Avoid injury in the kitchen with some easy tips. Photo / 123rf
Avoid injury in the kitchen with some easy tips. Photo / 123rf
They may be the hottest green fruit in town, but the trendy avocado is getting a bad reputation for landing fans in hospital.
"Avocado hands" is the new name given to the injuries cooks are causing themselves when they slash their hands cutting into avocados.
Avos don't hold all ofthe blame, as emergency rooms are full up with clumsy cooks who have injuries ranging from slicing mango wrong, to opening a can of soup with their fingers.
Lewis Kohl, senior medical director of CareMount Medical, told the New York Post, "Literally every night, 20 minutes before my shift ends, they bring me someone I have to suture up because they destroyed themselves making dinner."
Here's a look at some of the worst kitchen blunders that you can easily avoid making.
Doctors say they stitch up as many as 30 hands a month because of avocado. Photo / 123rf
Avocado injuries are on the rise, and emergency room doctors told the New York Post that as many as 30 hands a month come in needing to be stitched up after a person has tried to remove the slippery avo pit incorrectly.
"Ten years ago, it used to be injuries from bagels," says Thanik, an assistant professor at NYU Langone's Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery in Kips Bay.
"But everyone's so carbphobic, and they think they're doing a good thing eating an avocado - and then they get a whole other injury."
Make sure when cutting an avocado you are placing it on the cutting board and not your hand. Then cut directly down the middle, while rotating the avocado until it splits open.
Next up, cut the pit side into quarters so that the pit pops right out. Then just peel the skin off and you are ready to eat.
Frozen burger patties
Separating raw hamburger meat can often lead to cuts on fingers. Photo / 123rf
When separating frozen burger patties to pop onto the BBQ, many eager chefs rush to get a knife to separate them, only to end up slicing into their hands instead.
Dr Newborn says he stitches up these kinds of cuts about once a week. But there's no repairing these patients' pride: "The main response is pain and anxiety, but there is a level of embarrassment there, too."
How to avoid injury
Let the patties have a chance to defrost in the fridge first, or if time is not of the essence, use a spatula to separate them instead.
If you are making your own patties at home, putting a piece of baking paper in between the patties before freezing will help them to not stick together even when frozen.
Mango
Mango can be a dangerous kitchen offender. Photo / 123rf
Mango can be bad news for your hands when the unpredictable pit and slippery texture combine.
Often people cut into the fruit with a knife and slip, cutting their fingers and hands.
"A lot of people peel the mango first, which just makes it more slippery," Mawhinney says.
Instead, you should leave the skin on, and score it into cubes while it is on a cutting board. Next turn the skin inside out so that cubes can be cut off the skin easily.
Carrot
Some horrendous injuries are caused when the vegetables roll away on the cutting board. Photo / 123rf
Carrots are notorious for rolling away on the cutting board, which is dangerous for fingers, considering the amount of pressure that needs to be applied to cut a carrot.
"They're round, and people chase them. They don't realise that their chopping hand moved and their guiding hand moved too, so they chop their thumb," Dr Mawhinney says.
Patting the chicken dry with a paper towel will make it less slippery.
Make sure you focus on slicing through the chicken breast in a steady movement with a sharp knife and don't ever hack at it.
"When you saw, you're using a lot more pressure, so there's more chance that you're going to slip and cut yourself," Mawhinney says.
Canned food
Investing in a quality can opener can save your fingers. Photo / 123rf
Sometimes our can openers fails us, leaving the top open but not popped up. Make sure you resist the urge to use your finger to pry the lid open, or you can end up in the emergency room with a nasty injury.
"The lid is suddenly halfway through their finger and they're bleeding all over the place," says Kohl.
To make matters worse, cans can cause tetanus and also leave you with a funky jagged scar.
