Kitchen Safety
Cheeky Muffy

The dangers of food might be a little more than you think. There are all kinds of dangers when it comes to eating and preparing your meals. I know that every one of us has been burned at least once in our life times. We are going to discuss some of the dangers of cooking and eating today. Even though most of you might already know these, I'm sure that you will be caught off guard by some of the remedies. Often times in life we are told to avoid things, but never what to do if something happens. We have all had a grease fire in the kitchen. We add too much grease and all of a sudden it gets out of hand. This can be very dangerous. What you shouldn't do. You shouldn't throw water on the fire. Since grease floats on water, you might end up bring the fire out of the pan. This means, you might catch the wall or something else on fire. If that happens, you will have a fire on many fronts to fight.

You should put out this type of fire with the lid. Just put the lid on top of the pan and the fire will go out. What you are doing is robbing it of all of its oxygen. Also, if you don't have a lid, you can throw salt on it. Make sure that you throw a lot of salt on it. This will also put out the fire. When you are running the outside grill you should always have the right tools. You should never turn or pull off meat with your bare hands. As you probably know, the metal grates are very hot. You might end up with an imprint on your hand like that of what is on your burger!

You should always have a pair of BBQ safe gloves on hand. Check where you bought your grill, they will probably have some that you can buy. If not check out the web, you will find a pair you can order online. You should also have a pair of tongs. These are great when it comes to moving the food around. You don't have to worry about slipping and missing. You should also get one of those tong forks. You know the ones I am talking about. They are the things that have the two prongs on them. You just jab the meat and it sticks to it.

Always make sure that no children or drunk people are running or playing around the grill. A child could fall on the grill or knock it over on themselves. That would be a very bad situation. People can get burnt very easily. Don't take any chances. Keep all children and drunks far away from the grill. Deep fat frying can be very dangerous. I have known several people to get burnt badly when doing this. You need to be very careful.

If you are deep frying something like greens or leafy veggies. You need to make sure they are 100% dry. If there is any water on them, the grease will spatter when you stick it in the fryer. If you are in doubt that something is 100% dry, either use a salad spinner or a towel to dry it off. A lot of times people will clean veggies and throw them in the fryer while still wet. I have known people to have burnt their face doing this.

You also need to make sure that what you are frying in, isn't something that can be easily knocked over. Don't put the fryer on the edge of the counter. If you are deep frying on the stove, if the pan has a handle on it, make sure that it is pointing away from you. Make sure that it isn't pointing in a direction that someone might catch it on their clothes if they walk by. If you are deep frying, you should keep children out of the kitchen. This is a dangerous thing for an adult do to, without the added hassle of a child. Also, the child might pull the grease on themselves when you aren't looking. You don't know at what point your child is going to become curious about what you are doing and want to take a look.

While we are on the topic of children. There has been a great debate if you should allow your child to be in the kitchen with you while you cook. I think it depends on what you are cooking. If you are deep frying or doing something that is a real hazard, you shouldn't have the kids in there. If you are making home made noodles and you are blending the flour with the eggs, then you can have your child in there if you want. They will find it interesting to watch what you are doing.

It also depends on how old your child is. If they are school age, chances are they know that the stove is hot and that they can get burned. If they are much younger, they probably don't know everything about the kitchen yet. It is unrealistic that your child will never get burned in the kitchen. It will happen, but you just have to be careful.

Cooking can be a very dangerous thing. I don't mean to scare anyone, but you do need to be aware. If it is boiling water or sharp knives, there is a potential for someone to get hurt. If you are in doubt of the situation, always caution on the side of error. You wouldn't want to hurt yourself or someone you love.