I don't really have anything to add to this. I did not learn from anybody how to cook; I read online and basically taught myself and used common sense and asked various people on lists like this about techniques. I have not learned how to do a whole lot of fancy things like building cream puffs or hollandaise sauce, but I like to think I'm reasonably well accomplished in the kitchen, for any cook, not just blind. One thing I'll add is about the knives. A sharp knife is less dangerous because dull knives slip and slide all over the surface of the item being cut increasing hte risk of injury. When adding things to hot oil, add them slowly to decrease splattering and burning. That's how many people cause fires trying to deep fry turkeys; they just drop the whole bird in the oil and go Huh? When it blows up on them. Prepare your ingredients before hand. There's a french word for that whole process which I can't remember now. Measure your spices and cut your ingredients. This will save you time in cooking.
----- Original Message ----- From: "M and L Dorn" <marilyn.larry@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <blindcooks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2013 7:36 PM Subject: [blindcooks] Re: Helping a totally blind friend learn to cook
Practicing with a cold pan and meat might be helpful to get the hang of feeling your way around. I also thought about the glove, but I was thhinking of the ov-glove which is for heat protection but with the fingers. Either use the same type glove on each hand or an oven mit on the pan holding hand for taking the pan out of the oven. The people at state rehab when doing an evaluation on our skills had us make a pan fried cheese sandwich. We taught them to melt the butter in the pan first. Then place the sandwich into the pan. Then you turn it over and move it around the pan to get all the butter. It's a lot easier than trying to evenly spread butter onto the bread. It's an easy item to feel with a spatula, and you can do it at a lower temp and just cook it longer, which works better anyway. He needs to think of the utensil as an extension of his hand and feel around the pan and food in it. You can feel the edge of the pan's outside and the burner to know it's well placed and not hanging too far off center. You can feel around the edges of the steaks to see if they overlapped or are partly running up the side of the pan. You can feel how firm the meat is to judge doneness. I can see that trying to use the utensil with an oven mit on could be cumbersome.As for the produce cutting and knives etc., the sharp knife is much less dangerous. A dull knife results in you having to force it through the food, which could cause you to slip and cut yourself. Simply slow down and focus on what your hands are doing. Taking your time is the best injury prevention I know of. If and when an injury happens, have the things you will need easily to hand so there's not a delay looking for things. A good aloe vera burn cream and some band-aids are something everyone needs handy... not just blind cooks. Any cook who says they've never burned or cut themselves is full of it. Sighted cooks get injured, sometimes more often than a blind person because they don't pay attention to what they're doing. They also make as much of a mess as anyone of us. Years ago the Bissel company had a slogan that I use a lot... Life's messy; clean it up.Take your time. Practice. Be willing to clean up and treat the occasional injury. If you have trouble one way, try another.Oh yes, I have done with pancakes, but the same method could work for burgers, steaks, eggs, and more, to use 2 pans and turn the entire pan over into the other one. If the second pan is larger, you have a margin for error to be sure the food lands in the pan.Maybe also try the steaks first with a side dish or salad that doesn't need attention. One thing at a time to focus on might be easier until the first thing is easily done. Then you can add other things to cook at the same time. Trying to do multiple things at once can be intimidating because you want things done almost at the same time. Dividing your attention before you really have the hang of it could prove to be a bit much.TTFN, Marilyn
