We can't count the number of times we've merrily left the house only to be struck an hour or two later with the sudden thought, "Did the oven get turned off?" The worry that we left it on plagues us until we finally get home and dash to the kitchen to find...yup. We did! Here are a few tricks to help us all stop fretting!
This worry about leaving the stove or oven on is largely unmerited. It's just that it's so automatic to turn the oven off after cooking that we hardly realize we're doing it. And then we can't remember later if we've actually done it or not!
The key is to take a moment to really notice what we're doing. Try one (or all!) of these things as you're turning off the stove or oven:
• Say it out loud: "I'm turning off the oven now!"
• Say something completely random, like "Bubblegum!" or clap your hands a few times. You'll remember saying the silly word or the act of clapping even if you don't remember turning off the stove.
• Watch your hand as you turn the knob and focus on the fact that it's now turned off.
• Put a rubber band around the knob when you start cooking. When you turn the oven or stove off, put the rubber band around your wrist or in your pocket.
• Get in the habit of a last-minute kitchen check. Just before you leave, go in the kitchen and touch all the knobs to make sure everything is off.
Do you have another trick that works for you?
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Another tip: turn on the light in the fume hood (if you have one) when a burner or the oven is on, every time. If you associate "light is on" with "oven is on", it will provide a visual clue that the oven or a burner is on. When you shut it off, shut the light off too.
I use the rubber band idea for my grill, but I do the opposite of what you said. I leave a rubber band on the knob, when I turn it on, I put the rubber band on my wrist, when I turn it off I put the band back on the knob.
I do the "touch all the knobs" before leaving thing...but that's because I'm more than a little OCD.
glad i'm not the only one. my boyfriend thinks i'm going crazy. if only ovens had automatic shutoff like straightening irons...
Hmm.... my problem actually is leaving the oven on.
Thank you for the terrific tips. Between the stove, flat iron and the garage door remembering what's on/off and down makes leaving the house something akin to the memory game!
My husband automatically checks when I leave the kitchen.
I leave the oven light on whenever I'm baking things, and don't turn it off til the oven is off. I've never had a problem leaving the burners on, luckily... I turn them off when I take the pan off, unless it's going RIGHT back on. I'm a klutz, and would end up burning myself a lot more otherwise. XD
I always turn it off before I take out the food, if something isn't quite done then I need to turn it back on. No chance of getting distracted and forgetting that way.
Now I just have to remember to remember.
I turn the oven light on every time I turn the oven on, and don't turn it off until the oven is not only off but also cool. I do a lot of baking (cakes, muffins etc) in addition to roasted dinners, so from time to time I go to slap a casserole in the oven and discover that I only took the cupcakes out ten minutes ago and my hand is now bright red.
As long as the light's on, I have a visual cue: "this is hot because it's glowing." And because I turn out all the lights before I leave my house/go to bed, having my kitchen lit up is a dead giveaway that I might have forgotten to do something important.
I do a lot of the above for my hot iron more so than my oven. I have to say it out loud and I double check that its unplugged.
I unplug small appliences/flat iron and make a point to think about it as I do it. That usually helps. The oven is just a double check thing when I'm done. I have left a pot holder on my glass top range while it was on and saw it just in time to see little sparks going up. In my defence I was not done cooking but had turned on the wrong burner. I don't really like my glass top!!
These are good tips. We have a newer gas stove with burners that go to a very low simmer, and I've left them on at that point a few times. Scary!
I love the suggestions (especially the rubber band)! I use my oven almost daily and have this worry.
Our oven is really noisy. It's pretty easy to tell if
it's on or off. It makes a rather unpleasant high pitched noise from the fan vent I assume.
Oh for the day when I can afford a new oven...
This is too funny--because for some reason recently I have started worrying about this (I suspect it's relating to being in the home stretch of pregnancy and related nerves!) I have started the "kitchen check" when leaving the house (which is convenient given where our ktichne is located) and just tell myself there are three things to check, and I say out loud to myself I've checked them all. So, a combination of what you are suggesting. Nice to know I'm not the only one who worries about this!
My problem is that my husband stores cakes and pies in the oven. I can't tell you how many things I've re-baked by "pre-heating" them along with the oven. We are at an impasse - I can't get him to stop storing things in the oven and he can't get me to remember to check it before I turn it on.
I always add a visual cue- I turn on the oven light when the oven goes on and the turn it and the gas off as the item comes out. The light glowing out of the oven door as I peer into the kitchen for my last check-over lets me know!
My problem is not going out and leaving the oven/hob on it's getting distracted and forgetting is on.
I used to have a lovely Le Creuset whistling kettle - actually, I used to have two, and I boiled them both dry countless times, the final straw was melting the hard plastic bit that attached the handle to the kettle! Ooops! I now have a far less beautiful and non whistling electric kettle... Much safer though!
I have also stored my daughter's 3rd birthday cake in the oven, out of the cat's reach only to forget it was in there, turn the oven on in the morning and melted the clingfilm and sweets on top of the cake - never done it again though!
A trick I learned in the lab - leave your car keys near the stove.
Really, just excited to see that my mother and I aren't the only ones.
I hate my electric stove, but it does one wonderful thing that my old gas stove growing up never did - if anything is on, there's a little red light on the top panel that tells you at a glance if you've remember to turn everything off.
Strange, I never felt like I had this problem (worrying if I had turned the oven off), and I was annoyed by my new oven's insistence that I press the Start button again each time I opened the door to check the cooking food, but now I realize that the oven was made for you guys!
A colleague of mine just had a fire because she put her plastic kitchen garbage can up on the stovetop after her dog knocked it over, AGAIN! You guessed it, the burner was still on, just a little bit. Smoke from burning plastic is really nasty.
I'm going to try the rubber band trick, only in reverse like jatoha. I'll just put rubber bands around all the knobs, and put them on my wrist when I turn something on.
I try to make it a habit to turn the oven off before the food comes out. Even if I am baking a cake and the door is open for the final check, I turn the oven off and then remove the cake.