Where do you put those hot messy lids when cooking?
Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2013 1:43 pm
I had actually been planning to start a thread on lids; as in, where do you put that drippy messy thing when you take it off the pot to stir the contents? I have been frustrated for years over the fact that at my stove, there was nowhere for those things to go so I'd pull out a plate or something to set one on. And god forbid if I had two lids to worry about, or more. Sometimes, I'd be in a hurry and just set it down on the granite and take my lumps with the grease and concentrated detritus of the braise that would be left behind--the lid's usually too hot to set it wet side up. But you get the point: every time I cook at that stove I wonder what other people do.
When I was younger it wasn't so much a problem because I cooked with my mom's old Revereware pans which had bakelite knob handles on top that you could handle with bare hands and turn wet side up on the counter until it was time to put it back on the pot. But as I migrated to better cookware with flatter lids and no safe bakelite to grab, it's been increasingly problematic.
A friend recently commented on a lid stand she bought somewhere. I haven't seen it, but I have the impression that it's for one lid and it looks like a banana hook. Didn't sound good to me, but the idea that someone has actually designed a lid stand of some kind made me wonder for the first time if there would be a commercial answer for my problem.
So there I was at TJ Maxx last week and I saw this very substantial stainless steel thing from across the aisle. I couldn't even tell what it was, it just looked like a perfect lid stand. It's actually a napkin holder, overall square in dimension to hold napkins lying flat. Each bar of stainless steel tube would in fact be a stop for an upright lid leaning back and the big outer rim would provide a lot of support for the first lid. Therefore, it would hopefully be effective for multiple lids, but also visually unobstructing (because it's only 2" max in height) when not in use. I brought it home and set it on an old marble spoon rest (to catch the drips) I had lying around: it could not be better!
Here are some pics:
When I was younger it wasn't so much a problem because I cooked with my mom's old Revereware pans which had bakelite knob handles on top that you could handle with bare hands and turn wet side up on the counter until it was time to put it back on the pot. But as I migrated to better cookware with flatter lids and no safe bakelite to grab, it's been increasingly problematic.
A friend recently commented on a lid stand she bought somewhere. I haven't seen it, but I have the impression that it's for one lid and it looks like a banana hook. Didn't sound good to me, but the idea that someone has actually designed a lid stand of some kind made me wonder for the first time if there would be a commercial answer for my problem.
So there I was at TJ Maxx last week and I saw this very substantial stainless steel thing from across the aisle. I couldn't even tell what it was, it just looked like a perfect lid stand. It's actually a napkin holder, overall square in dimension to hold napkins lying flat. Each bar of stainless steel tube would in fact be a stop for an upright lid leaning back and the big outer rim would provide a lot of support for the first lid. Therefore, it would hopefully be effective for multiple lids, but also visually unobstructing (because it's only 2" max in height) when not in use. I brought it home and set it on an old marble spoon rest (to catch the drips) I had lying around: it could not be better!
Here are some pics: