Anonymous wrote:Oven, yes. Stovetop I try not to, but I have on occasion. Good example, I put rice on to cook, then dash out to get my son from school. I am there and back in 15 minutes.
Any longer and I certainly would not.

Crockpots! Rice cookers! All safer appliances than your oven / range

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.

I leave the oven on if I am going to be away for no more than 30 minutes.
However, once I left a chicken in the oven and left the house to drive my daughter to class 15 minutes away. On the way back, my car got rear-ended. The impact was not great as the car behind was standing as we both were waiting to turn (and the genius assumed that I would jump into the oncoming 3-car-length opening) so it was just a deep scratch on the bumper, and the car was not expensive or new. Still, I had to stop, get out of the car, talk to the guy, get his information, give him mine...
In short, my chicken did not get burnt, but definitely was overcooked.

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.

Oven, yes. Stovetop I try not to, but I have on occasion. Good example, I put rice on to cook, then dash out to get my son from school. I am there and back in 15 minutes.
Any longer and I certainly would not.

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.

Why take the risk. Tens of thousands of home fires that cause thousands of injuries and many deaths. And although this is only about 2011, the data is pretty consistent from 2000 forward. You can find more at the NFPA web-site.

http://www.nfpa.org/safety-information/for-consumers/causes/cooking

National Fire Protection Association wrote:
In 2011, cooking was involved in an estimated 156,300 home structure fires that were reported to U.S. fire departments. These fires caused 470 deaths, 5,390 injuries and $1.0 billion in direct property damage. Cooking caused 43% of reported home fires, 16% of home fire deaths, 38% of home fire injuries, and 12% of the direct property damage in home fires in 2011.

Facts & figures

Based on 2007-2011 annual averages:

Unattended cooking was by far the leading contributing factor in these fires.
Two-thirds (67%) of home cooking fires started with the ignition of food or other cooking materials.
Clothing was the item first ignited in less than 1% of these fires, but these incidents accounted for 15% of the cooking fire deaths.
Ranges accounted for the largest share (57%) of home cooking fire incidents. Ovens accounted for 16%.
More than half (55%) of reported non-fatal home cooking fire injuries occurred when the victims tried to fight the fire themselves.
Frying poses the greatest risk of fire.
Thanksgiving is the peak day for home cooking fires.

Dont do it op. You may get held up in traffic, by an accident, etc. Don't take a chance in coming home late to a burned down house.

Nope. Not the dryer either. Fire can be devastating in a home. It's not like most houses have sprinklers.

Never. Left a toaster oven on once as I ran around the corner to pick up something at the store -- this is when I lived in the city and I could not have been gone more than 15 min. The frozen pizza that was in there finished cooking, burned, and somehow set the oven on fire. I still done get how it happened but I walked back in to a (small) fire in my toaster oven. Was able to put it out myself but scary as hell, so I don't even leave plugged in appliances on now, let alone a stove with a flame.

No way! I don't even leave the oven on. Just a slow cooker at most.

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.

Oven fine, dryer fine, computer fine . . . stove with flame, probably ok on very low but my wife would buy a safety switch if she saw it . . . just got to make sure I get home before she does.

never!! And the dryer on is even worse!!!

Use a crockpot instead. You can simmer beans in that.

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?