When you go out, do you leave your stove (range) on?

[Anonymous]

That $20 crockpot or rice cooker you bought at Walmart or Costco is safer than your heavily regulated oven or dryer? I don't think so. Dryers that are 30 years old and full of lint maybe, but a newer one?

[Anonymous]

Stove no, oven yes. Le Creuset in a 250 oven is fine for quite some time.

[Anonymous]

Stove, no. Oven, I havent, but have considered as it is getting warmer and I'd like to spend some time after work/ daycare with my kids at the park right behind our house, so I've thought about putting dinner in and then leaving it while we go to the playgound for 30 minutes.

We don't have our own washer and drier but I wouldn't have even thought not to leave it on. Maybe that's because I've never had one though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hell no! DH thinks it is ok to leave the oven on or dryer running - I have reluctantly allowed the dryer.

The range - with a gas flame? You need a crock pot!

The dryer is fine who are you people. Did you just get your first dryer?

Nope - but a friend of my mom's had her whole house burn down because she had too much lint in the dryer line and it caught fire. It they were home to call the fire dept, they might have saved part of their house and their pets.

Don't people clean those things out? We have a special wand cleaner thing just for that. This is safety 101. The dryer did not burn the house down. Negligence on the part of the home owner did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That $20 crockpot or rice cooker you bought at Walmart or Costco is safer than your heavily regulated oven or dryer? I don't think so. Dryers that are 30 years old and full of lint maybe, but a newer one?

LOL, I was thinking the same thing, but why bother asking?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't leave anything except the crockpot on because I have a dog at home and while things can be replaced, he can't and in the event of a house fire I would be devastated if he was trapped inside and couldn't get out.

You and I think the same!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, you all much not do a lot of slow cooking (and crockpot food is nasty).

I leave the range running for 24hrs when I make beef broth and a few other things. I did it this weekend as a matter of fact. Turned the broth on at 6PM, went out to eat, came home, went to sleep, got up went to the gym, went to brunch, went to a game and then came home and turned the broth off.

I leave the oven running quite often for 3-8hrs and I'll leave and go to my kids basketball games.

You can buy broth at whole foods. Do you slaughter your own cattle?

Canned/boxed broth is AWFUL!!! Have you ever tried to make consommé out of that crap (I'm guessing you have never made consommé)? Blech. Quality broth will turn into a gelatin when cooled and that is where the goodness is found. Look up the health and taste benefits and enlighten yourself on that.

Funny you ask about slaughtering...not exactly, but close. I do buy all of my meat in bulk from local farmers. With that I get amazing beef bones, old laying hens (perfect for rich broth) and even broth bones from pigs which make great pork broth for Asian inspired soups. I even get the chicken feet which make perfect chicken broth.

I'd throw my French Onion soup up against anything Patrick O'Connell makes-you can't touch my soups because of the rich broth I make.

You, I like. I do this whenever possible. Unfortunately, not enough freezer space to keep a lot of the broth, but I do make chicken stock a lot, since we frequently use it.

Although I'm fairly certain that Patrick O'Connell makes his own broth, as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, you all much not do a lot of slow cooking (and crockpot food is nasty).

I leave the range running for 24hrs when I make beef broth and a few other things. I did it this weekend as a matter of fact. Turned the broth on at 6PM, went out to eat, came home, went to sleep, got up went to the gym, went to brunch, went to a game and then came home and turned the broth off.

I leave the oven running quite often for 3-8hrs and I'll leave and go to my kids basketball games.

You can buy broth at whole foods. Do you slaughter your own cattle?

Canned/boxed broth is AWFUL!!! Have you ever tried to make consommé out of that crap (I'm guessing you have never made consommé)? Blech. Quality broth will turn into a gelatin when cooled and that is where the goodness is found. Look up the health and taste benefits and enlighten yourself on that.

Funny you ask about slaughtering...not exactly, but close. I do buy all of my meat in bulk from local farmers. With that I get amazing beef bones, old laying hens (perfect for rich broth) and even broth bones from pigs which make great pork broth for Asian inspired soups. I even get the chicken feet which make perfect chicken broth.

I'd throw my French Onion soup up against anything Patrick O'Connell makes-you can't touch my soups because of the rich broth I make.

You, I like. I do this whenever possible. Unfortunately, not enough freezer space to keep a lot of the broth, but I do make chicken stock a lot, since we frequently use it.

Although I'm fairly certain that Patrick O'Connell makes his own broth, as well.

I'm positive he does, even a good home cook knows good broth is key...but my secret is in the bones I get. I'm sure he gets good bones too. I'm just very confident in my french onion soup

[Anonymous]

No way. It could boil over or dry out. Too dangerous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, you all much not do a lot of slow cooking (and crockpot food is nasty).

I leave the range running for 24hrs when I make beef broth and a few other things. I did it this weekend as a matter of fact. Turned the broth on at 6PM, went out to eat, came home, went to sleep, got up went to the gym, went to brunch, went to a game and then came home and turned the broth off.

I leave the oven running quite often for 3-8hrs and I'll leave and go to my kids basketball games.

You can buy broth at whole foods. Do you slaughter your own cattle?

Canned/boxed broth is AWFUL!!! Have you ever tried to make consommé out of that crap (I'm guessing you have never made consommé)? Blech. Quality broth will turn into a gelatin when cooled and that is where the goodness is found. Look up the health and taste benefits and enlighten yourself on that.

Funny you ask about slaughtering...not exactly, but close. I do buy all of my meat in bulk from local farmers. With that I get amazing beef bones, old laying hens (perfect for rich broth) and even broth bones from pigs which make great pork broth for Asian inspired soups. I even get the chicken feet which make perfect chicken broth.

I'd throw my French Onion soup up against anything Patrick O'Connell makes-you can't touch my soups because of the rich broth I make.

I'm sure the consommé will be a wonderful consolation to your family when your house is burned to the ground.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, you all much not do a lot of slow cooking (and crockpot food is nasty).

I leave the range running for 24hrs when I make beef broth and a few other things. I did it this weekend as a matter of fact. Turned the broth on at 6PM, went out to eat, came home, went to sleep, got up went to the gym, went to brunch, went to a game and then came home and turned the broth off.

I leave the oven running quite often for 3-8hrs and I'll leave and go to my kids basketball games.

You can buy broth at whole foods. Do you slaughter your own cattle?

Canned/boxed broth is AWFUL!!! Have you ever tried to make consommé out of that crap (I'm guessing you have never made consommé)? Blech. Quality broth will turn into a gelatin when cooled and that is where the goodness is found. Look up the health and taste benefits and enlighten yourself on that.

Funny you ask about slaughtering...not exactly, but close. I do buy all of my meat in bulk from local farmers. With that I get amazing beef bones, old laying hens (perfect for rich broth) and even broth bones from pigs which make great pork broth for Asian inspired soups. I even get the chicken feet which make perfect chicken broth.

I'd throw my French Onion soup up against anything Patrick O'Connell makes-you can't touch my soups because of the rich broth I make.

I'm sure the consommé will be a wonderful consolation to your family when your house is burned to the ground.

Don't worry about me. I'm sure our house will be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not sure how much it matters but the data from the report above does not involve unattended cooking but instead it seems like the majority of fires started when people were actively cooking and made things worse when they tried to put the fire out.

You are incorrect. I bolded the line from the report:

Unattended cooking was by far the leading contributing factor in these fires.

and the report was clear that unattended meant both cases where individuals left the house or were still in the house, but left the cooking unattended such as going to sleep or being in a different part of the house.

In 2011 alone, there were 156,300 home fires. Cooking caused 43% or just over 67000 fires. Unattended cooking cause more of those 67000 fires than any other cause. There were 10's of thousands of house fires caused by unattended cooking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not sure how much it matters but the data from the report above does not involve unattended cooking but instead it seems like the majority of fires started when people were actively cooking and made things worse when they tried to put the fire out.

You are incorrect. I bolded the line from the report:

Unattended cooking was by far the leading contributing factor in these fires.

and the report was clear that unattended meant both cases where individuals left the house or were still in the house, but left the cooking unattended such as going to sleep or being in a different part of the house.

In 2011 alone, there were 156,300 home fires. Cooking caused 43% or just over 67000 fires. Unattended cooking cause more of those 67000 fires than any other cause. There were 10's of thousands of house fires caused by unattended cooking.

What kind of unattended cooking? Cooking where you did not have enough liquid? High heat cooking? Cooking in oil? Cooking with an old stove that was not connected to an electrical supply up to code?

WHENVER you see statistics, use your brain and try to peel back the onion.

[Anonymous]

I will leave it unattended for a short period of time IF it's a really long, slow simmer. Something like beans, beef stew, pot roast, or real broth from chicken/beef bones. If it's been simmering for hours, I know it's at the right setting (not going to boil over or dry up), and I clear the entire area around it, leaving for 20 min to grab one missing ingredient from the corner store or pick my kid up from a neighbor seems like a reasonable level of risk.