cut myself today

[banpreso]

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

 

[left4bread]

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

 

[dillonsmimi]

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?

 

[cabosailor]

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

 

[gunnar]

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:

 

[banpreso]

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

 

[cyberdoc]

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

 

[pure instincts]

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!

 

[homemadecook]

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

 

[nick.shu]

And where was the guard?

 

[cyberdoc]

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.

 

[cascadecatering]

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.

 

[banpreso]

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

 

[cyberdoc]

This is the one I have.

 

[chefjason_s]

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.

 

[chiffonade]

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.

 

[just jim]

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

 

[theages]

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.

 

[chiffonade]

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

 

[cyberdoc]

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