A timely reminder about ‘avocado-hand’ injuries

By Mike Nolan

Home › Forums › Cooking — (other than baking) › A timely reminder about ‘avocado-hand’ injuries

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  • January 29, 2020 at 11:19 am #20820
    Mike Nolan
    Keymaster

      The Wall Street Journal has an article up today about the most common kitchen accident seen in emergency rooms in the hours leading up to the Super Bowl, avocado-hand injuries. That's when you hold the avocado in your and whack the avocado pit with your chef's knife so you can remove the pit, and miss.

      It is one of the two most common kitchen injuries seen in emergency rooms. The other is the dreaded 'bagel slice' injury.

      So, if you're making guacamole for Sunday's game, be sure to to do it safely.

      This link might work for some people:WSJ article on avacado-hand injuries

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      January 29, 2020 at 11:38 am #20821
      aaronatthedoublef
      Participant

        With our discussion of Alton Brown and Good Eats, this was just on last Sunday. But Alton said the injury came more from removing the pit from the knife than from whacking the pit with the knife.

        It is shocking how dangerous cutting bagels can be. I watched as our kids put a bagel in a holder we have designed to hold the bagel and guide the knife and then do stupid things like stick a finger in the bagel hole! Of course stopped them immediately.

        January 29, 2020 at 11:53 am #20822
        Mike Nolan
        Keymaster

          I always wince when I watch chefs using a mandoline without using the safety guard.

          January 29, 2020 at 11:55 am #20823
          aaronatthedoublef
          Participant

            I actually did that the other night. The guard for our mandolin is long gone. I do have a cut glove, however (should be called a "no-cut glove") and I should have used that.

            January 29, 2020 at 12:12 pm #20824
            Mike Nolan
            Keymaster

              I went out and bought a cheap Sharper Image mandoline just to get the guard. I actually like that guard more than the one that goes with my much more expensive Matfer Bourgeat mandoline. The Matfer is kind of complicated to set up but works well for large volume slicing. But in some ways, the old Vegematic from the early 60's was hard to beat.

              I'm pretty careful around mandolines, the only one I ever cut myself on was a Progressive one that had three separate blades that would snap in, but they wouldn't stay put and it would fall apart like a house of cards. I threw that one away. (I've been satisfied with most of the Progressive tools I have, I've got a potato slicer that works very well.)

              January 29, 2020 at 4:12 pm #20826
              aaronatthedoublef
              Participant

                We have a Benriner which appears to be about $20 on Amazon. The guard was never very good and it appears to have a couple of blades which have been lost along the way too. But the blade we have is STILL sharp and this is something my wife brought with her when we were engaged and moved in together so that is 19 years ago (I proposed in March of 2001). We also had a fancy one from William Sonoma that someone gave us as a wedding gift that was dull the day we received it. That one is floating around somewhere but it was pretty dangerous precisely because it was so dull...

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