Equipment Expert Reveals Top Pick for the Best Pot Holders



Equipment expert Adam Ried reviews pot holders.

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45 Comments

  1. Wait you know a lot of cooks who won't use potholders… I don't think so. You only need 2nd and 3rd degree burns once to know it is not macho it is stupid. That was a bad intro. Unless those cooks never handle hot things.

  2. As a nerd, I'm curious how they measured the "thickness", since these are soft and squishy materials. If you just measure the thickness on minimal contact, that's not applicable to when you're actually holding something. But if you measure the thickness when pressure is applied, it becomes a question of how much pressure to apply.

    It's a super nerdy question, but Adam gave a thickness figure with a precision of one tenth of a millimeter*, so I have to assume it's a fair question.

    Side note: while not everyone is into pockets, they are very nice to have if there's a risk of touching something hot with the back of your hand. This could be accidentally touching a sidewall of your oven while pulling a wide pan out of the oven (of course, if the load isn't too heavy you should always slide the rack out a bit first), or putting a boule into or pulling it out of a pre-heated Dutch oven. Breadmaking oven temps are often rocket-hot.

    *If he had said "4.5 millimeters," I would have said the precision was on the order of half a millimeter, as "point five" is rarely indicative of a 0.1 precision. But he said "4.4 millimeters", so our precision here might be 0.1 millimeters, but is at most 0.2 millimeters. Which is still a teeny, tiny amount of thickness.

  3. I hate the thin potholders they make these days. They suck. I just don't know how we managed with those thick square potholders we used to have in the old days. Never had any issues getting stuff out of the oven or off the stove or messed up cakes using them. That sounds like operator error to me.

  4. I have a pair of Nomex gloves that were off-white when I got them. Now the ends of the fingers are burnt and black, as are the thumbs, but they still protect my hands from heat extremely well. As for washing them… if I happen to spill something on them, I wash them in soapy dishwater in the sink. Other than that, after 10 years or so, while they may look terrible, they are still going strong. I also have a brand-new pair of mitts with silicon texture on them that are hanging from my range hood that look beautiful but have never been used. I find the gloves give me a much better grip than anything else does.

  5. I've melted the neoprene ones and scorched many of the others. I've tried silicone and it just is clumsy. I have the wells lamont leather one and use them most, but they are not great when I have to hold the cast iron for any length of time and really hurt if they are wet.

  6. One thing I have noticed is that the average pot holder is not big enough. I’ve made mine 9 inch square about the right size for me. They have insulated batting and four layers of cotton.

  7. That's so funny that you're doing a segment on the pot holders because lo and behold I am so tired of burning and I'm not feeding right and not being able to grasp really well so this is good let me see show me what you got so I know what I need to go out and buy.

  8. When I was a small girl my mother would buy me potholder kits and have me make them. Then she would drive me to different neighborhoods and drop me off to sell them door to door. One for 15 cents two for 25 cents. Elderly women would always buy them. I was only 5 years old! Can you imagine a five year old going door to door in todays world! I really don't care for potholders today and use towels instead!

  9. What does it matter if it stains? Would rather my potholder stain than my hand suffer a burn. That said, I much prefer oven mitts for most uses (and the oxo potholder is practically halfway there already)

  10. I don’t know guys… I buy cheap pot holders for $4 a pair at Dollarama… they are flexible enough to get a great grip on even heavy pans, even when you need to double them up to get the heat protection you still done loose your grip… and they both are easy to toss in the wash between uses and cheap enough to have multiples… and when they get too stained or wear out you can just get another $4 pair!

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