Life is all about living and learning. Admittedly, I tend to learn things the hard
way, but I do learn. Last night, I found myself in the ER after
nearly slicing off the tip of my pinky finger with my newly sharpened chef
knife while slicing an apple in a hurry to get over to my friend’s house for an
evening of wine & cheese.
Here are some lessons from the experience…..
Lesson #1 – Keep your
knives sharp. While this may sound strange, a sharp knife is safer than a dull knife. Fortunately this is something I know and
I’ve been good about keeping my knives sharp lately.
As my silly, old Asian ER doctor said: “You must have a very
sharp knife; it is a very neat and clean cut, although very deep.” Clean
cuts heal better and the scarring is less noticeable than a jagged cut with a
dull knife would be. The
same is true for food. It is much easier
to cut food with a sharp knife. A sharp
knife requires little force, so it's easier to control and cuts where intended.
You get neater and cleaner pieces and
you don’t bruise the food. With a dull
knife you end up using more pressure and can end up smashing the food and
losing the juices and getting sloppy looking pieces. This can also cause you to lose control of
the knife.
I have a stone to sharpen my knives but I have found it
easier to drop them off every 4-6 weeks with a professional. I take them to my favorite kitchen store
that does them for $3.50/each. My
grocery store also sharpens knives for free and most butcher shops offer a
knife sharpening service too. If you
don’t want to do it yourself (and learn the proper way to do it) then you
should definitely get your knife professionally sharpened regularly. And of course you already know that everyone
should have at least one good chef knife in their kitchen. Right?
I
should also mention that it’s not just
the sharpness of the knife, but also proper knife skills and handling; how to
hold the knife, how to hold the food being cut, what motions to use, etc….. And it is important that your cutting board
doesn’t slip, make sure that your cutting board is secured. I’m realizing that knives could be a whole
blog post in and of itself, so I am going to stop now.
Lesson #2 – Take your
time and pay attention to what you are doing.
Slow down and don’t rush. Try
to avoid distractions and don’t multitask while you have a sharp object in your
hand. The same is true with hot surfaces;
paying attention can prevent burns. It is
important to stay focused on your task; an accident can happen in a split
second.
Lesson #3 – Try to
keep your food flat. I broke this
rule. I should’ve flipped the apple half
over to the flat side instead of trying to cut it on the round side where it
was kind of rocking back and forth and unstable. I know this rule and for some reason I didn’t
apply it last night. (Must’ve been the
visions of wine dancing through my head.)
 |
| Wrong Way! |
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| Right Way! Always put the flat side down on the cutting board for stability. |
Lesson #4 – Keep your
hands and the knife handle clean to prevent slipping. I was almost done and my fingers and
hands were a little slippery from the juicy apple. I should’ve been wiping them off as I went
along.
Lesson #5 – If you do
have an accident in the kitchen, try to remain calm. Somehow I managed to grab a CLEAN paper
towel right away and apply pressure to my finger. I think it was basically to cover the sight
of it, but it was a smart move. Of
course after I got it covered I started jumping around in pain and in
shock. I tried to tell myself that it
was just a simple cut and not a big deal but the visual of all the blood, the
big separation of my finger, and the feeling of the knife hitting the bone made
me think better of it. I thought about taking another look but there
was too much blood and I decided instead to run/jump my way downstairs to alert
my husband that I think I needed to go to the ER. Amazingly, I didn’t throw up at the sight
or pass out as I don’t like the sight of blood (especially my own). I was woozy and light-headed, but I think I
handled the situation pretty well. Putting pressure on it helped to stop the
bleeding and helped bring the finger back together. Because of this I was able to avoid stitches
and was able to get suture tape instead.
The doctor explained that if the bleeding wouldn’t stop then he would
have to put stitches in but since the bleeding was under control, he could use
suture tape instead which would have a neater scar and would heal just as
well. I was fortunate that the cut was
towards the tip of my finger and I didn’t get any tendons or anything.
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| My bandaged finger with my sympathetic dog in the background. |
Hopefully, you can learn from my mistakes and avoid any
accidents in your kitchen.
Meanwhile, I will be fine.
I’m just cranky that it happened at all and that I missed an evening of
wine and fun at my friend’s house.
What lessons have you learned the hard way in the kitchen?
