The Best Oven Mitts (and Why They’re Not Towels)
I’ve seen “pro tip” on social media: real chefs handle hot pans and handles with tea towels, not oven mitts, idiot. God, why are you such an amateur? Maybe not that last part, but sometimes it feels like it. While this is true in some kitchens, towels as mittens are not universally used. When it comes to handling hot metal, it’s best to use oven mitts.
Using folded kitchen towels ( always this type ) to handle hot baking sheets has, in my experience, never been the norm. I’d say there’s a 3% chance that cooking will be so urgent that my co-workers or I will need to bring a towel instead of mittens. (Usually this was because all the mittens were missing for some reason.) Besides comfort, there is one important reason for this: towels can be dangerous.
Why towels make terrible potholders
The biggest problem with towels is that they are towels. They are designed to dry wet items, usually hands or freshly washed tools, after which the towel naturally becomes damp or wet. If you have a bunch of damp towels scattered around a busy kitchen, someone is bound to grab one in a hurry and pull a pot of roast pork out of the 400°F oven. Do you know what kind of “thank you” they get? Unpleasant steam burn. Water in a wet towel pressed against a hot piece of metal quickly evaporates into steam. To make matters worse, the surprised cook is holding a pan full of hot food, so they can either drop it on the floor or suffer the trauma of putting the food in safely. Towels are intended for drying. Let’s let the big kids do the dangerous work.
The best oven mitts for your kitchen.
Oven mitts are made for this job—they’re thick, heat-resistant, or fire-resistant—and you’d never think of using them to dry dishes. Here are some of the ones I like.
Protect more than just your hands. I’ve never been into pot holders. I feel too unprotected in them. I prefer the ones that have large fingers and cover the wrist and forearm a little. While short ones that only cover your hand will work, they won’t actually protect your hands. There is always the possibility of accidentally touching the edge of the oven or the top rack, so choose longer ones to eliminate the risk.
Grill mitts. Grill mitts should also have arm protection up to the elbow. The reason they deserve special attention is that the temperature of a grill or brick oven far exceeds the capabilities of a conventional oven. Your home oven may regularly reach 350°F, but your grill can reach a scorching 600°F. In addition, the presence of open flames should be taken into account. Purchase oven mitts that can withstand higher temperatures.
Try gloves. I get it, mittens are clunky, but folded towels give the impression of dexterity. What about gloves? These gloves are heat-resistant gloves with silicone handles and a little wrist protection. They provide safety and greater mobility than regular oven mitts.