Don't EVER Try This!

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Michael in FtW

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I picked up a cookbook on a 50%-75% discount book table at the grocery store last night mainly because it was obviously geared toward an inexperienced cook and had a lot of photo illustrations that I could use when trying to explain some things to my kid sister. Then, while looking thru it this morning I ran across this illustration on how to cut an eggplant for one of the recipes. I couldn't believe my eyes!

It reminds me of the method Dad used one Thanksgiving to carve the turkey .... he wound up having emergency surgery that afternoon to reconnect the artery in his thumb, reattach tendons and nerves, and a couple more operations to try to restore more feeling and mobility in his thumb - with only about 25% success.

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Please - Don't EVERY use this "technique" to cut anything!!!
 
lable on ginsu knife: Caution--not to be inserted in living things!

too true...basic knife 101: always cut down and away from yourself. always use the guide when using a mandoline. and finally, never put your hand inside something with moving parts to try to unclog it. I have seen what kitchen machines can do to hard wood and metal. Your hand doesn't stand a chance.
 
I guess I should have mentioned the book. It's "What's Cooking Italian" by Penny Stephens - pub 1998 by Thunder Bay Press - the picture is on page 38.

Of course - I got a laugh when I hit the recipe for Tortellini on page 122 and she is showing how to make ravioli.
 
I always cut away from myself, but noticed that when I am in the kitchen w/ my Gran, she NEVER does. When she peels say a potato w/a knife, she peels towards her thumb. Said her Mom taught her that way...I would get nervous to cut my thumb off.
 
LOL... you'll have to get a big red marking pen and put an X through that photo.


I peel away from myself and I still end up peeling ME! I think it's because I'm left handed and peelers are made (like everything else) for the right handed people of the world....
 
pdswife said:
...I'm left handed and peelers are made (like everything else) for the right handed people of the world....


pds, I don't see peelers ar left or right-handed. They seem to be symmetrical and therefore the same for either hand.

What am I missing?
 
Since the pic shows no force on the hand; do you think its more of a carelessly set up photo [I can't see a cut mark on the eggplant] or is it possible that people could be that dumb and live long enough to reproduce?
 
Michael in FtW said:
I guess I should have mentioned the book. It's "What's Cooking Italian" by Penny Stephens - pub 1998 by Thunder Bay Press - the picture is on page 38.

Of course - I got a laugh when I hit the recipe for Tortellini on page 122 and she is showing how to make ravioli.

:LOL: thats hilarious. I better be more cautious when I buy a bargain book. I see alot of discounted cookbooks in borders, but I better pay closer attention to make sure the recipe and the picture go together:mrgreen: . That made me cringe just looking at the knife cutting towards her fingers.:wacko:
 
My Grandma must have known HTC's Grandma...because I peel everything towards my thumb too! However, that's when I'm holding the vegetable in my left hand and peeling it with the right. Same way with slicing onions...only I insert the knife on the side farthest from me and kind of turn the onion. Haven't cut off a thumb in my 40 years of cooking yet!
 
I've watched a lot of grandmas cutting everything that way. My grandma never used a cutting board...instead, she held the item to be chopped in one hand and cut little pieces off into the bowl.
She did use a potato peeler, though, as do I. She was a very frugile lady, and insisted that it saved more of the potato.
 
The ONLY thing I do that is CLOSE to that DUMB is the way I cut a Bagel: I hold it in my left and and cut down in to the bagel towards the palm of my hand. DUMB I know, but I have been doing it that way for 35 years or so and have never cut myself. I stop about a half inch before I cut through, flip it over and finsh the cut away from my hand. I have no idea how I started this, I am certain I was not taught that way, my father used to cringe when he saw me do it and my mother forbade me from cutting a bagel in front of her.

Every thing else I do with a knife is with the highest safety in mind.

We all have our quirks.
 
As some of you may remember I learned my lesson about sharp objects last December when one of my fingers had a run in with the food processor blade and then a trip to the ER and 7 stitches later. Don't ever place sharp objects in a sink.
 
SierraCook said:
As some of you may remember I learned my lesson about sharp objects last December when one of my fingers had a run in with the food processor blade and then a trip to the ER and 7 stitches later. Don't ever place sharp objects in a sink.

oh my ouch ouch ouch! michael that picture just freaked me out. I can't stand thinking about cutting fingers/hands...

when i was 17 i worked at a local dairy queen. one day i was mixing a blizzard (we mixed them in this machine that was sort of like an upside down blender. it was like this metal rod stuck out and at the bottom of it was 3 blades that looped and were attached again at the end of the metal rod thing if that makes any sence) anyhow, we mixed these bilzzards in only a paper cup since the blades didn't stick out or anything. One day while mixing a blizzard the machine was defictive and the blades came undone from the rod and mangled my hand. I was extreamly lucky and didn't hit any major tendons or anything and had to get about 25 stitches in my left hand on three fingers. its about 9 years now and my scars still get sore every time the seasons change. I'm so thankful becuse it could have been so much worse. I used to love blizzards but haven't eaten a bite of one since.
 
I think that is a great way to teach people how to cut. It make you less affraid of knives. right :huh:
 
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