The Best Oven Mitts (and Why They're Not Towels)

The Best Oven Mitts (and Why They're Not Towels)

There’s a “professional tip" I've seen floating around out there on the socials—real chefs handle hot pans and handles with kitchen towels, not oven mitts, idiot. God, why are you such an amateur? Maybe not that last part, but it sure feels like that’s the sentiment sometimes. While it’s true in some kitchens, towels as mitts are not used across the board. When it comes to handling hot metal, oven mitts are the best thing to use.

Using folded up kitchen towels (always this type) to handle hot sheet pans has actually never been the norm in my experience. I’d say there was maybe a 3% chance that the cooking scenario would be so urgent that my colleagues or myself would have to grab a towel instead of mitts. (Usually it was because all the mitts were missing for some reason.) Besides comfort, this is due to one critical reason: Towels can be dangerous.

Why towels make terrible oven mitts

The biggest issue with towels is that they are towels. They’re for drying off wet stuff, usually hands or freshly washed tools, at which point the towel becomes, naturally, wet or damp. If you have a bunch of damp towels scattered around a busy kitchen, someone is bound to grab one in a rush and use it to take that pan of roasted pork out of the 400°F oven. You know what “thanks” they get? A nasty steam burn. The water in a wet towel pressed into a hot hunk of metal evaporates into steam, and fast. What’s worse is the surprised chef is then holding a pan full of hot food, so they can either drop it on the floor, or endure the injury to put the food down safely. Towels are for drying. Let’s let the big kids do the dangerous work. 

The best oven mitts for your kitchen

Oven mitts are made for this job—they’re thick and heat resistant or flame retardant—and you would never think to use them for drying your dishes. Here are some of the ones I like.

Protect more than your hands. I never got into potholders. I feel too exposed in them. I prefer the kind with thumbs, and some wrist and forearm coverage. While the stubby, short ones that only cover your immediate hand are okay, you don’t really get the protection on your arms. Accidentally touching the edge of the oven or upper grate is always a possibility, so opt for the longer ones to eliminate the risk.

Grill mitts. Grill mitts should also have arm protection up to the elbow. The reason they get a special shout-out is because the temperatures of a grill or brick oven soar well above the conventional oven’s capabilities. Your home oven might regularly see 350°F, but a grill could be sitting at a scorching 600°F. Furthermore, there are open flames to consider. Get oven mitts that can withstand higher temperatures.

Silicone Oven Mitts: The Best Oven Mitts?

Are you curious about whether or not silicone oven mitts are worth buying? Check out our list of reasons why silicone oven mitts are a thing of the past.

When shopping for kitchen gadgets, it’s not uncommon to get stuck in the loop of questioning which products are better than others, especially when there are so many options to choose from.

For example, you’ve probably heard that silicone oven mitts are the best. Are you curious to find out whether or not that’s true? Read on to learn about why silicone oven mitts aren’t necessarily the best choice—especially in comparison to our cotton Oven Mitts.

What Are Oven Mitts?

Before we tackle the bigger question of why silicone oven mitts aren’t great, let’s start at the beginning: what exactly are Oven Mitts?

Oven mitts are worn in the kitchen to protect us from hot surfaces such as ovens, stovetops, and cookware. These products are found in pretty much every kitchen because of how useful they are, but you’ve probably seen multiple variations of them.

For example, you may have seen oven gloves used in some kitchens. Although they have similarities to Oven Mitts, each one does have specific qualities that may make them the more suitable choice in some moments than the other.

Gloves:

An oven glove is just what you would expect. Designed with five dedicated fingers, this product gives you much more dexterity than Oven Mitts, making it easier to grip cookware with slippery surfaces or complex shapes.

Mitts:

Traditional Oven Mitt designs don’t allow for the same finger movement and dexterity as oven gloves, meaning that you’ll be slightly more restricted in what you can safely and securely hold compared to if you had used oven gloves.

However, what they lack in grip, they make up for in heat resistance. Since Oven Mitts are made with a less complex design, they can withstand higher temperatures than oven gloves, which is extremely important when handling heat in the kitchen.

Cotton vs. Silicone

When it comes to Oven Mitts, the two most common varieties are cotton Oven Mitts and silicone oven mitts.

Here is an explanation of the differences between the two products:

Cotton Oven Mitts:

These Oven Mitts are the ones that you’re probably familiar with, as they are a staple in most kitchens and represent a more traditional Oven Mitt design. The soft cotton material is very comfortable to wear when handling hot cookware and surfaces in the kitchen, which is always a bonus.

They provide ample wrist and forearm protection for nearly every kitchen task.

Silicone Oven Mitts:

Silicone oven mitts have grown in popularity over the years and are now commonly used for both indoor and outdoor cooking. Made with a silicone exterior, some of these mitts also come with a cotton lining on the inside.

Silicone: Good Or Bad?

There’s lots of debate out there as to which material is the best for Oven Mitts. Silicone has some benefits on its side, and for good reasons, but we’re here to tell you that cotton Oven Mitts—more specifically, our Oven Mitts—are much better.

When shopping for Oven Mitts, there are a few things that you have to consider:

Material

Design and Aesthetic

Single or Double

Let’s take a look at each of these and explore the ways that silicone mitts pale in comparison to our 100% cotton Oven Mitts.

Material

At face value, the most important function of Oven Mitts is protection from hot surfaces. The primary way that that function can be carried out is through the material of the Oven Mitts.When it comes to silicone oven mitts, there are a lot of benefits. The material allows you to get a good grip when handling hot cookware. It also provides protection against steam or the splattering of hot liquids, is easy to clean, and is waterproof.

All of the benefits sound great, but at the end of the day, they’re still not the best product to get. As we had mentioned earlier, some silicone mitts come with a cotton lining on the inside, but there are a lot out there that don’t.

The silicone exterior provides great protection from heat, but without the cotton lining on the inside, the mitts won’t be very comfortable to wear and are very difficult to take off.

You may be thinking that it’s worth putting up with the disadvantages of silicone mitts since they get the job done, and you’ll only be wearing them for a short period of time.

If that’s the case, there are better options that protect you from heat. Other Oven Mitts aren’t saddled with those disadvantages that are likely to make your kitchen endeavors more challenging.

Cotton: The Better Option

And that’s where cotton Oven Mitts come in. If we were to focus on the material alone, the softness of the cotton makes it really comfortable to wear. On top of that, the material offers a lot more flexibility than silicone mitts, which allows for more finger movement. They are also really easy to put on and take off.

That may not seem all that important, but when you’re rushing around the kitchen trying to complete multiple cooking tasks as quickly and efficiently as possible, you’re not going to want to be struggling to take off uncomfortable oven mitts in between the jobs.

Because the time it takes to transfer your Sauté Pan from the oven to a countertop is very short, it’s better to have Oven Mitts with good flexibility that you can easily put on to make the quick transfer.

In other words, there’s really no need for the extra grip that silicone oven mitts provide. As long as you can wrap your fingers around the Sauté Pan in cotton Oven Mitts, you’ll be good to go.The Today Show ranked our Oven Mitts as number seven of the 12 best Oven Mitts and Pot Holders every kitchen needs. They contain a double-layer stain-resistant weave stitching, which ensures the safe handling of pans that are fresh out of the oven.

This, along with the fact that they are made out of 100% cotton that gets softer with every wash, gives you the heat protection you need, plus the comfort that silicone mitts just can’t provide.

Design and Aesthetic

It may not seem all that important, but trust us when we say that picking out Oven Mitts that have a lovely design is sure to spruce up your kitchen. Due to the nature of silicone, you don’t have the same colorful design options with silicone mitts as you do with cotton Oven Mitts.If you’re redecorating your kitchen and trying to create a certain aesthetic, cotton Oven Mitts are definitely the way to go. There’s something about seeing a pair of cotton Oven Mitts hanging on the wall of a kitchen that gives the whole space a soft, homey, and nostalgic feel. 

Our Oven Mitts have a vintage meets modern look to them, with handwoven pattern designs inspired by vintage flour sacks. They come in a set of two with bold and distinct patterns and neutral colors, including Cream and Navy—some of the most popular colors amongst our customers.

If you have dark cabinets in your kitchen or are planning to get some, our Navy Oven Mitts are perfect for completing the look. The wide variety of styles that our products come in provide you with a wonderful opportunity to mix and match your Oven Mitts with your Cookware Set in a way that beautifully pulls together your kitchen space—something that silicone mitts would never do.

A kitchen is the heart of your home. Matching your Oven Mitts with the rest of your Linens Set is a great way to create an upscale yet homey space.

Single or Double

When buying Oven Mitts, it’s always a good idea to buy them in pairs. While you may want to buy just one to save space and clutter in your kitchen, it’s more worthwhile to buy two because they’ll come in handy in the kitchen.

When you’re pulling a hot pan out of the oven, you want to have as much control as possible! Therefore, it’s best to always use both hands. So, if your Dutch Oven is full of dinner for your whole family, two Oven Mitts can save the day. Or, if one needs a quick wash, its partner can be ready to go in your kitchen.

Enjoy Your Mitts!

Silicone oven mitts may have seemed like a good choice at one point in time, but traditional cotton Oven Mitts are truly the better option.

From ample arm protection from hot surfaces to a vintage meets modern aesthetic that completes your kitchen, cotton Oven Mitts are guaranteed to meet your needs and more.

Sources:

Best Oven Mitts

Oven mitts are indispensable cooking utensils that protect your hands and arms from painful burns, but chances are you spend less time thinking about them than you do a great set of chef’s knives or even your cutting boards. And while you may have preferences when it comes to choosing silicone, wood, or plastic cutting boards, how often have you weighed the pros and cons of various oven mitt materials before grabbing the first one you can find? 

When you just need something to get those french fries out of the oven without burning your skin, anything that resists heat seems like it will do. But if you’re ready to graduate to a pair of oven mitts that’s versatile enough to resist high temperatures for long periods of time, provide superior grip, and feel comfortable in your hands, there are key differences among four oven mitt materials—cotton, silicone, neoprene, and leather—that may sway you to choose one over another.

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