You know you’re getting old when (among other things) you begin to feel that none of the gadgets, doodads, gizmos, and minor amenities that made your life comfortable exist anymore. Or if they do, the darn things don’t work anymore!
Case in point: The potholder.
What is it with those silicone things
These little frauds are a total mystification. They’re clumsy. They’re ugly. They won’t wrap around a hot pan handle. And contrary to what their admirers say, they don’t protect your hands from heat any better than a real potholder, which is to say, “a potholder made from several layers of heavy terrycloth.”
One consumer effuses, “I absolutely love these potholders!!!!” Exclamation point. Then she goes on to remark, “You need to be aware of the location of the hole in one corner of the potholder. I didn’t pay attention one day and got a nasty burn pulling a very hot pan out of the oven. If you are a bit of a klutz, like me, best to keep 100% aloe in the house just in case you do what I did.”
Uhm…. Doesn’t a hole in the potholder defeat the purpose of a potholder? The whole idea of using a potholder is to keep from getting burnt so you don’t need to have a bottle of aloe vera cluttering up your kitchen counter.
Another burbles, after allowing that they are a bit stiff and difficult to use, “They have a bonus use, as a very good way to get a grip on jars or similar items that are hard to open. (I use mine to unscrew the faucet water filter when it needs to be replaced.)” So…the tradeoff for the aloe on the kitchen counter is a hot pad that doubles as a rubber gripper. Why not just get a rubber gripper for those hard-to-open jars and opt the burned fingers?
Well, we—or more likely, a coalition of manufacturers and marketers—have decided that the silicone things are so wondrous that real potholders are getting very hard to find. The last time I searched in Williams-Sonoma, Bed Bath & Beyond, Sur la Table, and Target, I couldn’t find a real, terrycloth potholder, one that’s terrycloth on both sides, not one with a decorative scene stamped on useless cotton or one with a shiny, fake asbestos backing. All I want is a terrycloth potholder, terrycloth through and through. And I’d kinda like it not to be ugly.
After some traipsing through Amazon, I came across these Gourmet Classics terry Potholders
Red is the only color that’s not plug-hideous. They also come in pea-soup green, dungeon black, and apartment-house beige. What recommends them is their size: they’re 8 by 8, the size of a normal potholder.
However, here’s one that purports to be 8½ x 8½. It comes in blue, red, and yellow, and not only that, but it’s a few cents cheaper than the “gourmet” variety.
That Wedgewood blue doesn’t match the blue trim in my kitchen’s Mexican tilework, but what the heck. The things hang inside a cabinet, so no one’s going to see them when they’re put away. Truth to tell, with some exploration you discover that this model comes in many colors, from day-glo red to cobalt via moss green.
If nothing will do for your kitchen but metaphorical greenness, believe it or not they make an “organic” potholder.
We’re told these things are made of cotton “grown without the use of harmful chemicals, pesticides and fertilizers. The methods, materials and dyes used in organic cotton have a low impact on the environment and are certified by Skal International.” The only colors available are earth-tones. In addition to the brit-shindle above, there’s a kind of pinkish terracotta, a leaf green that verges on the minty, and maize yellow. That’s a better selection than any of the other offerings. This potholder, though, is an odd shape: 7¾ x 9 inches. But that might not be a bad thing.
Isn’t it ridiculous that you can no longer buy an ordinary, functional potholder at the corner grocery store or even at the mall kitchen shop? Well. If all else fails, you can make your own:
What products from the good old days do you miss the most?
Caphalon sells oven mitts and pot holders that are very good. They’re on Amazon but they’re in the $10 – 15 range. We have a Caphalon outlet store in the outlet center that we hit twice a year, so we can generally get them cheaper if need be, but the set we’ve had since we got married in 2007 has been doing just fine. Bed Bath & Beyond may carry them as well if memory serves.
I have some oldish potholders from Wms-Sonoma–gross now but functional. Look at Marshalls and similar–you can find the Calphalon ones for cheaper than at Amazon. I read somewhere that the silicone ones were slippery. I find Amazon reviews overly positive as a rule (my toaster oven, for instance).
OH jesus was this written by my Mother in Law?
She was up here visiting our new born talking about how all the new things we have are crap compared to how she raised her daughter (my wife).
Oh My God, the potholder loom from my childhood. I LOVED those. They were metal when I was a kid, but I do believe they are now plastic. I would happily sift through all the “loops” and make potholders of different color combinations. I believe I even tried to sell them once, probably my mother being the only one who bought any.
(Sigh) What a memory!
@ Evan: heee heeeeee! We have GOT to find a way to introduce you to my son. In the first place you’d be a good influence on him; in the second, I suspect the two of you would resonate off each other!
@ frugalscholar: I think mine also are from Williams-Sonoma or maybe Sur La Table. They’re very ancient and have been laundered and repaired many times. Maybe it’s because they last so long that the manufacturers wish to be rid of them…
Yesh, I truly do suspect that marketing people hire shills to write glowing reviews on sites like Amazon and Angie’s List.
@ E. Murphy: No, I think these things have metal, too! Or at least one of them advertised on Amazon.com does…I stumbled across a description of the thing that mentioned metal thingies in it, with great pride and joy.
I bought two Ove Gloves a while back and absolutely love them–they are made out of Nomex, and really protect my hands. (I bought mine at Walgreens, but they sell them all over.)
I agree the silicone potholders you show are worthless, except maybe as hot pads to protect a table or kitchen counter. But the “grid” ones from Sur La Table are flexible and work well. PLUS, they still work when wet (and you probably know from hard experience that using a wet cloth potholder is a sure way to a bad burn). The red color wouldn’t be my first choice, but I do like how they function.
http://www.surlatable.com/product/PRO-551127/Silicone-Grid-Potholder
@ Carol: True! The grid-shaped silicone version from Sur la Table is MUCH superior to the design shown above. But I still find it clumsy compared to a cloth pad. And it does have that same hole in it, for hanging.
Weirdly, ever since I was a little kid I’ve known not to use a wet cloth to pick up a hot pan. Vaguely, it seems to me someone warned me not to do that, but it seems pretty obvious. People do get burned that way, so it’s probably not as obvious as I imagine. It’s just never happened to me.
Another hazard of cloth pot holders is fire. Leave it near a stove burner and you can start a nice little conflagration. I did see one of my mother’s friends pull that trick, and since then have been careful to keep hotpads away from heat as well as from water.
The dollar store sells potholders, I think. You can also find them at yard sales.
If I ever find time to get the sewing machine up and running (I bought it for $2 at a church rummage sale oh, several years ago) then I am going to practice by cutting worn-out towels into squares and stitching them together to make potholders.
Or maybe stitching several layers’ worth of washcloths together to make potholders. Sometimes the cloths get musty-smelling and can’t be persuaded to come clean, as it were. Usually they become cleaning rags. But I never learned to sew as a kid (I was afraid that if I learned it, I would be expected to do it) and I’m thinking I should learn. In my spare time.
And incidentally, I’m STILL using a potholder that I bought 32 years ago. Yes, I said 32 years. Maybe they really don’t make ’em like they used to. The other two potholders I own came from a rummage sale, too, for a quarter total.
I hate the silicone potholders. I cannot get a grip on them to fold and grip a pot handle. Since I burned my hand using one of them, why would I want to use silicone as a hot pad or an iron pad? The heat came right through the silicone. I have about twenty potholders, some over 40 years old. Some are advertising. The oldest one has a mushroom on it. How is that for old? I still have my metal loom and make potholders with loops when I need them. I find new potholders at yard sales for a quarter or less.
As for stores carrying potholders, KMart is the place to go.
I found a cart full of kitchen linens at Walmart, all marked 10 cents. I bought sets separated and gave them for gifts once I reunited the sets.
What do I miss?—ta da–the salt sprinkler on the top of Morton’s salt. Remember those? There was a pouring spout and an opening for sprinkling salt…in essence, it was a salt shaker or a salt pourer. Once they took that off, I just bought any old salt.
I despise the new potholders too – both the silicone ones and the really heavy quilted types. I’ve never found any that are actually workable. Maybe ok for people just pulling hot stuff out of the microwave, but not for real cooking.
I finally bought one of those looms several years ago & made a bunch of the old fashioned kind. You just have be sure you buy COTTON loops, as most of them out there these days are synthetic, which at best transmit heat instead of protecting your hands & at worst melt to the hot pan!
Another good item from the old days are homemade knitted or crocheted dishwashing squares. I have a friend who still makes these for gifts & everyone always is thrilled to get them.
Can’t think of anything else I miss, but this was spot on!
@ valleycat, Practical Parsimony, Donna Freedman:
Thanks for the tip about the cotton (not synthetic!) loops for the handmade potholders. Melt to the pan? Yipe!
Didn’t think about the dollar store, but that would be a likely place to search, They might have the crocheted-style dishwashing squares, too — and yes, I do remember those! 🙂
They closed all the K-marts within reasonable driving distance of my inner-city neighborhood. It would’ve made sense, though, to have checked the Walmart (duh!). I hardly ever shop there because the parking lot is a madhouse — you put your fenders at grave risk every time you cruise through the place looking for a space. The shopping center (which also houses the closest Costco) has one of the highest robbery and car break-in rates in the city, so…avoid!
It’s pretty easy to make a terry potholder with a washcloth. Get yourself some binding tape, the kind that has a crease up the middle and folds over. Fold a clean washcloth in quarters. Pin or baste the binding tape all the way around the outside edge, fashioning a hanging loop with the ends. Then run a seam with your sewing machine (you could do this by hand, too, but it would be tedious). Actually…absent a sewing machine, you probably could sew the edges together with a blanket stitch, using sturdy thread or cotton yarn, and dispense with the binding.
Problem is, a quartered washcloth is smaller than 8 x 8. Though it works, one would like a potholder to be a bit larger.
A very nice potholder in the size you preferred can be crocheted using cotton yarn doubled or tripled. I do remember making the potholders on the loom as a young girl. Good memories. My sisters and I used to crochet or embroider on Saturday mornings when we weren’t allowed to come out of our room until our parents got up. It seems to me that can openers used to work for years and years but we have had a hard time finding one to last of late. Even the Swing-a-way seems to be shoddily built. My son bought me an electric can opener which surprisingly works very well.
@ Mrs. Accountability: Ahhh, real can openers! Yes, those were the good old days!
How about potato peelers that work? Toasters that produce actual toast, not just warm bread? Tomatoes with a flavor? Irons that don’t turn off by themselves? Whistling teakettles that whistle? Refrigerators, dishwashers, and ovens that run reliably for 15 or 20 years?
Perhaps I ask too much…
I go the way of making my own potholders for reasons stated above. If you are going with the 4-th grade arts and crafts approach, make darn sure that you buy 100% wool loops, and don’t trust the nylon crap that comes with the kit (with a warning that you shouldn’t use them on anything over 200 degrees, for a potholder, yeah, right). A bonus of wool is that it is self-extinguishing. I’ve caught the corner of one on fire from a gas stove, and as soon as I pulled it away, it was out with barely a singe.
What a funny post! I’ve tried those stupid silicone pot holders and they are indeed a large waste of money!! I’m 32, so perhaps that explains why I fell for the gimmick ;)? Anyway, I was happy to discover that they are perfect if you sew. I cut them into different widths for ironing in a hem before sewing. No more hassling with measuring a hem allowance.
My family traditionally crochets our potholders out of cotton Aunt Lydia’s rug yarn whenever we run across some. Alas, most rug yarns now are acrylic or polyester, so the best that can be found is mop yarn (undyed) or something hand-made (pricey).