Short Snort - Kitchen Safety

You're made of meat. And blood. Meat, blood and bones. Ligaments, too. Ligaments, tendons, meat, bones, and blood. Also nerves. Ligaments, tendons, meat, bones, blood, nerves, and whatever it is that your eyes are made of.

And sweat glands, and organs, and toenails, and I'm not hungry anymore.

Ask yourself a quick question, "which of these parts would I least mind losing?"

Hopefully, the answer is, "none of them."

Your kitchen can be kinda dangerous, but if you observe a few safety rules you'll be fine.

Let's do the big one first. Let's say you're breaking down a chicken. Your hand is wet and slippery. The knife slips out. You try to catch it before it hits the deck. You've grabbed the blade and now you're light one finger.

You want chicken juice in that? Also, I had to Google
"minor laceration" to find that. I shudder to think
what a moderate one would look like.

A falling knife does not have a handle. I've done it myself. It was right after my wife and I got married. I was chopping up an onion, dropped the knife, tried to catch it, and missed. Then, after I cleaned and dressed the wound, I had to throw all the contaminated food out and rewash the everything.

You can always replace the knife. That's one of the reasons I recommended going with a relatively inexpensive specimen in the last entry. The cost of a visit to the ER tends to be greater than the cost of a trip to Costco for a couple of cheapo chef's knives.

In that same vein (get it?) keep a first aid kit handy. You don't want to bleed all over the house looking for a bandage and a plastic glove.

A decent kit doesn't, and for that matter shouldn't, be too complex. You can assemble one yourself from stuff you find at the dollar store and/or Big Lots or stores like it. A well marked leftovers box, some bandages of various sizes, a tube of antibiotic ointment, a few gauze pads and a roll of first aid tape. Maybe a small pair of scissors and a pair of Tweezers. Keep it simple. Keep it in the kitchen.

Fire extinguisher. You need one, and you probably don't have one. Keep it under your sink and leave it alone except for once a year when you inspect it per manufacturer's instructions. If you're cooking with heat, something can catch fire.

Another item you can use to put out a fire is salt. Plain old table salt. Use it instead of water on a grease fire. Never throw flour on a fire. The particles are too small, too dry, and will make the fire worse.

Finally, let's discuss another important one. Keep your kitchen clean. Less crap on the counters equals viable work space. More work space means you don't have to try to slice your carrots on top of the coffee maker. It's meatloaf on Wednesday, not Alton Brown's Cutthroat Kitchen.

This is a cry for help. Also, not mine.

Keep it clean, keep it safe, keep your knife out of the dishwasher.