We are looking for oven gloves, having just worn through a month old pair we bought in William Sonoma.
We have had many, many pairs over the years both cheap and expensive; we have yet to find a pair that will stand up to normal everyday use for more than three months - would your readers have a view on this?
With young kids around you need to be sure that you are not going to burn yourself by surprise when you take something out of the oven or lift a lid on a boiling pot - flying or falling ovenware is not exactly the safest thing.
For the record, when it comes to lifting hot pans in and out of the oven, as well as moving pots with hot handles, we usually just grab a kitchen towel. We keep a series of plain white towels around the kitchen and we tuck these into our apron as we cook. We use them to brush off surfaces quickly, lift hot pans, and wipe our hands. This is generally all that is used in professional kitchens and in cooking school.
We find potholders too stiff and unwieldy, much of the time, and oven gloves a hassle to pull on and off.
That being said, though, we realize that kitchen towels can be a fire hazard, especially with small children about, and we do appreciate an oven glove from time to time when dealing with especially heavy and hot pots that shift or might burn through a towel.
Here are two that we find appealing.
• The Ove Glove - Pictured at top of post. As seen on TV!! Ha - but with good reason. We actually have one of these and it has lasted a long time. It's great and always holds up to really high heats. Be careful, though; if it gets wet you'll get burned. Single glove is $19.25 at Amazon and now has added silicone grips.
• Nomex Gloves - Cheaper and better rated than the much-vaunted Ove Glove, however, are these Kevlar gloves (which come as a pair) for $31.99 at Amazon. These have extra-long cuffs that cover your forearms - nice for grilling or doing especially dangerous frying.
• Dutch Oven Leather Gloves - These are leather gloves designed for camp stoves and Dutch ovens. $11.95 at Kamper's Kettle.
Look for a rather funny related product we saw at the Housewares Show - coming up soon...
Also see these posts related oven mitt-age...
• Apron + Built in Oven Mitts
• For the Kids - Hothead Oven Mitts
(Images: Amazon, Kamper's Kettle, and Amazon)
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i was just thinking about the Ove glove this weekend and telling my wife i'd like one for my b-day. mostly for grilling.
we had some friends stay with us for the weekend and we did some heavy grilling. heavy for my little grill (i have a big pro grill but can't have it at my apartment, so i have a weber Q220 i hide in the outdoor closet). So the grill was filled to the brim with skewers of red potatoes, chicken breasts, and baskets of yellow squash and zucchini. The hard part was trying to turn everything since it was so packed. the chicken isn't hard, grab it with tongs and flip, but the skewers and baskets didn't go as easily. the baskets have handles, but have the wire go all they way around the bamboo handles for strength, and then they get crazy hot.
So we'll just say i burnt myself a lot. Along with i didn't want to get my wife's good oven mitt all nastied up since i was touching the grill and had my hand over fire etc... So i've been wondering if this would take care of my problem, and i can avoid skin grafts on my hand for a few more years...
I had Ove-Gloves and didn't care for them. The knit is too loose and heat can be felt through the open spaces.
I like my silicone oven mitts, but I wish I had something that fit my hand more closely. Sometimes it's difficult to grasp things.
I have oven mitts - not gloves, and I have had them for 8 years with no damage - they are from Pampered Chef - a tad expensive, and I think that they only sell one, so you have to order 2, but they are the best as far as I am concerned for hot pots and pans from the oven.
I have a pair of silcone oven mitts, which are very stiff, but do the job. They would also work for a Halloween costume as a lobster being a terra cotta red (see the KCure Flickr pool for photo). I got them at American Science and Surplus for very cheap (they don't have 'em now). They have a weird variety of stuff, and usually sells out quick, but you can't beat the prices. See http://www.sciplus.com/category.cfm/subsection/6/category/60 for their kitchenware du jure.
I have a single quilted silvery mitt, burned, stained, and ripped, that was a house warming gift, several houses back. I also got one of those knitted Ove-type mitts, but I can't recommend it. If you get it wet, even just a splash, the heat comes right through. Ouch!
I have an Ove Glove (courtesy of my mother-in-law) and it's great. I use it mostly for things that I would otherwise burn my hand doing: namely reaching into the oven to get a pan. (I'm a klutz.) So far it has protected me well!