# cut myself today



## banpreso (Jan 25, 2010)

uhhhhhgh!!!

i made such a rookie mistake and sliced myself on the mandolin trying to slice some japanese eggplant for confit byaldi. arrrrgh, cut myself pretty deep on the back, right hand middle finger right on the knuckle of the 1st digit. bled a lot, stopped the bleeding, put on bandaid and rubber glove and finished the dish. i'll go see urgent care tomorrow, it's not too serious, it's just the cut is really deep, but there's no nerve there...

i felt so stupid!!! could've done a better job with my chef knife! the eggplant was too soft!!! i should've repositioned my hand and it was one cut too many.

well, thank God i'm mostly okay. gonna have to keep it dry for a while. hopefully i'll recover quickly. i have a meal to cook tomorrow, probably will get some help. 

i guess this sort of thing will happen sooner or later if i keep cooking. gotta pop the cherry sooner or later... good thing anthony bourdain considers it a glorious thing... make me feel slightly better i guess. 

i'm okay.. cook on


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## left4bread (May 8, 2009)

Ouch!
mandoline cuts hurt. Be glad it wasn't the palm of your hand you cut... takes forever to heal!
Yeah, but finger cuts are the worst, always getting lemon juice in them... band-aids just soak the lemon juice up...
Get stitches and you can't immerse your finger... that sucks. sorry.
Good luck on the healing! 

BTW, isn't anthony bordain a crappy trade paperback author (sorry, not sure I've heard of him).  Oh wait, he's that guy that eats food in that show! nvm


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## dillonsmimi (Dec 2, 2009)

My hubs (BF at the time) offered to slice some carrots and decided to use the mandolin (a MS cheapie). About five minutes later I hear a huge barrage of choice words coming from his part of the kitchen. Yep...spent 4 hours and a couple hundred dollars on that mistake. How was I to know he didn't have a clue?
* see my avatar?


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## cabosailor (Jun 5, 2009)

After whacking a bit of my fingertip off on my mandoline I went out and bought a kevlar glove. It gives me a bit more piece of mind although I doubt it is total protection. After all its cut "resistant" not cut proof.

Rich


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## gunnar (Apr 3, 2008)

The glove does help, I have stabbed myself using the Julienne blade on the mandolin though. The tips on the blade went right through the webbing. never a had a problem with the sliceing blade and a glove though. Those things are just dangerous regardless, if you can do it with a knife, do it with a knife.eace:


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## banpreso (Jan 25, 2010)

i went to urgent care today. doctor said i would've gotten stiches hadi gone in yesterday, but now just let it heal, about 10 days i should be fine

phew... not too bad


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## cyberdoc (Nov 1, 2009)

Yep, after 6 hours, you don't suture. You let it heal secondary intention.


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## pure instincts (Feb 9, 2010)

Has anyone ever seen that video of a chef on a cooking show who says something along the line of "almost every accomplished chef has cut him or herself on a french mandolin, but I have not yet..." (cuts himself, and then start swearing profusely). Be proud of your battle scars! Rawr!


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## homemadecook (Jan 27, 2010)

I can imagine the pain. Ouch.. Take care nextime..


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## nick.shu (Jul 18, 2000)

And where was the guard?


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## cyberdoc (Nov 1, 2009)

Apparently not between the hand and eggplant. I love my slicer, but I always, always use the guard. I've never thought of my digits as particularly tasty.


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## cascadecatering (Feb 10, 2010)

I never use a guard, but I'm cautious to the point of paranoia. I find the guard too flimsy and unstable to bother with. Never had any major cuts with a mandolin so far.


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## banpreso (Jan 25, 2010)

lost the guard long time ago. 

honestly for eggplant i think i could've done a better job just wtih my chef knife. maybe i'll check out one of those kevlar gloves next time. 

the dish turned out great, everyone liked it


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## cyberdoc (Nov 1, 2009)

This is the one I have.


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## chefjason_s (Jul 14, 2009)

When I was in culinary school I had an instructor that said "if you didn't need stitches you didn't 'cut' yourself...you 'scratched' yourself". Unfortunatly, I have "cut" myself three times. It sounds like you did too you just let nature "stitch" it for you. Hope all is well.


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## chiffonade (Nov 29, 2001)

Oh that sucks. I usually cut myself at the tail end of a big gig. I've done all kinds of fancy knife work - and then cut myself while slicing baguettes.


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## just jim (Oct 18, 2007)

I cut myself on equipment far more often than with a knife.
Hotel pan nicks, cold table lid dings, etc.


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## theages (Feb 7, 2010)

I love this quote from Chef Jason S! We have a joking phrase in our kitchen, "6 stitches to go home early." I have also had a mandolin encounter, with the julienne blade attached. I received about 10 small slashes on the heel of my hand. And I still do not use the guard! But I have learned to be more careful.


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## chiffonade (Nov 29, 2001)

You guys are hard core! Reminds me of Monty Python and the Holy Grail: "It's only a flesh wound!"


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## cyberdoc (Nov 1, 2009)

I don't cut myself often, but I do tend to burn the crap out of myself.


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## cyberdoc (Nov 1, 2009)

The biggest suture job I ever had to do was 76 sutures, both cutaneous and subcutaneous. We had a lad on the ship who decided it was a good idea to cut rags by putting one end in his mouth, while holding the other end with his hand, and cutting down through the rag with a knife. He cut himself right down to the biceps. And yes, he got to go home early. Well, he got to go to his rack early since we were underway.


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## banpreso (Jan 25, 2010)

i needed stiches, but didn't end up getting them because i went to urgent care too late (the next day). so i guess i really did cut myself :smoking:

mandolins are far far more dangerous than a chef's knife!


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## just jim (Oct 18, 2007)

The thing I don't like about "Urgent" "Care" is they act like it isn't and they don't.


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## peachcreek (Sep 21, 2001)

The last time I cut myself at work was on a piece of bread. Yes. Bread. And not while cutting bread or with a knife in the area or anything like that. (This is where you get that great visual of somebody getting sliced open with a piece of white bread). 
What happened was I was taking out some boules of oatmeal- rosemary bread from the oven. The crust was rock hard and had a small piece of dried rosemary that had popped up through the crust and as I was putting my breads on the cooling rack caught my knuckle and sliced it right open.


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## banpreso (Jan 25, 2010)

umm i find them to be more helpful than ER... 

ER you wait wait wait and they charge you through the nose


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## just jim (Oct 18, 2007)

I've waited 4-6 hours to be seen at Urgent Care.
I pointed out that this hardly seemed urgent, they didn't seem to care.

Costwise, yeah, probably better......once you get in.


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## coulis-o (Jan 23, 2010)

i caught one of my fingers in a mandolin once the end of my little finger got caught in front of the guard, never again am always cautious when using my mandolin now.


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## nick.shu (Jul 18, 2000)

You do know that if you hold whatever your slicing in a tea towel, it works just as well. You might get a few strands in the food if your not careful, but its better than giving people a taste of yourself.


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## dc sunshine (Feb 26, 2007)

Tea towels work a treat, especially for carving hams, roasts etc where you can grab hold of the end of a bone.
Umm no, you don't carve it with the tea towel /img/vbsmilies/smilies/rolleyes.gif
I burn and scald myself more than cut - oven burns are my marks of pride. My arms look like a zebra at times. Trouble is, I need to wear glasses, this can muck you up with judging distances.


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