Kitchen Disasters

[ChefWhite]

I guess this would fall into general chit chat.
Does anyone have any nasty kitchen accidents to share?
Just wondering as Crewsk was talking about her daughter getting superglued to the kitchen floor. Stories can be from a commercial or home kitchen, and why not, they can be about you or someone you know.

 

[crewsk]

ChefWhite, 2 things come to mind really fast!!

1- As most everyone on here knows now, never ever fry bacon in a bikini!!! I stupidly did that once & let's just say, hot popping grease hurts!!

2- Make sure chicken livers are completely thawed before you fry them! I was frying some once & was down to the last batch when one of the larger ones exploded becaus it was still partially frozen in the center. It sent hot oil up to cover my right thumb(I was taking some out of the fryer when it happened). I dropped my slotted spoon on the floor & ran to the sink to run cold water over my hand. When I went back to unplug the deep fryer, I stepped on the spoon & fell. Luckly the ice in the chicken liver must have cooled the oil down enough to where it didn't burn me badly(in combination of getting it under cold water fast). I used aloe on my thumb & the only damage I had was just a little skin pelling off, no worse than a sunburn.

So, as you can see, I have very bad luck with hot grease. I try to stay away from it as much as possible. My in-laws did give me a deep fryer with a lid for Christmas & I love that thing!! I don't have to worry about getting burnt with popping grease as much.

 

[ChefWhite]

Mmm bacon and bikinis. Every mans fantasy.

I was taking out the black garbage bins to do a bin run one night at a restaurant in Nelson Bay NSW (aus) and found out to my dismay there was broken glass in it, when I lifted it up to toss it into the wheely bin and it tore a chunk out of my wrist. The tear was about 2 inches long and and an inch wide and a whole bunch of skin was dangling off. The glass tore through two arteries and blood was going all over the place. Lucky for me though I got 8 stitches two weeks paid 'holiday' and a free tetnous shot.

When I went to the hospital to get it stiched up the nurses saw my chef uniform and rolled their eyes. The doctor was a classic though, he was telling me about his highschool years and that he played Doctor FrankFurter (From Rocky Horror Picture Show) . I layed there getting stiched together as he quoted "Come up to the lab and see whats on the slab."
Apparently some stupid new waitstaff member was unaware that broken glass goes in the bucket provided, not the plastic bag.

 

[crewsk]

I just thought of another stupid thing I did once!(WOW that's a shock )Anyway, when hubby & I moved into our first house I decided to cook a ham for supper. It was the first one I ever coked & it came out perfectly!! I was so happy! Well, I was cutting the ham & I reached under my right hand, which was holding the knife at the top of the ham, to get a pice of meat that had fallen on the cutting board. My right hand slipped & I jerked my left hand back just in time to slide the knife blade across the heel of my hand & filet it. It took 6 stiches. I was just glad that I didn't bleed on the ham!!

 

[ChefWhite]

Ow, can't say I've ever cut myself bad with a knife, certainly not enough to require stitches. but I have seen other people do it. I worked with a guy who liked to flick croutons in the air with the tip of his Cooks knife. Silly thing to do, he accidently cut himself while flinging the croutons about and he's lucky he didn't bleed into my salad prep, or I would have smacked him one. He was arlight though after a couple of stitches and a needle and thread for his jacket. haha

 

[abjcooking]

I have 2 stories, but they didn't happen to me personally

My mother was cooking one time when her entire pot (It was the kind that was a type of dark glass, Visionwear I think) exploded and a piece of the glass cut a main artery in her wrist. I was the oldest child at the time and had just gotten my permit. I hadn't even really driven yet, but my mom was yelling at my younger sister and brother to get into the c...ar and then throwing the keys at me. I was so frightened, shaking the whole way hoping my mom wouldn't loose too much blood and pass out on me and then worring about completely crashing tha c...ar with everyone in it. But, everything turned out ok and when we got back home she threw out all of her pots and bought new ones that were not the glass style.

A few years ago my BF decided to try and boil an egg in the microwave. I was in the other room and hear a loud pop. The egg exploded everywhere and shorted out the microwave. He was cursing and yelling at the microwave like it was the microwave's fault; I couldn't stop laughing. We now look back on it and laugh together. We also laugh at the time that his guiness that he was making exploded all over my kitchen. We're talking it was dripping off the ceiling and down the walls. It took weeks to get the smell out.

 

[eric]

Does anyone have any nasty kitchen accidents to share?

Sugar burns and cuts with a serated knives.

I saw a guy's hand fall on top of a fresh creme brulee. Next day the whole top of his hand was all blistered. Sugar+heat...nasty stuff!
And cuts with serated knives. I've seen nasty ones. These are NOT clean cuts, more like getting chewed up by a shark. Yuck.
Kitchen uniforms have been around for a long time. One of the reasons for those baggy pants is in case you spill something hot on yourself, you can pull the pants away from your skin to keep yourself from getting a 3rd degree burn.
Clogs are de riguer in the kitchen cause they help you stand allllllllllllll day and if you spill something hot on your shoes, you can take the shoes off very quickly without getting burns in your feet.

 

[ChefWhite]

Amen mate. Chef uniforms aren't a fashion statement, they're made that way for a reason. I can't stand it when people work in a kitchen not dressed appropriately. Or when they do things that are obvisouly unsafe and will hurt them,

 

[Gerrycooks]

Perhaps we can have a new area for kitchen mishaps.
I have been cooking since I was about 10 and have not had many kitchen disasters until recently. I got my double boiler stuck because I did not remove the top pot soon enough when I was done melting chocolate. I tried to reheat the pot and it launched the top pot straight up. My stainless steel microwave door above the stove was dented as well as my head when the pot hit it. I understand why it happened (pressure) and really feel stupid. From now on I will use a bowl over a pot so this can't happen again.

 

[licia]

I certainly can't top that, but mine was very embarrassing. My mother in law lived with us the last year of her life. She had cancer and didn't feel like doing anything in the kitchen, but enjoyed watching me cook and keeping me company. We were having quite a few people for dinner(a reunion type thing) and I was making a great number of side dishes, among them potato salad, and a fruit salad. One was on the counter to the left of the sink, the other on the right side of the sink. I started to make the fruit salad and mistakenly emptied the coconut in the potato salad. I picked and picked and never did get all the small bits out of it. Everyone kept asking "what is the different taste in this salad"? Nobody wanted my recipe!!

 

[Constance]

I've had so many I don't know where to begin...from my "chain saw meatloaf" (made a mistake setting the microwave and set it for 2 hours instead of 20 minutes, then went and had my bath)...to little green worms floating up to the top of the water when I was cooking broccoli out of my fall garden for Thanksgiving dinner...to the Lucille Ball type episode when I used 2 packages of out-dated yeast instead of one and my pizza crust almost blew the door off the oven...to wheat bugs in my pie-crust (my first husband demanded pies for a coaching banquet to which wives were not invited...the pie was a big success and everyone commented on the "nutty" flavor...
I could go on, but you get the idea. My kids always said I was just like "I love Lucy".

 

[Gerrycooks]

I was making chocolate cups to hold dessert by dipping balloons in melted chocolate. The chocolate was too hot and as I removed the balloon it exploded. I took a direct hit of melted chocolate to the chest. My kitchen also had chocolate all over.
It was kind of funny and not as dangerous as my exploding double boiler.

 

[kitchenelf]

Moved to "Food Talk"

Hi GerryCooks - sounds like you are on a mission to be on America's Funniest Home Videos - lol I can see the balloon going and the chocolate splattering!!! Anytime you want to start a discussion about kitchen mishaps feel free. Oh wait - I think you already did!

 

[urmaniac13]

Once while I was pressure cooking my meatloaf I forgot to turn down the heat, then decide to take a shower. When I came out I saw smoke filling the kitchen, the bottom of the cooker was scorched and I nearly killed it. However the meatloaf got a real nice "smoked flavour" in the end which I could never produce in any other way... I wish I could do that again if I didn't have to risk ruining the pressure cooker...

 

[Andy M.]

When I was first on my own after divorce, I was learning to fend for myself in the kitchen. One night for dinner I was frying up a can of corned beef hash and thought a sunny side up egg would go nicely on top. I didn't have another frypan so I broke an egg into a dish and popped it into the microwave.

A minute or two later there was a HUGE bang and I nearly had a heart attack!

It took me hours to get all the tiny little bits of exploded egg out of the little vent holes inside the microwave!

You can bet I never did that again!

 

[hellschef]

while coming out of the walk-in one day, a prep chef was coming in with a sheet pan on his shoulder holding and bracing with a hand beneath and another behind, while talking over his shoulder, and ran it straight into my mouth and K.O.ing me temp. All i could hear when i came out was poor Wally fretting wether or not i was gonna kill him! lol, the whole time they completely forgot good ol' chef laying flat on his biscuits in the cooler.. ahh good times... good times

 

[Gerrycooks]

Thanks everyone for the great stories. It makes me feel better knowing I am not alone in my mishaps.
I have a habit of pressing one number on the microwave keypad ie. 2222. I did this one day to soften a container of Whipped topping. I forgot it in the microwave and when I finally remembered it the container was melted as well as the whipped topping. There was one large white pool on the bottom of the microwave.
I still have't learned to use precise times because it is easier to keep hitting one number.

 

[Home chef]

Well, I don't have any one episode to talk about but I can tell you that my wife is such a bad cook she can actually burn water.

 

[AllenOK]

I think I might have mentioned this before, but once, when getting ready to fry a big batch of chicken for Sunday brunch at a club I worked at, we had a bad load of oil. One of the 5-gallon buckets of oil was actually about half water. After we put three buckets of "oil" into the tilt skillet, and turned it on, well, let's just say, it became very dangerous. The water started boiling off, but since it was UNDER the oil, it was like a depth-charge going off. Luckily, we were able to get the lid down, and turn the tilt skillet off. Once it cooled down, we separated the oil and water, then preceeded to cook the chicken, albiet a couple hours behind schedule.

Another time, when I worked in a fast food joint, the manager wanted to get the fryers filtered and cleaned at night instead of in the morning. Only problem was, all they had to hold the grease in were 5-gallon PVC pickle buckets (cleaned). They let the fryer cool down, but not enough, as one of the buckets melted through in two places. Several gallons of grease, everywhere! Talk about a messy clean-up.

 

[LEFSElover]

pear pie puddled/poured down

My mother had asked me to make her a pear pie. They were in season and growing everywhere in her mountain retreat. We bought some, and in her kitchen, I went to work. Lot's of peeling, slicing, mixing, finding ingredients 'in her kitchen', not mine, making the perfect dough, etc. All went smoothly as I love doing that kind of stuff and pear pie is my second favorite pie. I looked forward to eating it, smelling it bake and fragrant'ing' her house up.
She didn't have correct pie tins but that was okay, cause she did have a sturdy foil type thing and it even came complete with holes in it for venting. (or, are they REALLY in there for insuring that the crust doesn't brown or stiffen up a bit???)
It did smell up the house perfectly and mom and her husband and I anticipated with glee, eating that thing. Oh, I'd whipped the cream and it was chilling so nicely in the frig.

Time was up. Dinger dinging. ''Take it out'' the timer said. I'd not put it on a baking sheet or anything. Didn't think about it. So, gloves on, I took it out. It folded from the weight and total heat of the whole thing, poured out all over my now burning hands and I dropped it due to unstableness of it all, and, down the floor heater vent under the stove it went.

I was so upset, I didn't speak, walked out of the house and took a walk. When I returned, mom had cleaned up the mess and we never spoke one word about the incident. I think she knew better.