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Canning as a contact sport? Post your worst injuries...

ccaggiano
14 years ago

Okay - so I am probably in the minority since I am a complete spaz but for me, canning and cooking truly is a contact sport. Don't even get me started on the gardening injuries. I am typing as blood is dripping down my finger. Why? Because last night, I was cutting tomatoes for Katie's Roasted Tomato and Garlic Soup. Everything was in the dishwasher so I was lazy and used a serrated knife. And proceeded to serrate a slice of skin off of my finger. Superficial cut - not a big deal. But I opened it tonight and it is bleeding like crazy.

By far, my worst canning injury happened last year. When I cut four jalapeno's without gloves. After 11 hours of jalapeno burn on my hands (you don't know pain until you have jalapeno burn) I finally broke down and went to the ER. They told me there was nothing they could do and to wait it out. I refused to leave the ER. I had three doctors see me and they all said to wait it out. But I still refused to leave. They finally got fed up with me and a sympathetic intern who gave me a topical numbing cream.

Cuts, burns, blood, pepper juice in the eye. All par for the course when I am in the kitchen.

What's your worst canning/cooking injury???

Comments (55)

  • digdirt2
    14 years ago

    Exploding jars of sauerkraut years ago. Fortunately no one was in the room at the time as the bands had been left on the jars and flying glass shards were everywhere. Proof of the guideline that jars should never be stored with the bands/rings left on. ;)

    Dave

  • cinsay
    14 years ago

    I've had two injuries worth noting. You know how they say to make sure there are no chips on the top of the rim when you are cleaning the jars? Well, I used to do that by touch. Another public sevice notice - do not check for chipped rims by rubbing your fingers over the rim. I got a nasty cut. Now I know to check by sight. The other injury was a burn. I dump the hot water out of my hot jars but lifting the jars with the jar lifter and then tipping the jar toward me over the sink. One time I was not paying as close attention as I should have been. I dumped about half a jar of hot/almost boiling water right down the inside of my arm. Luckily I did not drop the jar. I had to splash cold water all over my arm and part of my side.

    Now as to a regular old cooking injury... my worst is probably when I was making hard tack candy and some of it splashed on my hand. Even though I put my hand under cold running water, the melted sugar didn't rinse off for a while and continued to burn me. Ouch! Melted sugar can be really dangerous.

    ~Cindy

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  • iona46
    14 years ago

    Probably too late to tell you the cure I found for the jalopenos on your hands, but I found out the hard way after only chopping about 4 up, that you should wear gloves!

    I discovered relief by adding lemon juice to whole milk and then rubbing the "lumps" that are created into your hands. Buttermilk may even work. The lemon juice causes the milk to coagulate. I did it for about 30 minutes and it worked. This was after trying everything else I could find in the kitchen from baking soda to vinegar.

    I had no idea these things would do this to your skin. I knew not to rub my eyes, but I guess in the past, I have only chopped up one at a time. Who knew 4 would make your hands feel like they were 5000 degrees!!!

  • nancyofnc
    14 years ago

    Mine was a disaster that didn't hurt my body, just my pride. I bought a new jelly strainer with a plastic support that hinged outward to open. I didn't have quite a large enough bowl to hook it to and the hinge didn't open far enough to hold the weight of FOUR pounds of warm crushed blueberries. All over the counter, in the drawer (which I had stupidly opened to get a spoon), the rug, the floor, and me. It took nearly an hour to clean up and I had nothing to jelly. I should have done a trial run with my new toy. What a mess.

    Oh, yeah. I forgot about the beets on the ceiling when the PC blew up the first time I tried PC'ing. That was 1976. I've never PC'd beets again. They've ever after been pickled safely in BWB.

    For those of you who use a mandolin, or chop endless piles of veggies and fruits, go to the nearest outdoors store and buy a pair of Kevlar fish fillet gloves. About $10. Even some big box stores that have fishing tackle carry them. Impervious to knives, mandolins, and other nasty cutting machines - even chipped jar rims.

    Nancy

    Here is a link that might be useful: Kevlar Gloves for Kitchen Tools that Bite

  • junelynn
    14 years ago

    Thanks Nance for the glove link! For that price definitely worth it. I need to wear it around my darn food processor! I love it, but if I don't forget to put the chopping blade IN, and then load all my food, I will many times, just briefly glance the blade when removing or putting it back on and bam! A nice clean cut near a nail area on a finger! YOU BANDAID it and the darn bandaid comes off after getting wet...I went through three of them today.

    That's a shame about the blueberries. Glad to hear I'm not the only one who leaves a drawer open or cracked just enough! WHY do we do that?

    Great tip on the jars CINSAY...I will remember that one! I buy thrift store jars (when I find them) and was always checking by fingering. Not anymore.
    Melted sugar is dangerous! I burned my arm making peanut brittle and I do have a scar! Be careful of that hot water too! I have the utmost respect for boiling of anything!

    Anthony Bourdain says he can recognize a cook by his scars on another persons hands. I believe it!

    June Lynn

  • ccaggiano
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    When I started this thread, I had no clue that the most common injuries would be burns. I find that very interesting. Especially since it comes from some of our harvest experts.

    But I have to give a shout out to my fellow victims of the jalapeno burn. We have the rest of you trumped. You don't know pain or the hell that comes from a jalapeno burn until you experience it. It doesn't leave a scar and isn't a real burn. But your hands feel like they are on fire. And there is nothing you can do about it.

    A real burn will only hurt for a short time. A jalapeno burn lasts for hours. It isn't a tangible injury. Just some pepper juice that seeps into your skin and once that happens, you just have to wait it out. And I know this from experience.

  • annie1992
    14 years ago

    Oh yes, I've experienced jalapeno burn. I'm told that sour cream will help too, I don't know if it's true or not because I've made darned sure I haven't done it again!

    My most common insury is the burn on the inside of my right forearm from taking the lid off the boiling water canner. I burn myself in the same place every year. This year was no exception, I think I have a permanent scar. I also have a monster aloe plant in my kitchen, a few minutes under cold water and the goo inside the aloe leaf and I'm good to go. Hey, I wonder if aloe would help the jalepeno burn. Any volunteers? (grin)

    Don't feel alone with that bandaid, ccaggiano, I have a couple. I got my left hand on a couple of screws that was supposed to be holding a gate together but weren't and two on my right hand from barbed wire. None from canning, though...

    Annie

  • nancyofnc
    14 years ago

    Annie - when you open the lid tilt it away from you like a shield. I had to practice that quite a few times, especially since I started to wear glasses and when the steam fogged them immediately it left me white-blinded for a minute - just long enough to try to hurt myself with the stupid lid.

    Nancy

  • ribbit32004
    14 years ago

    My mistake was thinking that when the hot pepper burn left your hands that they were safe...and then taking out my contacts.

    Not one of my better moves.

  • gardengrl
    14 years ago

    I must have hands of steel or no nerve endings. I chop jalapenos w/no gloves whenever I need them without any burn or very little at all. Now habaneros...THOSE I respect!

    My worst kitchen injury was when I was juliening carrots with a nice big, sharp chef's knife. I was trying to cut the first "flat side" of the carrot and the carrot rolled out from under the knife. Ended up "scaling" an entire finger nail off like some sort of fish scale. Now, THAT hurt and bled to no end. Fortunately the nail grew back, but there's still a scar under the nail bed. Also, there was one incident with the electric hedge clippers.

    Come to think of it...maybe I don't have very many nerve endings in my fingers! LOL!

  • busylizzy
    14 years ago

    Same here Gardengrl, I never use gloves to chop hot peppers.
    never get a burning sensation unless I have a cut.

    Worse kitchen accident wasn't from canning, but sterilizing soil for sand art terraiums I used to make in jr high school. A propane commercial pizza oven blew up in my face.
    1,2,3,degree burns on head, neck and hands.
    This year I managed to get a nice burn on a finger from a plop of plum jam cause I didn't use my high sided pot.

    I use my gas grill long handled tongs for lifting off the BWB canner lids.
    Yogurt also works for hot pepper burning I have heard.
    Liz

  • david52 Zone 6
    14 years ago

    We were making chutney, and I spilled a 1 lb sack of 60,000 btu ground cayenne pepper off the counter, onto the floor. And then tried to sweep it up.

    We stopped sneezing ..... let me think ..... eh ..... about 3 months later.

  • annie1992
    14 years ago

    Nancy, I know that. I just don't do it. Sigh.

    No excuse.....

    Annie

  • malna
    14 years ago

    You mean something like getting a brand new ceramic knife, having it slip out of my hand, and sticking my foot out to try to deflect it before it hit the floor so it wouldn't break?

    I was really mad because I broke my brand new knife anyway. Then having to dig the broken piece of blade out of my instep myself...too embarrassing to have to explain that total act of stupidity to somebody in the emergency room.

  • gatormomx2
    14 years ago

    Calcium caseinate removes the capsaicin from the nerve
    receptor binding sites better than other chemicals.

    In plain English this means that dairy products help calm the fire of spicy peppers . The burning ingredient in hot peppers binds fastest with high fat dairy products like sour cream , half and half or full fat milk .

    I have tried washing my hands with soap and that doesn't seem to help much at all . Rubbing alcohol works a little better but my hands still do not pass the contact removal test . What a way to clear the sinuses !

  • flora_uk
    14 years ago

    Well there was the jelly bag full of molten red currants I tried to hang from the handel of the wall mounted coffee grinder. I was ok but that corner of the kitchen has looked like a crime scene for quite a while now with a large red stain all up the wall.

    And then there was the scalding courgette soup down the arm. That's when I learned that although the blender is a litre capacity in theory .... in practice it is half a litre for cold things and 1/4 for hot liquids.

  • zabby17
    14 years ago

    ccaggiano,

    I've had a few steam & splash burns, but mostly in the first few weeks I tried canning, before I bought my jar lifter. Manipulating hot jars with jury-rigged combinations of tongs, oven mitts, etc. was SUCH a bad idea. I tell all new canners that the FIRST piece of equipment they should buy --- yes, even before a canner, becuse any big pot will do --- is a jar lifter.

    And I've had two nasty cuts, both encountered not while using but while CLEANING a knife. (No wonder I hate doing dishes!)

    But I agree that hot-pepper burn is the worst! I first encountered it with a Hot Portugal, which is probably about on a par with a jalapeno. It didn't bother my hands, but I for some reason while chopping it touched my upper lip, and found myself with a burning mustache! I didn't go to ER but called the province's health phone line to ask if I should be worried, and they told me, just wait it out.

    From then on I have been careful about touching my face when chopping hot peppers. But it was only the time I had bumper crops of habaneros AND serranos (both VERY hot), and made hot sauce from both in the same evening, that I learned it could be bad enough to hurt even my hands. My hand stung for about TWO DAYS.

    This year I have some bhut jolokia peppers (hottest in the WORLD) growing. The info that came with the seeds from the Chile Pepper Institute included a warning to wear gloves even when HARVESTING them! (Though the season has been so slow I don't know that I'll get any fruit at all and may not have to worry.... sigh....)

    Z

  • nancyofnc
    14 years ago

    This post seems to revolve around the dangers of hot peppers so here is my two cents on preparing them:

    When finished prepping hot peppers, immediately dump the waste into a compost bowl/plastic-lined trash bin/whatever, wipe the counter down, and clean your knife and cutting board WHILE YOU STILL HAVE YOUR GLOVES ON and don't put the tools in the sink "for later". The acid will micro-etch even really good knives (same is true for citrus), less to mention is getting the hot pepper juice on your hands while cleaning up, when you thought you were being so careful with the prep.

    DO NOT inhale the fumes when you make Habanero Gold or Hot 'n Sweet Pepper Jelly. You're likely to have a coughing fit, yours eyes will swell and water, and you'll drop the stupid spoon in the pot where it can't be retrieved until the boiling stops and until you find the stupid tongs to take the stupid spoon out. Been there, done that.

    Nancy

  • ribbit32004
    14 years ago

    Stupid capsaicin. I don't think there's a more hated yet so loved compound.

    Hear tell it's good for arthritis creams, however.

  • lpinkmountain
    14 years ago

    My injury seems paltry now. I have a scar on my stomach below my belly button from scalding hot water. Salad tongs (at least cheapie plastic ones) do NOT make a good jar lifter!! I knew to put ice on it, but it was in a kinda hard to reach area. Tiny burn but it scarred. Kinda weird place to get a canning scar but that's where the water splashed.

  • iice9
    14 years ago

    I cut myself so much it hardly seems worth mentioning except for what I've learned from it. The main thing being, if you put on a band-aid, always always put a rubber glove on top of it. I don't need to spell out why. lol

    Also, I have trouble getting habaneras when I need them so I froze some. They are less breath-taking when frozen and easy to chop. I find that when raw, they take my breath away and I cough almost non-stop.

  • ccaggiano
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Malna - you officially take the prize. And coming from me, that says a lot. I laughed out loud when I read your post. That is something I would do.

    And for the rest of you with the pepper burn advice... Yes, it will all work if you get to it quickly. I.E. you immediately realize that you forgot to put gloves on and start using the aforementioned remedies. But for the newbies to cooking and canning, you won't realize the mistake until the burn hits. And at that point, there is nothing you can do but wait it out. Once that stuff seeps into the pores of your hand and starts to burn, it is too late. I went to the ER 13 hours after cutting the jalapenos. Before going, I googled and tried everything. It was too late by then. And even after seeing the doc, they told me it was too late. But I flat out REFUSED to leave until they gave me something to numb the pain. After an hour of arguing with the doc, an intern finally took pity on my and gave me a topical numbing ointment.

    Back to you Malna - your grilled corn recipe is awesome!!! The first batch was grilled for 20 minutes. I found it to be a little too cooked after freezing and reheating. So I cut the cooking time down to 12 minutes (6 on each side) and it is perfect!!! So you can be just as much of a spaz as you want. The grilled corn makes up for it. I, on the other hand, don't have any redeeming recipes.

  • booberry85
    14 years ago

    When I first started canning, I did not realize the importance of having hot jars to put your jelly in before processing. Well, as I was pulling one of the jars out of the canner, the bottom broke off (thermal shock)and molten jelly and broken glass wound up on my bare feet!!! I didn't get cut badly from the glass but I had second degree burns on my feet. I was wearing sandals & flip flops for a week or two afterwards. It was just too painful to wear shoes.

    Lesson #1: Wear shoes when canning
    Lesson #2: Use hot jars

    Other dumb things: Always take out contacts BEFORE cutting up onions or hot peppers for canning or wear gloves while chopping.

  • katykelly_gw
    14 years ago

    Twice I have done serious damage with my mandoline. DH says one more time and he's tossing it. I now use fish fillet gloves and the safety feature.

  • malna
    14 years ago

    CCaggiano,
    Thank you for acknowledging that I am one of the best "Canning Kitchen Idiots" on the forum - I take great pride in the title! (I still can't believe I did that :-)

    Re: The grilled corn - we came to the same conclusion as you did - for freezing, we overcooked it initially, and we have three batches of "experiments" in the freezer with slightly different times/techniques. I'll bet they will all taste wonderful in January! Thanks for your cooking time as a reference. Glad you liked it.

    Booberry,
    Ouch on the hot molten jelly on your feet. I've gotten small dabs on my fingers and that was bad enough.

    Katykelly,
    DH wanted to buy me a mandoline, but he decided for my health, safety and welfare, I'd be much better off without one.

    Sigh...it's a wonder I'm still in one piece without too many scars and I haven't burned down or blown up the house yet :-)

  • prairie_love
    14 years ago

    ribbit- I'm with you. I also have had the hot pepper on the contact lenses ordeal, NOT FUN! I had cut up serranos (hotter than jalapenos, but not as hot as habaneros), washed my hands multiple times, gone on about life as normal, took my contacts out that night, put them back in the next morning and INSTANTLY TRIED TO TEAR MY EYES OUT!!!! By far, this was the most painful cooking associated experience I've had, cuts and burns included.

    Most of the time now DH cuts hot peppers for me. During canning season though, I am going through too many so I do it myself. I always (now) wear gloves, but I still am terrified of the contact lens thing. Eeeesh.

  • reba_grows
    14 years ago

    Anthony Bourdain would think I'm a great chef...my canning/dehydrating hands and arms show over 40 years of war scars.

    I appreciate the kevlar glove link for my mandolin cutting- but can you wash those gloves?

    My worst canning injury came from the first year I used my large propane burner (like you would use to fry a turkey with), to process my jars. I process with it, and also boil down for jam etc using an electric double burner, on our (high ceilinged) screened in porch or outside on the deck.

    All went well the first 2 days of canning. Then on the 3rd I took off the lid of the loaded with jars/boiling water pot just as a stinkbug flew into a pot of precious red rasberries, waiting to be another batch of jam, located on the electric burners on the table nearby. I can't recall the exact sequence of events but it was something like:
    I leaned over to frantically wave the processing pot lid at the bug and somehow caught my knee length apron on fire from the propane flame. Knowing it was too far through the house and into the kitchen, I threw/dropped the pot lid, ripped off my burning apron and pushed it into the boiling water, badly burning my right hand. The water in the pot of course overflowed the pot violently and flooded the flame of the propane burner, burning my shins and feet. I managed to turn off the gas, but my body, the rasberry jam, the floor, the burner and the entire day was my biggest canning disaster as well as my worst canning injury.

    Hard to belive I know... but I have been canning with the propane burner, with great success, for many years ever since. (But I still hate stink bugs!!)

  • katykelly_gw
    14 years ago

    I think maybe I would have ignored the stink bug (protien), and fed it to family and friends :-) But that's Monday Morning Quarterbacking. Good story.

  • bluejean
    14 years ago

    I've learned that canning with a pregnant belly can be dangerous too. I always have a bad habbit of underestimating how much my belly extends. I accidentally brushed up against the canner recently. Ouch! LuckilyI was able to get to the sick quickly. I am thankful canning season is nearly over for us this year (although I will surely enjoy the goods this winter!)

    bluejean

  • brookw_gw
    14 years ago

    While cutting Jalepenos for salsa, I had to pee and simply forgot about what I had been doing. I no longer thought about my hands burning.
    While slicing up deer for jerky one night before a fishing trip, I sliced my left index finger to the bone. Being the typical guy Jeff Foxworthy talks about, I wrap it up nice and tight and go to work the next day. Thinking it might actually need stitched up, I did see a doctor--nope: reconstruction of the tendon. Missed my fishing trip and went around with a "Number One" hand for three months.

    Brook

  • calliope
    14 years ago

    I've had some wild incidents, not all canning, some just cooking. Do not fry bacon when wearing a bikini. The doctor was convinced (don't ask me how he arrived at this conclusion) it was a cigar burn and I was the victim of some sort of domestic abuse. My husband was in Viet Nam at the time........it was about a one hundred degree day, I did not have any adult company around, and I was tanning and got hungry. A BLT just sounded good.

  • catherinet
    14 years ago

    I'm feeling light-headed just reading this thread!

  • ccaggiano
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Wow - I can't believe this thread is still on the first page three weeks later. I haven't been on gardenweb for awhile so I was surprised to see it here.

    In any case, my canning is winding down. My mom just brought me 8 huge heads of broccoli and 8 huge heads of cauliflower from Pennsylvania today. I also have about 20 lbs of apples ready to be processed. I am going to wait a few more days before I do them. I have a huge cut in my cuticle from washing my apple corer and another slice on the tip of my index finger from trying to get frozen roasted tomatoes out of a mason jar. That one was probably the worst as I did it with a regular kitchen knife. That sucker is dull as hell and slicing your finger with it is not fun. Oh well - all's fair in love and canning :-)

  • ten_yr_plan
    14 years ago

    Wow! I don't know if I should learn from others errors or just go back to 'store bought'. I really am not prepared to loose a limb or anything... As a newbie to canning, maybe I should have saved this link for a later year!

  • calliope
    14 years ago

    Oh gosh, don't let us frighten you off. This is about klutziness, not how dangerous canning is. If we didn't do it in the kitchen, we'd have found a way to maim ourselves elsewhere. LOL.

  • lone_squirrel
    14 years ago

    A couple of war story giggles about canning peppers. Once was when I was a child, don't know how old I was, I was canning peppers with my grandmother and she told me, 'whatever you do, don't stick your finger up your nose.' I'm sure you can guess that when Grams' back was turned the first thing I did. Yep, I was in the bathroom trying to pour water up my nose to get rid of the burning sensation.

    Second story was when I was dating in my twenties. I was trying to impress my new boyfriend by showing off my canning knowledge. He ws helping me with the peppers and then had to go to the bathroom. Sure enough, he didn't wash his hands before he grabbed onto that sensitive part of his body to do his business. That was when I found out that yes, sour cream does sooth the burn. Anyway, he told me it did work. He wouldn't let me in the bathroom to help.

    As for other injuries, Being left handed and having most canning appliances set up for the more popular righties, I have burned and cut myself more times than I really even want to remember. It's funny how you don't remember this when you're planting the garden in the spring. It's not until I get the canner out in late summer that all the pain of canning comes back to mind.;-)

  • joannaw
    13 years ago

    Ok, not an injury, but while this anecdote is funny, I'm not sure it merits its own thread. So I'm reviving this fun one.

    Ok, baby is down for a nap. I think, Ah! I can run the macerated blackberries through the food mill now while I have a minute. Haven't used the food mill yet (Victorio), am excited to try it. Got it all set up yesterday, it's ready to go. Had to get husband to help get the screen on, couldn't do it by myself for some reason (this is important).

    So I accidentally put a cinnamon stick through the hopper. The spiral stops moving. I have to take the screen off to try to get at the stick. First instance of blackberry pulp everywhere as I try to juggle the two bowls and get the drips coming from all places to land in one or the other of them. Fine. Then I have to put the screen back on. I had trouble yesterday, and now everything's slippery, too!

    Finally I manage it (hard to turn the little tightening screw when it's covered in blackberry pulp!), but when I start turning the crank again, suddenly the screen/spout and spiral go shooting off across the kitchen. Blackberry everywhere!

    I then had a tantrum/laughing fit and came to tell you all abou tit. Will now have another go at it. Wish me luck. The baby will probably wake up just as the screen is spraying the room with blackberries for the second time.

  • katykelly_gw
    13 years ago

    LOL! I had a "near death experience" with my Champion Juicer. Too embarresed to relate it right now :-)

  • mox1
    11 years ago

    I, too, sheared off my index nail with a lovely, sharp downward stroke of my new Henkel Chef's Knife while I was chopping Vidalia onions. (Will add the photo once the link is ready if you care to see the carnage - yes, I do photograph some of my and my children's injuries- sort of interesting, reallt, as the human body's initial reaction to injury and then ability to heal will always be quite fascinating to me, I think - we are a wondrous machine!)
    Nail bed healed, but the pain of the injury remains embedded in my brain and I am oh-so-much more careful when I chop. I hurt myself often enough but this one really took the cake, to use a phrase in an awkward past tense. Happy canning!

  • wertach zone 7-B SC
    11 years ago

    For quick and complete relief from pepper burning, rub the affected area with olive oil.

    I used to play a little trick on people daring me to eat really hot peppers. I washed out an empty Texas Pete bottle and filled it with olive oil, added some red food coloring, so that it would look like Texas Pete.

    When they challenged me, I would tell them, I've gotta pee, let me go to the restroom first. I kept it in my locker in the restroom. I would get a swig in my mouth, eat the pepper, then pull out the fake "Texas Pete" and take another swig as a chaser.

    Blew their mind!

  • gardenman101
    11 years ago

    Well this might not be an injury but it is a contact sport. My wife hates my pressure canner (brand new) cus of the potential for miss use (not by me) but me being the practical joker that i am could not resist temptation. She decided after much reasurrance that it was safe proceeded to make her dinner, while she was in kitchen for awhile i decided to go to the basement to the vent right below here and screamed boomm as load as i could. although no one got hurt her spagetti suace made contact with the walls and cieling and i might say when shes scared she is a faster runner then me so she came into contact with me. I must have luaghed for a good 2 hours. The kitchen needed a new paint job anyways as I did not like her taste in wall paper anyways.

  • planatus
    11 years ago

    Kevlar glove, great. My mandolin scares me to death, can't even describe the worst cut.

    Worst injury -- seven stitches in my right hand after washing a canning jar with a hairline crack near the top. After that, I bought a couple of nice scrubbers with handles.

  • carol_in_california
    11 years ago

    Once, when I was cutting hot peppers, I got some pepper juice in my eye.
    I had recently read a novel in which the main character got hot pepper juice in her eye and the cure was to pull a hair from your head and place it in your eye.
    Hands shaking, eyes watering, pain intense.....I tried it and it works!

  • mellyofthesouth
    11 years ago

    I bought some bistro crocs (no holes, non-slip bottom) at the outlet mall yesterday. As I was canning tomatoes bare footed it occurred that it wasn't the smartest thing I'd ever done. So I guess that is an injury prevention.

    I sliced a little bit of the tip of my thumb today when I wasn't getting a little crazy chopping tomatoes and didn't get it out of the way soon enough. It's not the worst knife injury I've ever had.

  • ekgrows
    5 years ago

    Thought about this thread yesterday while making salsa. I sliced my thumb wide open while washing lids! Really?!?!? My best ever injury came from canning hot pepper jelly years ago. I poured it into the funnel at the wrong angle, and it bubbled out of there and all over my wrist. Got the best blisters EVER - and ironically enough, have no scars at all to show for it. :)


  • Athena Maughan
    2 years ago

    Today ,

    worst canning or cooking injury ever!

    i was making the super finiky black cherry syrup. i wanted to make sure it was thick enough to use on waffles. so i turned it up towards the end i am constantly stiring and its full on molten its not just boiling its foaming like crazy . so i start getting it into my jars . after hours of picking, pitting , then stirring i want every last drop! so i tip up the hot pan to scoop out the rest. i dont know what i did if i hit the side of my funnel or what. i feel a huge splotch of it hit my hand and i know immediatly im in trouble. i have burnt myself plenty of times baking , canning with steam usually i just put it in ice water use aloe and im fine. as soon as i put my hand under cold water the boiling hot molten sugar turns hard and brittle and is stuck on my hand . i know it has to come off so im scrubbing and washing and its like my skin liquified. i can see it being pulled off with the now hard candy on my hand. im thinking ohhhh sh*t this is bad but ask my son to grab aloe any tylonal . normally aloe is cooling and might feel sticky but it doesnt hurt. this was insane pain im almost throwubg up it stings so bad. i am looking at my hand and around the area thats burnt with no top layers of skin and is red and pissed its turning white and yellow.


    i gave up went to the ER. they said omg yah thats bad! so i got some cream and pain meds and have to go back daily for a few days so they can change badages and check its ok. weirdly it hurts some places but others theres no pain at all. where the pain is its super crazy bad.

    No blister! i think i went passed that. weirdly even non stick hospital grade stuff sticks to it.

  • busylizzy
    2 years ago

    Here is a fun fact, if you happen to cut hot peppers withiut gloves and rub your eyes or mucus membranes apply plain yogurt, works like magic.

  • CA Kate z9
    2 years ago

    OH! WOW! Athena. Do take care. First degree burns are bad business. I hope the syrup is good enough to pay for your pain.

  • nancyjane_gardener
    2 years ago

    Not canning, but cooking artichokes. Turned around to pour into the sink and about a gallon of boiling water washed down the front of my belly! Jumped into the cold shower, but I still blistered mightily!

    A couple of people had some meds, but after a week I realized it was getting infected.

    I ended up on antibiotics and wound care for 3 months! Day 90 the Tubbs fire happened in our county, and needless to say, the wound care dept asked me if I could handle the last week or so of treatment on my own.

    Oh yeah, I bought one of those pots with a removable colendar!

  • l pinkmountain
    2 years ago

    A bad burn, but compared to some I've seen here, I guess NOT so bad. But there is something to be said for buying a jar lifter and a magnetic lid lifter. I now have two of each. It was a splash burn, not a spill burn.