This afternoon I worked a table at my town’s health fair, representing a charity with which I volunteer. (We refresh and recycle leftover floral arrangements into smaller ones which are distributed for free to seniors in nursing homes/assisted living, meals-on-wheels clients, etc.)
Someone with a catering business had a nearby table, at which she handed out promotional potholders. Other than the customized business info on them, they were ordinary potholders with a loop for hanging. She told us she was dismayed by how many prospective customers asked what this foreign-to-them object WAS.
We now have a couple of generations of Americans who were raised, and live, mostly on nuggetized food, and baby carrots. I can envision this scenario playing out in a future generation, when the strange object will be a fork or a knife. Eat your pellets, dear.…
This is a thing, now? You can’t share mitts? My immune system is pretty solid. I ride the subway without dying all the time.[quote=“eleeper, post:8, topic:4426”]
If the mitt is too small for your hand
[/quote]
That, I get. But my hands are pretty small. That and my city of residence are the only things I have in common with Donald Trump.
The danger isn’t usually when using the stovetop since if the handle is one that gets hot (e.g., cast iron), you know you need to protect your hand. But if you’ve used a pot/pan with a heat-resistant handle that is always safe to touch when used on the stove, to bake or broil, its handle will remain very hot for some time after you’ve removed the piece from the oven. Reach for it without a mitt/potholder/towel, and you’ll get burned. Don’t ask me how I know.
I am only one example. I eat mostly food prepared from scratch and have done my share of cooking. But I still don’t know what a potholder is until I googled it. I just always put pots on wet towels. It never occurred to me I need something else.
I have pot holders and use them. That is bizarre that people would be so clueless as to what they were.
My oven is currently on the fritz, but I would still rather cook/ eat at home than get take outfox health reasons and enjoyment.
Btw- cool concept of recycling arrangements. How nice!
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
18
Me too. But then, I’m not American (and Google tells me it’s an American term). I’d assumed it was something to hold a garden pot and couldnt see how the things I have in the shed for holding small pots had a culinary use.
The danger isn’t usually when using the stovetop since if the handle is one that gets hot (e.g., cast iron), you know you need to protect your hand <<<
Stupid me, after a few drinks and while in a rush with a lot of sides going at once, I grabbed the handle of a hot Wagner cast iron pan. Left a perfect in print of the handle on the palm of my hand. Definitely makes the top 10 list of dumb things I have done in the kitchen.
…
until I googled it. I just always put pots on wet towels. It never occurred to me I need something else.
