Cuts and scrapes

[Cronker]

Hello

I guess, professional or not, most of us have battle scars from the kitchen.

I witnessed a young apprentice chef take of the top of his finger on a mandolin, hospitalised.

I've driven a very sharp chefs knife into my thumb through sheer stupidity, cutting a cake in half.

please share your wounds (with/without pictures) to demonstrate to the younglings amongst us just how death-defying our passion is.

[chromedome]

Ditto on the mandolin, but probably a smaller piece. I had it bandaged (the owner's niece was a nurse), put on a glove, and finished the night. It healed up in a few weeks, though I didn't regain sensation in that fingertip for a couple of years.

 

My thumb once got infected after shucking a couple of hundred pounds of cooked lobster (it's hard to do that without puncturing yourself) and swelled up to about the size of a large grape or small plum. I couldn't get in to see the doctor that day, so I lanced it myself and bandaged it and wore a glove for the rest of the night. 

 

...and yes, more miscellaneous burns and cuts than I can actually remember. I have a burn about the size of a quarter on the back of my hand right now, thanks to the tight quarters in my MIL's kitchen. Got bumped as I was checking the roasted vegetables in the oven. 

 

Just FYI, when you're posting at this time of day from the Antipodes, you won't get quick responses from this side of the world. It's just past 0600 where I am, at the easternmost edge of North America. 

[lindag]

Many of our kitchen accident stories have been posted in the thread, "Never again will I..." in this forum.

My worst was when I was also using a mandoline; wearing a cut-proof glove, no less.  Trying to slice a rutabaga my knuckle went into the blade, though the glove and I got a big cut and a very deep bruise that didn't heal for a very long time.  So much for 'no-cut'.

These days I handle that mandoline with great care.

Edited February 1, 2018 by lindag (log)

[Arey]

Much as I would like to have a mandolin I refuse to buy myself one. It would be an accident waiting to happen, and I'm pretty good at damaging myself  without one.

[kayb]

Carved the underside of the last joint of my ring finger halfway to the bone on a mandolin. Cut a sizeable wedge-shaped flap off the side of my thumb immediately after having my knives sharpened, as I was trying to get the pit out of an avocado. Slit the palm of my hand trying to pry apart two frozen hamburger patties.

 

Vast majority of those and other smaller mishaps due to my own inattention.

[Katie Meadow]

I purchased a "like-new" De Buyer mandoline with beautiful case and everything on eBay for a great price after being convinced by a friend who is a very good cook that I really would love it. I used it twice. I found it so frightening that I gave it away to a friend of my SIL's who was apparently over the moon to get it. I hope that person still has all his fingers. I'm quite talented cutting thin slices of potato with a knife by hand to make Potatoes Anna and take comfort that I am saving my husband a trip to the ER. He's awfully shaky when he sees blood.

[AAQuesada]

Working too many hours opening a new restaurant in I was shaving large bunches of chives and as I always keep my Japanese knives super sharp (sharper than my mind at the time lol) let my thumb stick out a bit and took off a good nickle sized piece. Didn't really feel it at first -just saw it on the side of my knife and thought 'oh, that's not sanitary and flicked it in the trash bin. Luckily the Chef Consultant was more on it than I was and by the time I figured out what was going on the thumb was wrapped up (she really was bad ass). I refused to go to the hospital (sigh). It took a good month and a half to heal and every time I bumped it wrong.....   

Edited February 1, 2018 by AAQuesada (log)

[Okanagancook]

I have a DeBuyer mandolin for about 20+ years now.  I use it all the time.  But, my rule is only use it when concentrating on the task.  If someone talks to me, I stop.  I do not like the guard....the noise and the metal on metal grating.  I use a bar towel to hold the item being sliced near the end of slicing it but during the time when the slicing item is large I just use my hand.  

 

When slicing things like potatoes that need a lot of pressure, I use the towel from the get go. I bought replacement blades for it awhile back.  I was noticing I needed more and more pressure to slice so I changed out the blades and WOW, what a difference!  I have a new machine.

 

It is a really worthwhile kitchen tool so would encourage those who have a poor little machine tucked away to liberate it.  Take it out, start with some easy to slice items like cucumber, zucchini, etc.  

 

Just my two cents worth, with no mandolins scars....I have a nasty scar from slicing cabbage after too much wine though.  duh

[scubadoo97]

The index finger on my right hand is still a bit numb from a near amputation of its tip while slicing cooked beets on the mandoline.  Cooked! Are you kidding me.

 

 Was just having too good a time prepping dinner.  I had a vision in mind which I finished a day or two later and it was good.   I sharpen my mandoline blades as I do my knives.  

 

My only previous cut injury was the other index finger when I had just learned to sharpen knives but had not learned knife technique.   Go figure 

 

I have 3 pair of Kevlar gloves now which I reserve for the mandoline.  Usually the only cuts I get are from the heal of Japanese knives. If my thumb just touches the heal tip it pops a little hole.  Just part of the process I guess. I don't get too worked up about it 

[haresfur]

I learned the hard way not to listen to the English Beat while prepping. Do not dance with knives.

[MetsFan5]

I tried to put an avocado to make guacamole after a few margaritas. The knife wound up stuck beneath my wedding band. I didn’t look but it bled a lot.

  I don’t mix drinks with food anymore. I still have a scar large enough that my wedding band had to be resized. 

[Dante]

I've had my share of slices and burns, but a few left permanent marks.  I still have a pale spot of skin on my left hand where I took some skin off with hot oil, and a scoring across my left thumb from a knife slice which still itches from time to time, but the most dramatic is the one that almost killed me, a long scar on my inner left leg above the knee where I  accidentally lacerated myself with a knife and hit my femoral artery and saphenous vein (and Achilles tendon and hamstrings). That resulted in a few days in the hospital. 

 

Oddly enough, my meat slicer wound never left a mark when I thought that it would as it was fairly deep.

[scubadoo97]

Wow Dante.  Very scary

[gfweb]

Mandoline scar on my right palm.  Like @Okanagancook I won't use the thing when my wife is screwing around in the kitchen.  The dog isn't a  problem. 

[FeChef]

I was trying to separate frozen hamburger patties i had sanwiched between wax paper, instead of using a butter knife, i decided to use a paring knife. Knife went straight inbetween the patties and right through my hand and almot severed a tendon in my pinky finger. I could not fully open or close that finger for 2-3 years till it finally healed.

[lindag]

Funny how the really stupid tings we do seem to be such a good idea...at the time.

[FeChef]

35 minutes ago, lindag said:

Funny how the really stupid tings we do seem to be such a good idea...at the time.

Alcohol will do that, well for me at least. All my kitchen battle scars tend to occur after 2 or 8 beers.

[rooftop1000]

I'm truly amazed at how most of my wounds healed with no scars at all. So many burns, some even doctor worthy all healed up. Only scars I have left are from puncturing my palm with a serrated knife at about age 12,  a gash from a large griddle spatula from my first cooking job age 15, and a tip of the finger nick from not using the guard while slicing a Swiss cheese "end" on a slicer.

 

T

[scubadoo97]

Neither finger shows much of a visible scar after complete healing.   Sometimes it depends on location. Some areas may show residual effects longer. Most scars never vanish but they do lessen with time 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Eschew modernist carrot soup -- at least modernist carrot soup slavishly following the preparation pictures in the book.  No one in their right mind with all their digits slices carrots lengthwise.

 

Once my thumb had healed I devised a safer method of coring carrots.  And since this is the cooking forum I shall share:  wash and/or peel carrots according to your preference.  Then with a vegetable peeler remove strips (of carrot not of thumb) till you reach the core.  Discard core.  Proceed with soup.

 

[FeChef]

1 hour ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Eschew modernist carrot soup -- at least modernist carrot soup slavishly following the preparation pictures in the book.  No one in their right mind with all their digits slices carrots lengthwise.

 

Once my thumb had healed I devised a safer method of coring carrots.  And since this is the cooking forum I shall share:  wash and/or peel carrots according to your preference.  Then with a vegetable peeler remove strips (of carrot not of thumb) till you reach the core.  Discard core.  Proceed with soup.

 

Whats wrong with the carrot core?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

1 hour ago, FeChef said:

Whats wrong with the carrot core?

 

Ask @nathanm

 

[Dante]

On 2/2/2018 at 8:41 AM, scubadoo97 said:

Wow Dante.  Very scary

 

 

yeah, that one is my "Always be careful with your knives!" story.

 

I had a culinary arts instructor in school who was missing two fingers from an incident in his early days involving a Hobart floor mixer.

[Dante]

21 hours ago, gfweb said:

Mandoline scar on my right palm.  Like @Okanagancook I won't use the thing when my wife is screwing around in the kitchen.  The dog isn't a  problem. 

 

 

yeah, when my wife and I shared a house with another couple that had two children I had a strict "no kids in the kitchen!"  rule. The adults at least listened to me and understood. I briefly lifted it for the at-the-time seven year old thinking that he could be at least a little responsible, and he immediately stood in the middle of the kitchen flailing his arms and stumbling around while I was trying to make dinner, which resulted in another year's ban. He got a new short-term ban of at age thirteen after be backhanded a plate of just-made crab cakes Benedict off of the counter while washing a cup in the sink.  Still no idea how he managed that. 

[Anna N]

On 2018-02-02 at 1:29 AM, Dante said:

but the most dramatic is the one that almost killed me, a long scar on my inner left leg above the knee where I  accidentally lacerated myself with a knife and hit my femoral artery and saphenous vein (and Achilles tendon and hamstrings). That resulted in a few days in the hospital. 

The only way I can come up with having a knife anywhere near your inner thigh is to guess either a falling knife or to imagine a situation similar to one in which my late husband found himself. Having had a few drinks and being out at the barbeque feeling his oats and recalling something he had watched on TV, he thought it would be a good idea to wipe the chef’s knife on his jeans. Lucky for him they were very tough jeans and he ended up with nothing more than a graze (and an ear full of words he didn’t think his wife even knew).