Heat-resistant cooking gloves protect your hands and prevent accidental burns when lifting hot pots and pans or removing hot dishes from the oven or microwave. They also make working on the grill and smoker much safer.
Waterproof, heat-resistant gloves protect your hands when frying or stirring hot liquids. They can also be used to wash dishes with hot water.
Oven gloves are designed to provide protection from excessive heat and make your cooking activities easier and more comfortable.
The 9 Key Features of Quality Oven/BBQ Gloves
- Good heat insulation: Your cooking gloves should effectively protect your hands and forearms when handling hot foods and cookware.
- Fire/heat resistance: They should be made of a high quality material that can withstand high heat without melting. Fire-proof gloves will not catch fire when used near a flame.
- Sufficient length: Your oven gloves should be long enough to protect your forearms from painful steam burns when opening lids, working on the grill, or when you have your hands in the smoker.
- Good grip: A non-slip surface helps prevent falls, which is important when lifting heavy pans and hot dishes. Structured fingers ensure a firm grip. The texture also makes the gloves less slippery and easier to take off.
- Comfortable: Some oven gloves have a cotton lining to make them more comfortable, and to add more heat protection. The inner lining also ensures that the heat-insulating material does not irritate your hands, prevents sweating, and makes it easy to put the gloves on and take them off.
- Flexible: Your gloves should be soft and flexible enough to allow the use of your fingers for picking up small items or doing work that requires dexterity. Cotton and leather gloves have the best flexibility, but they do not provide sufficient heat protection.
- Easy to keep clean: Well-designed oven gloves are easy to keep clean. Silicone-coated and neoprene gloves are very easy to wash, while thorough cleaning of leather gloves is almost impossible.
- Come in pairs: A single oven mitt cannot provide adequate heat protection. Normally. You will need both hands to hold a heavy pan or hot baking sheet. Therefore, read the product description carefully to make sure it includes two gloves.
- Usability: Ideally, your oven gloves should be suitable for many different purposes such as baking, cooking, grilling, opening cans/jars and much more.
Types of Cooking Gloves
1. Silicone Oven Gloves
These gloves are made of FDA-approved silicone and come either with or without the internal cotton liner. Silicone gloves have become very popular recently for both indoor and outdoor cooking.
Pros
- Silicone oven gloves are heat resistant up to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, making them much safer than ordinary cloth gloves.
- Silicone gloves are completely waterproof and offer excellent protection against steam and hot liquids.
- They provide a good grip which helps prevent slipping and dropping. A rugged texture ensures a better grip and makes opening cans, jars, and bottles easier.
- Silicone cooking gloves are machine washable, but you can also easily wash them with warm soapy water.
Cons
- Silicone oven gloves are not flexible enough to pick up smaller items, and you will not have much dexterity in your fingers.
- Silicone oven gloves without an inner cloth layer don’t provide good heat protection and can be hard to remove.
Related product: HOMWE Extra Long Professional Silicone Oven Gloves
Silicone Gloves With Cotton Liner
When purchasing silicone gloves, make sure that they have a cloth liner for added comfort and protection. While the silicone outer layer gives heat protection, the inner cotton/polyester layer makes the gloves comfortable to wear and prevents them from sticking to wet hands.
Although very comfortable, the inner layer reduces the flexibility of the silicone and you may find it a little difficult to grasp things.
Related product: Kitchen-Star Ultimate Rubber Household PVC Gloves
2. Neoprene Cooking Gloves
These cooking gloves are very comfortable and provide good protection for your hands while handling meat on the grill or in the smoker.
Related product: Heat Resistant Designer Kitchen Oven Mitts with Neoprene Non-Slip Grips and Hanging Loops
Pros
- Neoprene is heat resistant up to 500° F. Due to the high level of heat/fire protection, neoprene gloves are a good choice for dealing with very hot items, or for working near an open flame.
- The neoprene coating is resistant to water, grease, acids, solvents, and caustic substances.
- You can use neoprene oven gloves to handle the meat on the smoker with less risk of dropping the food than you would have when working with tongs and forks.
- These gloves work well for handling large pieces of meat and for taking the meat out of the smoker.
- Neoprene gloves are very easy to clean after use. Just put them on and wash them under hot water, rubbing them together with soap.
Cons
- These gloves provide good protection from incidental heat, but they may become uncomfortably hot if exposed to high heat for a prolonged period.
- Neoprene gloves are more flexible than silicone ones but not as flexible as ordinary oven gloves. They offer more dexterity than silicone gloves, but not as much as leather gloves.
- The neoprene material has an unpleasant smell that takes time to go away.
3. Leather Cooking Gloves
Leather gloves are popular among people who enjoy cooking outdoors because, unlike cotton oven gloves, they don’t catch fire as easily. They are suitable for short-term handling of fairly hot objects.
Pros
- Leather gloves are very comfortable to wear.
- These gloves are very flexible, giving you great control when manipulating tools and utensils. You can easily pick up items or use forks or spatulas over the grill.
Cons
- Leather gloves are not meant to handle very hot items for any prolonged time. Holding a hot pan longer than a few seconds can be very uncomfortable.
- Leather gloves have a rather strong smell.
- These gloves are not easy to keep clean, as they are not machine washable. Wipe clean with a damp cloth soaked in vinegar and water solution (1:1), and hang to dry. This solution also helps to sanitize the inside of the gloves.
4. Cotton Oven Gloves
Regular cotton gloves can be very decorative and elegant. They often come in vibrant colors that can brighten your table setting.
Pros
- Cotton gloves offer more flexibility and allow more finger movement than other types of cooking gloves. You have much more control over your fingers than when you wear silicone gloves.
- The soft cotton material is very comfortable to wear.
- Cotton oven gloves are also machine washable.
Cons
- Cotton gloves are not supposed to be used in very high heat. They don’t offer enough protection when you need to manipulate hot cast iron cookware.
- These gloves will not protect your skin from hot liquids.
- They are easily stained or burned.
Cotton Gloves with Silicone Stripping
These cooking gloves can be a good choice, as they provide better grip and additional heat protection while remaining flexible. Unfortunately, these gloves are not liquid-proof.
5. Cooking Gloves Made of Aramid Fibers
Aramid fibers are extremely strong and have excellent heat resistance. They can withstand temperatures up to 932°F. However, you shouldn’t expose aramid fiber gloves to extreme heat for extended periods. You should move very hot items quickly, don’t hold them for longer than a few seconds.
The outside of each glove has a non-slip silicone lining for a better grip, while the inner cloth liner provides more comfort for the user’s hands.
They are suitable for stoves, ovens, BBQs, or campfire cooking.
Pros
- These gloves are relatively flexible and allow you to bend your fingers to pick something up.
- They can be washed either in a washing machine, using a delicate cycle, or hand-washed using a mild detergent.
- Gloves made of aramid fibers are cut-proof.
Cons
- Most aramid fiber gloves don’t protect against steam and hot liquids.
- The external silicone grip cannot withstand heat as high aramid fibers and can therefore melt.
Related product: BBQ Gloves, 1472°F Aramid Heat Resistant Grilling Gloves
The Bottom Line
It seems that neoprene and aramid fiber gloves can provide the best protection from extreme heat, while 100% silicone gloves ensure the best protection from hot liquids and steam. Silicone oven gloves also offer the best grip.
Leather cooking gloves would be the best choice for tasks that require dexterity.
Traditional cloth gloves are still the most comfortable and flexible.
Single-fingered oven gloves are helpful when gripping utensils, handling meat, or picking up small objects, while traditional cotton gloves only provide simple temporary protection from the heat of the oven and moderately hot cookware.
It’s not just the materials that determine the quality of oven gloves. Elements of their performance depend on their design, quality control and other components. Heat-resistant cooking gloves made from a combination of materials can provide the user with multiple benefits, often outperforming those made from a single material.
