# Worst Kitchen Accidents!



## Chipotle Tom (Aug 27, 2007)

I saw this as a proposed topic, so I thought I would begin it.  What's your worst kitchen accident (home or professional)?

For me, it would be when I was a cook in the Army.  I had just been assigned to my permanent duty station, and I was at the fryer cooking some french fries for the short order line.  Well, the metal hook at the end of the basket was pinched together a little, so it wasn't very easy to get it to latch on.  I'm sure you can see what's coming next.  I tried to hang the basket up using the catch, but it slid right past it and splashed down in the hot grease, which sprayed all over me.

Fortunately, I had my wits about me.  I took off my apron and ran over to the sink and put all splashed areas under cold running water.  My quick thinking got me away with only first degree burns.  

Okay, your turn!


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## jpmcgrew (Aug 27, 2007)

My first one I was slicing meat on a meat slicer for the first time some how I managed to nick my little finger I learned then to slice using handle.Second one was at the same place I was trying to slice tomatoes with one of those big long slicing knives meant to slice roasts I ended up cutting the end of my thumb off.This also the same place I was lifting a big pot off the overhead pot rack and the giant heavy hook also came off hitting me in the head now that really hurt had a big bump my hair feel out on the bump a few days later.I was really young at the time.I have more doozies to tell but will save for later.


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## keltin (Aug 27, 2007)

I’ve got many! I’ve always been a bit accident prone and wonder why I’m still alive sometimes! 

This one isn't so much about injury but rather about a total flop. Many moons ago I had just moved to town for a job, and had a nice little two bedroom apartment on the second floor. I wanted to learn how to grill, so I bought a little Hibachi I could use on the front porch without taking up too much room. It was the first grill I had ever bought or even used. To christen it, I decided to grill some beef ribs. My brother and his wife were visiting, and they had recently had a son, Brian, my nephew. He was under a year old at the time. He was just learning to walk and did a lot of crawling (no, he doesn’t get hurt in this story!). 

My brother and his wife had to run to the store, and the asked me to watch Brian while they were gone. I agreed. It should be obvious at this point, I knew nothing about grilling. I had one of those adjustable gates in the hallway to keep Brian from getting too close to the front door and porch where I was grilling the ribs. As you might imagine, the beef ribs were very fatty, and dripped a lot of grease on the hot (too hot) coals in the Hibachi. It was smokey at first, and then the flare ups started. I was beginning to panic and tried moving the ribs around, but there really isn’t anywhere to move them on a Hibachi. I tried holding them up one at a time till the fire subsided, and then the smoke alarm in the hallway near the front door went off. 

It was LOUD, and it made Brian (my nephew) freak out and start screaming his head off. He had a powerful set of lungs. I put the ribs back on the Hibachi and tried to calm Brian down, but nope, the fire detector was too loud and he was only getting louder while the fire was getting bigger. I closed the front door and decided to ignore the ribs. I waved my arms around wildly but could not get the smoke detector to turn off. In a panic, with Brian screaming furiously, I jumped up and grabbed the smoke detector and tried to rip it from the ceiling. It came down, but turns out that it was a wired unit (not battery operated). So it just hung there from the ceiling and was STILL going off. 

Frantic, I jumped up and swatted it once more, this time it came free of the wires holding it and became silent. But the force of the blow sent it flying into the nearby wall where it bounced back and hit me square in the forehead. It cut me, but I didn’t know it had. So I go to Brian, and am trying to calm him down. The apartment is still smokey and Brian is still screaming. As I’m leaning over him to pick him up, I drip blood from my forehead onto his forehead. That freaked me out, so I touched my forehead and came back with blood on my hand. I picked up Brian and began walking to the bathroom when the front door opened and a new blast of smoke entered the room along with my brother and his wife. 

So there I was standing in smoke with a destroyed detector at my feet, wires hanging from the ceiling, the front porch glowing with the light of the flaming ribs, as I held my screaming nephew and both of us with bloody foreheads. It was a sight that caused my brother’s wife to nearly faint.

Needless to the say, the ribs went in the trash and we ordered pizza.


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## Barb L. (Aug 27, 2007)

Thanks for sharing Keltin, I could visualize the whole scene as you told it !!!


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## Chipotle Tom (Aug 27, 2007)

Keltin,

That sounds like it was written for a sit-com!


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## Katie H (Aug 27, 2007)

How long before your brother and his wife "allowed" you to be left alone again with Brian?


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## keltin (Aug 27, 2007)

Katie E said:


> How long before your brother and his wife "allowed" you to be left alone again with Brian?


 
Actually, it was quite a while. Somehow saying, “Oh don’t worry, it’s just my blood” in the middle of that flaming turmoil didn’t make her feel a lot better.


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## Buck (Aug 27, 2007)

A great story well told.

Good grief, you really ARE a klutz!


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## keltin (Aug 27, 2007)

Buck said:


> Good grief, you really ARE a klutz!


 
Told ya'!!!


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## llvllagical_llkook (Aug 28, 2007)

For me, everytime I cook, something falls, my doing or not, it just falls. Knives, something hot or cold, clean or dirty. Usually some food hits the ground and my dog has a feast, unless it's bad for him so I chuck it out. Anyways, they're ordinary. So, now knowing me and keltin are well klutzes lol (no offence keltin), here's my story. No, nothing got burned. I was grating cheese, using a manual cheese grater, found at any ordinary dollar shop or kitchen store or even Sears or Walmart. As I was grating I way, I knicked myself a few times, nothing drastic, just a cut or two, sizes of a paper cut. I ignored the knicks as I grated the cheese. It was getting fairly small, but too large to toss to my dog, so I kept grating it. Being rather annoyed by the knicks, I grated with more force and felt a sharp pain, grated it a few more times then the pain was rather immense. I dropped the cheese so my dog could have it and be happy. I looked and was horrified. As you all can probably guess, the grater did a number on my hand. My finger was grated and what I think was the bone could be seen. 

Now I know to be careful with graters...

Another, rather common one is for a cooking tool to take a plunge to the floor. This case, it was a butcher's knife. I just finished chopping up some celery to go in with a saucepan with some onions, so I gently tossed the knife. Well, apparently I didn't toss it well enough. Just before I could take the celery into the saucepan, the knife went straight down to my foot. For the record, I was wearing sandals, so I had no socks on. The knife went to my foot. It wasn't as bad as the cheese grater but while complaining, the onions got nicely crisp, still usable. 

Many others with stuff falling. As a fellow employee at a restaurant where I work says, who is also rather clumsy, "**** falls, so let the **** fall. Don't make a fuss. If it isn't in you, then it doesn't matter." That's about the time where it is kicked somewhere.


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## Angie (Aug 28, 2007)

Back in 2005, I was using a sharp knife to cut butter...and managed to cut a good size chunk of my finger off.

It was about 1/2 the size of a dime.  7 stitches later, it is back on and doesn't have much feeling in it.  It feels as if I stuck my finger in wax!!


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## licia (Aug 28, 2007)

This didn't happen to me, but a dear friend. We were invited to have dinner with her and her dh.  When we arrived she came to the door crying. Just before we arrived she turned the wrong unit on her stove and blew up a pecan pie she had placed on a back burner. The pieces flew all over the kitchen burning places in her floor, into the food she had already prepared, and even some pieces on her - only minor to her, thank goodness. I helped her clean up and suggested we just order pizza, but she quickly prepared salmon patties and baked potatoes. The salad was safe, it was in the fridge. This was the first time she had cooked for company in her new home.


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## PytnPlace (Aug 28, 2007)

Oh, too funny.  My worst happened last week.  It's still too fresh and embarrassing to share.  I'm afraid you'd all worry about my state of mind.


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## flukx (Aug 28, 2007)

3 words: pressure cooker explosion


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## keltin (Aug 28, 2007)

PytnPlace said:


> Oh, too funny. My worst happened last week. It's still too fresh and embarrassing to share. I'm afraid you'd all worry about my state of mind.


 
Oh come on! Share please! I confessed I'm a klutz that has used beef ribs for firewood to smoke small children, so it can't be that bad for you!


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## AllenOK (Aug 28, 2007)

Well, I've got a few, and not all of them are mine.  Heck, one is word-of-mouth from a former co-worker.

My co-worker had just completed AIT (?) for the US Army, and had reported to his first duty station, as a cook for an Artillery unit in Kansas.  The Mess Sergeant told him to grease up the flat-top to get ready to start cooking breakfast.  As he's doing this, he's watching a couple other cooks, one of whom is slicing ham on a rotary slicer (think Arby's).  The other cook is standing there talking to the guy.  This guy isn't using a guard, just running the ham across the slicer with his hand.  As the third guy is watching, the guy slicing manages to slice off his fingertips.

At the country club I work at, about 6 years ago, we were getting ready for the usual Sunday Brunch, which included a mess of fried chicken.  One of the cooks was pouring grease (those big 5-gallon plastic containers in a cardboard box) into the tilt skillet.  He used two of those containers of grease, so there was 10 gallons.  The only problem is, one of those containers was actually half water, half grease!  How the heck did the water get in there????  To make matters worse, the cook actually turned the skillet ON!  Ever seen a steam bubble so big that it fountains hot grease up 2' from the skillet/fryer?  Luckily, we were able to close the lid on the tilt skillet and turn it off before anyone got hurt.  We had to cordon off the area to prevent in future injuries, and just took twice as long to fry the chicken by cooking it in the two fryers on the line.

About 8 years ago, I was cutting some bread for croutons, using a serrated knife.  I obviously wasn't paying very good attention to where my fingers were, as I managed to nearly remove my thumbtip from my thumb.  Three stitches later, it's all healed up.  Boy, did it throb for a couple days!

Don't ever drop a saucepan with a bunch of hot gravy in it.  It will fountain up and fly quite a distance.  I know, because I got hit in the face.  It's hot and thick, so it sticks.  I had some nice first-degree burns from that one.  I did that when I was much younger, like 21 - 22, long before I decided to go pro.


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## jpmcgrew (Aug 28, 2007)

PytnPlace said:


> Oh, too funny. My worst happened last week. It's still too fresh and embarrassing to share. I'm afraid you'd all worry about my state of mind.



Aw come on Ive got more also after all we are only human Ive done some really dumb things myself.Once I accidently stuck my whole hand in a deep fryer at work that one hurt for weeks whenever I got warm water on it it.It was soo stupid I didn't even tell anyone at work.Believe me I have more some from me and some Ive seen other people do.


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## expatgirl (Aug 28, 2007)

Some of you have already heard about my " Bad Luck of the Irish" Thanksgiving Turkey Disaster. We were living in Egypt where they were no Butterball turkeys to buy.  The year before I had made a  local  "runway model" turkey using a recipe that called for soaking a kitchen towel in olive oil and laying it over the marinated turkey.  Well,  it was absolutely  so tender, moist and delicious.  Of course you know what happens  next--you are  then made the cook for  all the Thanksgiving dinners thereafter.  So the following year, I layed a towel (washed many times, I might add, but was green checkered) over the turkey.  After the first hour of baking I checked on Mr. Tom and was horrified to find the turkey swimming in the Emerald Sea.  The turkey and the juices were completely green!!!!!!!!  I couldn't believe it especially since the towel had been through the wash so many times.  Maybe it was the soaking in the olive oil.  All I could do was siphon  off the green juices and blot dry the turkey. Incredibly it was still delicious and everyone had a good laugh over it even though Mr. Tom still looked a bit green around the gills. What a disaster!


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## buckytom (Aug 28, 2007)

oh man, expatty, that's a great idea for a st. patrick's day feast. thanks! 

2 of the worst kitchen ackies i've seen were from when i was a kid and worked the night shift in a burger king.

once, a bit of hazing was going on and some kid's wallet was being tossed around like monkey in the middle. the kid almost got it, when it bounced and fell into the deep fryer. without thinking, the kid thrust his hand into the hot oil to retrieve the wallet, burning himself badly half way up his arm.

the other time, a grease pencil somehow  got into a microwave that was defrosting patties, and it turned into a grease rocket inside the nuker after a minute or so. the smoke that came out was disgusting, setting off the smoke alarms and the microwave had to be thrown out. the manager and the fire dept. weren't too happy about it.


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## PytnPlace (Aug 28, 2007)

keltin said:


> Oh come on! Share please! I confessed I'm a klutz that has used beef ribs for firewood to smoke small children, so it can't be that bad for you!


 
Sorry to tease!!


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## Katie H (Aug 28, 2007)

Thankfully, I've been witness to only one kitchen accident, but it was a doozie.

My mother always made split pea soup in the pressure cooker.  However, this one time, something went terribly wrong and the pot blew up.  There was split pea soup EVERYWHERE!!  I've yet to see such a mess.  It took forever to clean up.  What a mess.


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## Uncle Bob (Aug 28, 2007)

Other than burning up a few tea bags hear and there I have been fairly (serious) accident free!


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## carolelaine (Aug 28, 2007)

I was making hot sauce and had cooked down the chilies and vinegar.  I put it in the blender when it was too hot and the hot sauce exploded out of the blender.  It went into my eyes with contacts in them and burned holes in my chest.  I still have scars.  Had to go to the emergency room about my eyes.  They were so messed up there was no way to get my contacts out.  Happily, I am not blind.  I'm a total klutz, but that was the worst thing I think I've ever done.


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## keltin (Aug 28, 2007)

Ok, here’s another minor, and not nearly as entertaining incident. I was running late for work a few years ago. At that time, I drank my coffee out of a large glass mug that, according to Wal-Mart, was a beer mug…..but it was great for a huge load of coffee. It got cold as I was getting ready, and my microwave was dead. So, being brilliant, I sat the glass mug on the electric stove eye. You can all guess what happened…..it exploded and painted the kitchen a lovely coffee color with glitter included. Smart. Reallllllll smart!

Other than minor cuts and burns, I haven’t really hurt myself in the kitchen though (knock on wood), that honor is reserved for power tools!!!!! 

Anyone ever super heat water in a microwave in a smooth glass container just because? Just to see? Yeah….it DOES explode violently like a volcano.


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## expatgirl (Aug 28, 2007)

Another story:  sitting in the living room at  lunchtime when a horrid stench comes from the kitchen and there is smoke. What the...............?  My mother and I run into the kitchen and there is my 8 year old sister looking shell- shocked.  When we open the oven door there is a frizzled and melted mess of what used to be a "Saran-wrapped" baked potato.  My sister knew that you had to wrap the potato but didn't remember with what.  We still  tease her about it 30 years later.


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## Dave Hutchins (Aug 28, 2007)

One of my worst boo boos was I grabed the 1# jar of cayenne pepper insted of paprika
and my salad dressing was so hot.. and it was a five gallon batch so the chef being a wise man told me to jar it up and use a quart at a time and re make the dressing. that mess lasted a half year and did I ever get the raspberrys over that one. More later


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## lyndalou (Aug 29, 2007)

Quite a long time ago, I had made a pot of sauce  for pasta and when I started to remove it (the pot) from the stove, one of the handles came off and I had sauce all over the stove, the floor, the walls, myself, you name it. It was a copper bottomed Revereware pot, that I had just purchased. You can bet that I got a new one.


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## expatgirl (Aug 29, 2007)

carolelaine said:


> I was making hot sauce and had cooked down the chilies and vinegar.  I put it in the blender when it was too hot and the hot sauce exploded out of the blender.  It went into my eyes with contacts in them and burned holes in my chest.  I still have scars.  Had to go to the emergency room about my eyes.  They were so messed up there was no way to get my contacts out.  Happily, I am not blind.  I'm a total klutz, but that was the worst thing I think I've ever done.



ooooooooh, carolelaine, you hurt my eyes to just read your post.  I thought that I had it bad the time the superglue tube exploded in my eye and dried like it supposed to, instantaneously.  Took the doctor forever to get it out. I can just imagine what you went through.


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## Andy M. (Sep 14, 2007)

Bump!..................


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## Jeekinz (Sep 14, 2007)

It could work here, Andy.  TY

So I had these beef ribs that I've been drooling over for the past coupla weeks.  I got home, fired up the grill, threw 'em on and got myself a drink.

I started getting a few flare-ups from the left over marinade on an awesome skirt steak I did the night before.  Rolling on the same momentum with the ribs.

Low and slow for an hour or so, taming the flare-ups while keeping a steady pace on the cocktails and the phone rings.........

I go to check up on the ribs, and the first thing I notice is the temp is at 550 degrees!   I lift the lid only to find four flaming bones encrusted in a medley of beef and char.

The pizza was good though.


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## bowlingshirt (Sep 14, 2007)

Step 1 - Cut up jalapenos for a pot of chili

Step 2 - Wash hands

Step 3 - Use restroom










I forgot step 2  
ouch !


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## Fisher's Mom (Sep 14, 2007)

bowlingshirt said:


> Step 1 - Cut up jalapenos for a pot of chili
> 
> Step 2 - Wash hands
> 
> ...


 OMG, I laughed so hard. Thank you, thank you for sharing!


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## GotGarlic (Sep 14, 2007)

The worst kitchen accident I can think of was when I used to make fried chicken more often. I kept a jar for grease under the sink; one evening, after making fried chicken and pouring off the grease into the jar, I accidentally tipped the jar over and some of the grease went down in the space between the edge of the counter and the stove; it was an old-fashioned kitchen, so the stove wasn't built in - it was free-standing. The smell of rancid chicken grease permeated the kitchen for days. That mess is hard to clean up!


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## Fisher's Mom (Sep 14, 2007)

GotGarlic said:


> The worst kitchen accident I can think of was when I used to make fried chicken more often. I kept a jar for grease under the sink; one evening, after making fried chicken and pouring off the grease into the jar, I accidentally tipped the jar over and some of the grease went down in the space between the edge of the counter and the stove; it was an old-fashioned kitchen, so the stove wasn't built in - it was free-standing. The smell of rancid chicken grease permeated the kitchen for days. That mess is hard to clean up!


I can so relate. I tore my kitchen apart looking for a nasty smell a couple of months ago but couldn't find it. I got a new fridge last weekend and when I took the old one out, I found a mummified (previously frozen) chicken fried steak underneath. Sooo gross. The strangest thing is - no one seems to know how it got there.


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## Jeekinz (Sep 14, 2007)

Fisher's Mom said:


> OMG, I laughed so hard. Thank you, thank you for sharing!


 

Ditto, that was a good one.....um, bad one.


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## strawberry (Sep 14, 2007)

Right after Julia Child's "Baking with Julia" series aired on PBS, I got the cook book that went with it.  There is a recipe in there for chocolate balloon bowls.  You melt your dipping chocolate, dip an inflated balloon in it and let it set.  When the chocolate is solid you pop your balloon, and voila!, a chocolate bowl.  

So I decided I wanted to try these.   I somehow got my chocolate too hot.  I would dip the balloon set in on the sheet and within about 30 seconds... POP!!  I must have had 4-5 balloons pop on me before I got it right.  I was finding little spots of chocolate on my kitchen walls and cabinets for the next 3 years.


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## Fisher's Mom (Sep 14, 2007)

strawberry said:


> Right after Julia Child's "Baking with Julia" series aired on PBS, I got the cook book that went with it.  There is a recipe in there for chocolate balloon bowls.  You melt your dipping chocolate, dip an inflated balloon in it and let it set.  When the chocolate is solid you pop your balloon, and voila!, a chocolate bowl.
> 
> So I decided I wanted to try these.   I somehow got my chocolate too hot.  I would dip the balloon set in on the sheet and within about 30 seconds... POP!!  I must have had 4-5 balloons pop on me before I got it right.  I was finding little spots of chocolate on my kitchen walls and cabinets for the next 3 years.


  I love the idea for chocolate balloon bowls. I would never have thought of them maybe popping but your description sounds like an episode of "I Love Lucy". So funny. Thanks for sharing that.

Also, welcome to DC. We love funny cooks here!


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## Constance (Sep 14, 2007)

I dropped a whole electric fry pan full of hot grease from frying chicken on the kitchen floor. Boy, did I do a jump back Jack!


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## strawberry (Sep 14, 2007)

Fisher's Mom said:


> I love the idea for chocolate balloon bowls. I would never have thought of them maybe popping but your description sounds like an episode of "I Love Lucy". So funny. Thanks for sharing that.
> 
> Also, welcome to DC. We love funny cooks here!



Hehe... you're welcome.  It was something to see alright... there wasn't anything to do but gasp and put your hands up to cover your face when one exploded.  They sent chocolate _everywhere_.  Cupboards, walls, ceiling, floor... everywhere.  I *think* the last of it was finally removed when I re-wallpapered the soffits.  

The chocolate cups were fun.  (Although I've never re-done them since... surprise surprise.   )  I used them as bowls for sundaes.   They were very good.


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## radhuni (Sep 15, 2007)

You know we use lots of oil in Indian cooking.

One day I'm preparing Parantha with lots of oil and the oil, which heated almost to smoking spilt on my right hand and you can easily guess the consequences.


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## Jellybean (Sep 15, 2007)

One of the worst accidents I had was a few years ago,in the resteraunt I worked at.At the time the fryers had packed up,so (as me mum would do),one of the other chefs I worked with used a pan to do chips etc.After service we were cleaning down,and quite stupidly I moved the pan of boiling hot oil thinking I'll put that out the way to cool down so no-one gets hurt.As I moved the pan,it caught on the edge of the gas ring and the oil came sploshing over the side of the pan all over my left hand and wrist.Although I put it stright under cold water,I had to go to hospital and ended up having to have 6 weeks off of work!You can see darker skin on my and now where it was burnt.


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## Justabite (Sep 26, 2007)

This didn't happen to me right?  Working in a restaurant we were in a hurry to cook another turkey for hot turkey etc.
Well I rubbed the bird all over to make it happy and threw it in the oven forgetting to take out in the inner bag holding the giblets etc.  That particular day the bag was made of orange plastic.  Can you just imagine the colour of that meat?  Can you jsut imagine the colour of this teenage cook at the time?  Can you imagine the colour of my boss when he found out what I did to his turkey?  Wrong, he laughed and laughed and to this day has never allowed me to forget about it.  It's just 30 years later!


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