeks later the band aid is finally off.

[Peter the eater]

Rarely, but recently my pinky had a close encounter with a Microplane grater (no alcohol involved).  It wasn't pretty. Three weeks later the band aid is finally off.

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LindaK, get well soon.

Microplanes are a special case - I have two in my wood shop (where they were invented) and one in the kitchen (where the technology got transferred to). I have no injuries from the shop, but several minor ones from the kitchen because the tool is used differently on food. Holding a tiny nutmeg between your finger and thumb and dragging it across the blades is just not how it was meant to be.

[heidih]

I can go for months with no injuries and I am active in the kitchen every day. Then all of a sudden I am sporting burns to the point that even the 17 year old son notices and asks what is up. Normally these creatures are oblivious.

My current collection is two dark scars on my left hand from reaching into the very back of the oven to pull items out of a 500 degree oven without pulling the rack out (real smart I know!). The really lovely one is a steam burn on the underside of my right forearm where the skin is so tender. I have a bad habit of forgoing the colander and sliding the lid back with cold water running in the sink to drain pots of boiling water. I did this at maybe thirteen and got twin burns on my wrists that were horrible. Thirty plus years I am still repeating the behavior....... and then today I sliced my thumb open trying to pull the feeler off of an appropriately named "spiny" lobster. The upside is that I heal quickly and well.

[Meanderer]

Over the years, we have served quite a lot of knuckle skin with our grated cheese.

[Domestic Goddess]

Over the years, we have served quite a lot of knuckle skin with our grated cheese.

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OMG . Ouch. I've only had one experience with grated skin and mind you I have learned. Or make that, I am now very, very careful when I grate stuff. Almost to the point of grating slowly (much to the consternation of my hubby who wants me to go faster with the potato grating for the hash browns).

[LaneL]

I work in a kitchen and I would have to say in the last year I have cut myself less then 5 times. 2 of the 5 were not my fault as FOH came into my prep area and startled me. 1 was from drunkenly cutting fruit for the FOH when they got slammed after the kitchen closed. The others were all my own stupidity.

[Emily_R]

Hardly ever cut myself with a knife, but I swear I injure myself on the box grater at least one in five times I use it. Nowadays I almost always ask my husband to do any grating...

Emily

[smallworld]

I've always been a klutz in the kitchen: I will forever carry the scar incurred when I was sixteen and sliced the flesh off of the base thumb knuckle on my right hand while operating the slicer at the supermarket deli I worked at (and still fume when I remember the store manager dissuaded me from going to the doctor or calling my parents).

There was a point several years back where a few times I week I would cut or burn myself, break a dish, or drop a pot/jug/tupperware container full of stuff. It became such a problem that I made it my new year's resolution to cut down on kitchen mishaps, and in so doing realized the accidents happened when I was rushed, daydreaming or otherwise not paying attention. I was able to learn how to slow down and focus and cut way down on the accidents, and turned out to be my only successful resolution ever.

After a few wonderful years of being almost accident free it's been happening again for a few years. I still have a scar on my stomach from burning myself with a hot pan I was pulling out of the oven last year (counter top convection oven, not wearing much at the time) and have started getting minor burns and cuts on my hands again.

My husband apparently didn't notice I was returning to my old habits and got me a wonderful Japanese knife for Christmas (or maybe he did notice and this is part of a plot to kill me ). I cut myself the first time I used it, and a few weeks later I did it again, quite badly. It seems I have bad form for the claw cutting technique, and with my old knife I'd nick my left index fingernail quite often, never doing more harm than leaving a little dent. Which always made me think "Thank god for fingernails, I'd hate to think what would have happened if my fingertips weren't protected".

Well, I found out, because this new knife doesn't know the difference between nail and flesh and it just went right through my fingernail and into my finger. It was the first knife cut that actually made me cry out with pain (and holy mother of god was that ever a lot of pain), but it was brief, as was the bleeding: I think the nail helped stop the flow (so I haven't lost my appreciation for fingernails). I eventually lost half the nail, in an odd V pattern that is going to take some time to grow out.

Guess what my new year's resolution for 2009 is (other than wearing an apron when I decide to cook in my undies)?

[maggiethecat]

I rarely cut myself, but I have a miserable record of third degree burns when I cook with my father's electric stove.

I cook with gas, and I'm not going to enter the gas v electric wars. I know where I am with a gas oven/range. Because I can't see flame with electric I can forget what's hot and what's not. In the last couple of years visiting Ottawa I've actually heard my flesh sizzle -- and smelt it. Blistering, suppurating, long wounds. Lets say, I'm never going to be a hand or arm model.

[nickrey]

The answer for me as a pretty active home cook is cuts once every year or two; burns a few times a year. A good claw grip and caution seems to help markedly with keeping cuts at bay, despite my inherent clumsiness.

My two "best" cuts have come from using a mandoline, which takes a nice little slice right off the top of your finger that takes forever to heal.

Just recently in a spurt of self-protection, I invested in a kevlar/stainless steel protective glove: the mandoline doesn't hold any fear for me anymore.