Tuesday, July 27, 2010

helpful hints from Anne Louise

I made a rookie error while cooking the other day, and paid the price for it. I was heating some olive oil in a skillet while I chopped some onions and peppers that I was planning to sauté. The chopping took me a little longer than I thought it would, so the oil got a little too hot. When I dumped my veggies into the skillet, they were too wet, so hot oil popped onto my shirt, my shorts, and both my arms, the right one in particular.

It really hurt! I knew right away I had been burned pretty badly. Here's what I did about it. I got a bottle of soy sauce from the refrigerator, and poured it over the burns on my arms. I let it dry there. I'm telling you, it stopped hurting right away, and the burn on my left arm virtually disappeared. My right arm blistered, and did start to hurt a bit today when the blister deflated.

I know I read this tip some where at some point, but I sure don't remember where or when. All I know is that I have used it before and that it works, so I pass it on to you. I hope you don't ever have occasion to use this helpful hint, but I hope you remember it if you do. Alternately, you could remember to dry your vegetables before putting them in hot oil. Whichever.

4 comments:

Ben said...

I was gonna say, or you could just avoid the water & hot oil combo, but then you said that there at the end there. So I will just add that if you place some Chinese food under your burn, your soy sauce won't go to waste. Thanks for the tip Anne Louise!

anne mancine said...

Ben was appalled at how much soy sauce this wasted, and is suggesting that if I held, oh, say, a bowl of chow mein under my arm, the excess could have gone in there instead of down the drain.

jamanci said...

bwah ha ha! i suppose it would waste a lot! you know, a lot of the help you're probably getting is from the coldness of the soy sauce. i was going to suggest water from the brita pitcher, but that might not get the oil to go away...

i often overheat the oil in the pan just as you did, and typically employ a reach, drop, cringe, and back away quickly type of method. or use the cutting board as a shield. :)

Ben said...

Jules that's something like the method you use with the oven too.