Stove Etiquette: What do?

This is one of my biggest pet peeves in the kitchen. Many people I've cooked with don't know STOVE ETIQUETTE. This is different than OVEN ETIQUETTE, which I'll make a different post about. A stove can be a wonderful tool for delicious food or it can be the catalyst that burns your house to the ground. It's good to learn how to use it safely, especially if you're new to cooking. These are things that aren't in cookbooks necessarily but were passed along through my family.

Okay, here is where the magic happens! My stove!

It doesn't look like much, but you don't have to have a gourmet kitchen to cook gourmet food. There are a few things to notice here:

1) The top is clean. If anything splashes or falls onto the surface, I clean it as quickly as reasonably possible. Obviously if you have an active burner or the surface is too hot, you wait until after you're done cooking to clean it, but don't leave it for too long. The longer you leave it, the harder it is to get off.

2) I'm using the back burners. Why? Because it's safer! If you're going to put one or more pots on at once, it's better to fill up the back burners first and then use the front ones. Use common sense as well. If you're cooking a stock that doesn't really need much supervision while you're making a sauce that needs constant attention, put the stock on the back burner and put the other pan on one of the front burners. The last thing you want to do is knock a giant pot of boiling hot meat juice all over yourself.

Here's another thing you should notice. Look at the position of the handle:

When you LET GO of the handle, always make sure it's POINTED TOWARDS THE CENTER OF THE STOVE. This is so, so important. What if someone with a billowy shirt/sweater/cape walks by and your pot handle is positioned in such a way that it catches onto their clothing and goes crashing onto the floor? Or yet worse, crashing all over said person and causing horrible burns? ALWAYS point the handles inward.

Another important point about pot handles: you NEED to be holding one if you're stirring anything in the pot. It's just a good habit to be in. I know you're balancing your wine in one hand and you just need to stir that soup just a little bit and surely it'll be okay, right? NO. DON'T. Put your glass of wine down, grab the handle of the pot, and stir away. Again, you don't want the pot slipping off the stove and murdering your best friend. Then, when you're done stirring, move the handle back to the "safe" position we talked about earlier.

**Note: Use your brain. Don't grab a hot handle. If the handle is too hot to touch, use a dish towel to hold it. Just keep it away from the flames and don't leave it on the handle when you take your hand off.

More pot information: KNOW YOUR POT.

See this awesome stock I'm making? I'm using a thick old-school dutch oven to do it. I want the soup to cook properly and stay hot, so I want to use the lid, but the lid doesn't have a cooling vent in it.

"Wait, what's that?" you ask. Some pots have little holes in the top of the lid to let steam out. If your pot doesn't have that (or even if it does and the hole is CRAZY small) leave some room at the top for the hot air to vent out. If you don't, you'll get that bubbly disaster that everyone associates with making pasta for the first time. Don't know what I'm talking about? Basically the liquid in your pot bubbles up crazy high and then comes out from under the lid all over your beautiful stove top. It's a nightmare. Don't do it.

Another thing to keep in mind when using pots with lids: if you take it off to stir, you need to put the lid down so you can hold the handle (remember?). So where do you put it? On the stove top, of course!

If you don't have any room on your stove top, find another surface that won't be damaged by the heat, like the edge of your sink, and put it down there.

Speaking of keeping your stove top clean...

...put something under your stirring utensil. Generally the best thing to use is a small ceramic dish because it's not flammable, but mine's dirty and I'm lazy so I'm using a wadded up paper towel. Notice that the paper towel is FAR away from the flames. Fire bad.

Extra stove stuff:

I generally like to keep some things on hand for my culinary adventures. Salt and pepper are obvious choices and should be right next to the stove for cooking purposes. I really enjoy cooking with lemon pepper as well so I have a little bowl that I can grab quick pinches from (with CLEAN hands). Lastly, you need your cooking oils next to where the cooking happens. **Keep an eye out for my post on oils.** I have two that I prefer: olive oil and coconut oil. Also, pro-tip, buy one of those quick-pour stoppers for liquor bottles and stick it in your favorite olive oil bottle. It will make your life so much easier.

Okay, that's all for now! Let me know if I left anything out or if you have any questions!