Cooking Safety

Here is some very important knowledge that can help you keep from being hurt when you work with fire and other hot things around the kitchen.
• "The Fat is on the Fire, Beware..."
This is an old and well known saying that means that things are happening, important things that you should pay attention to. This is most literally true around kitchens. Most kitchen fires, and lots of the restaurants that burn down, burn because someone started heating fat or oil and forgot about it. The oil gets hotter and hotter, smokes a bit, and then bursts into flame, and it makes great fuel! A cardinal rule in the kitchen: when "The Fat is on the Fire", PAY ATTENTION!
• Deep Fat Fryers
In addition to being fire hazards from the oil, deep fat fryers have other dangerous traits. One thing to pay particular attention to is never, ever get a glass of water, a drink, or any other liquid that is not cooking oil where it can spill into the fryer. If it does, it turns into steam instantly, and can violently spray hot oil in all directions.
Watch the electrical cord carefully. Don't leave it where something might snag it, and dump the load of hot oil about. I had a friend once who left the cord to his deep fat fryer across a doorway, and there were kids in the house. One of them ran through the door, and the cord dragged all that hot oil right at him.
Also, be careful even when you add food to a deep fat fryer. If the fat is too hot, or if there are pockets of liquid in the prepared food, the hot fat can spray about.
• Steam is Invisible, and Very Dangerous
Steam is often thought of as the cloud of visible vapor that comes out of a teapot. Wrong! The visible part is just the part of the steam cloud that has cooled down to under the boiling point of water and is visible as a cloud of condensed water droplets. Real, live, dangerous steam is water vapor that is above the boiling point of water, often way above it, and escaping confinement. It can be highly pressurized and moving very fast, and is almost invisible as it escapes its confinement. It causes real nasty burns. Be particularly wary of pressure cookers, steam pipes, water into super heated environments, and boilers.
As a small, operant reminder of steam, always remember that it will rise out of a boiling pot of water when you take off the cover. Remove the cover far side first so the rising steam doesn't scald your hand.

Watch Cooking Fire Video