1. Keep small children and pets away from the stove or
oven and out from underfoot in the kitchen
2. Always start with a dry pan! Even a little water will
spatter if there's grease in the pan as well.
3. Make sure your pot holders and oven mitts are truly
heat proof (many of the cheap ones are decorative but
won't protect your hands). Keep them in easy reach of
the stove (not in the drawer across the way).
4. Use wooden, not metal, spoons when stirring hot
items.
5. Use a splash guard (a metal grid that fits over a
pan) to keep hot grease from popping on you.
6. Make sure your roasts or frying meats are in pans or
on boilers deep enough to hold the fats that will cook
out. Otherwise, grease may pour into the oven or stove
and catch fire.
Minimize the chances of getting burned by cooking at
a lower temperature, and make sure you have pot holders
and oven mitts within easy reach. The best way to handle
a grease fire is to deprive it of oxygen. Without air,
fire just goes out. Keep a lid near any meat you have
frying: if the pan catches fire, quickly put the lid on
to smother the flame. You can't put out a grease fire
with water: the water will actually cause the grease
fire to leap from one place to another! Keep a
large, opened box of baking soda, salt or flour near the
burner: either one of these substances can smother a
flame. If there is a fire, pour on plenty of the dry
good and keep pouring until the fire is smothered. It
never hurts to have a fully charged, recently inspected,
fire extinguisher in the kitchen. Make sure you know how
to use it. (There's usually a pin to pull: after that,
all you have to do is aim it at the fire).
Broilers can cause fires when grease pops up onto the
heating element or if it catches fire on an open flame.
Some cheap stoves may make the problem worse:
inexpensive gaskets have been known to catch fire from a
broiler flame. If the food itself has caught fire, it's
pretty simple to deal with it: just shake salt, baking
soda or flour onto the pan. If you can reach the
control, turn off the broiler as soon as you realize
there's a problem. If the oven itself is on fire, you
can try shutting the door to put out the flame. If it's
an electric stove, unplug it. If it's a gas stove, call
the fire department. The important thing after any fore
is to make sure there's nothing smoldering, so never be
shy about calling the local fire department to check if
you have a stove or oven fire, even if you've managed to
put it out.
Many grease fires start when people are deep frying
foods. Deep fat fryers are equipped with safety features
that prevent the fats from overheating and catching
fire, but stove top deep fat frying can be dangerous.
Most foods that are deep fried are perfectly good (and
healthier for you) if they are pan-fried instead, and
pan-frying minimizes the risk of using fats.
Kitchen fires at home are often easily dealt with as
long as you don't panic. Keeping lids available, using
fire smothering substances and having an extinguisher
nearby are good ideas, especially when cooking with
fats.
If you are eating heart-smart or just don't like the
idea of using animal fats to cook with, you can still
dispose of them easily. Bacon grease and other fats from
meats should be allowed to cool before being scraped
into the trash. Get as much of the grease out of the pan
as possible before washing it with very hot, soapy
water. The heat will help the grease melt into the water
and the detergent will "saponify" it, emulsifying it and
keeping it liquid on its trip through the drain. Follow
up the pan washing with plenty of hot water and
detergent down the drain, and if you have a garbage
disposal, run it with hot soapy water as well to keep
the grease from building up on the blades and walls of
the disposal.
Teach everyone in your family not to put things down
the drain, and you'll have a much slighter chance of
clogs. Treat your drains to a drink of microbial drain
cleaner like Drainbo every week or two: it will help
keep odor-causing bacteria out, and your drains fresh
and clear.
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