I burned myself. It’s a small burn, nothing serious, it’s not even going to blister, I bet. But, I hate burns. As I often say, I’d rather accidentally cut myself in the kitchen ten times than burn myself once.

What’s interesting about this burn, though (and this has happened to me at least once before) is that the burned part of my thumb never came into contact with a hot liquid or solid object. It was steam! I took the, uh, center thingy out of my rice cooker (funny, I never realized I don’t have a word for that), and while moving it across the kitchen I bumped the lid with my pot holder, allowing steam to escape right onto my thumb. It was one of those where I wasn’t sure I had burned myself. But now, a couple hours later, there’s no question. Dang. I hate burning myself.

*On Food and Cooking* taught me that liquid water cannot be hotter than 212 degrees F, but that this limitation does not apply to steam. Sometime in my teens the “conductivity” issue was pointed out to me: you can safely reach your hand into a 500 degree oven, as long as you don’t touch any solid object. But the air in there is the same temp as the solid! Why doesn’t the air burn your hand? Because it doesn’t transfer the heat as efficiently, that’s the way I understand it. Well, my thumb tells me that the steam does transfer the heat efficiently enough. Dang….