Cooking shouldn’t be dangerous.
We’ve all tried frying something and had hot oil splash up onto our arms. Painful to say the least.
Yet what if you have children walking by. Imagine hot oil splatting into their face and eyes.
Needless to say a splatter screen is a necessary safety device. It should be mandatory for every kitchen.
Plus, have you ever tried to clean oil splatters from your countertops?
It takes beautiful, perfect counters and makes them into a giant mess. Then since the oil has already cooled, it’s a coagulated pile of uncleanable garbage. The only way to get it up fully is to heat it, which you definitely can’t do now that it’s on the countertop.
Yes, save yourself a whole ton of hassle and just get a splatter screen.
A good splatter screen is simply a metal screen that goes over your pan while cooking, boiling, or deep frying foods. Anything that bubbles up or splatters out gets stopped by the metal screen.
How is this different from a pan lid? Simple. With a pan lid, vapor cannot escape. So you can’t boil off water. You have to remove the pan lid to boil water. Then BAM! You’re hit with hot water. Same goes for hot oil. You can’t boil off liquids unless the lid is removed. Also with most lids, you can’t see the food you’re cooking. This leads to overcooked, burned food.
A splatter screen is protective, while allowing you to still see what you’re cooking. You can also boil off water vapor. This is especially important when you’re finishing a dish and still have too much liquid in the pan. Just use a screen instead of a lid and cook for a few more minutes. Voila! You’ve got the exact perfect dish. Plus cleanup is a breeze, now that you don’t have to catch all the hot oil.
A splatter screen also works great for pasta sauce and similar dishes. These foods love to spray red sauce all over the back of your oven and countertops. And a lid rarely works because you can’t see what you’re doing. Now with a splatter screen you’re in good shape. You can just put the screen over the dish and cook away.
In the next few weeks we’re going to test out all the splatter screens on the market and find the best one for your kitchen. I urge you to check back soon and re-read this article. We will have way more data and testing to share then.
Thanks and see you soon!
This page last updated May 27, 2022
