All-Clad Textiles Heavyweight 100-Percent Cotton Twill and Silicone Oven Mitt

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Reviewer: Mark Lamendola

I bake regularly. For this reason, I own premium bakeware. No Teflon-coated aluminum for me (in addition to being toxic, it's harder to work with than high-quality bakeware). I also use the best available ingredients; no GMO poison or factory-farmed eggs.

What I haven't upgraded in all these years is my collection of oven mitts. I've been (barely) satisfied with the ones I have. Until I tried the All-Clad product, I had no idea what I was missing.

The first thing I noticed is its appearance. While my other mitts aren't exactly ugly, they don't make a fashion statement either. Being a guy, I'm not really concerned about that. But this mitt just seems to say, "The oven may be hot, but the chef is cool." Kind of like wearing dark sunglasses and a leather jacket.

It's also roomy inside. I have large hands. All of my other mitts give me a tight  squeeze. As someone who tolerates this in climbing shoes, I've not paid much attention to the tight fit of my other mitts. This one accommodates my hand, but is so well-cushioned that it comfortably snugs down on a few points for a safe, secure fit.

It has an extended sleeve, about three inches longer than on my other mitts. This covers the one place I've burned myself while extracting things from the oven. I always wondered why "they" didn't make oven mitts a little longer to cover this vulnerable spot. Now I see that someone does. And it changes the experience so that I no longer have a multi-step process in removing things. I can just reach in and grab them.

This mitt is 100% cotton. All of my mitts are. I don't know if there are synthetic mitts, but I do know that microfiber (polyester) and heat don't mix. When microfiber melts, it will melt into your skin not just onto it. That's one reason I don't wear polyester. It's a really heavyweight cotton, and the mitt provides extra protection with silicone strips. Silicone insulates, which is one reason we use silicone caulk around doors and windows (if you've ever installed a door, you probably used a couple tubes of the stuff). A further advantage of those strips is enhanced grip. They run horizontally in rows on the glove, instead of vertically, further enhancing the grip factor by providing a sort of tread.

The mitt is also reversible; it fits the left or right hand. This is good, because I'm buying a second mitt so that I have a complete set. I won't have to worry about getting the wrong one and I won't have any "oops, wrong hand" hassle each time I put them on. Like my other mitts, this one has a hang loop. I currently don't use the loop on my other mitts because it's tiny. The loop on this mitt is actually designed to be used. So I can free up some drawer space by adding a couple of hooks to an appropriate spot on a cabinet or other place (haven't decided, yet).

Very rarely do I wash my mitts, although when I do wash I use a minimum of laundry detergent (which, as you may have guessed, is a premium type that is also fragrance-free, and devoid of petrochemicals). This being cotton, it's machine-washable. The instructions say to tumble dry low, but I will add that you should do that only for 10 minutes or so. Remove the mitts and let them air dry. Completely drying any fabric in a gas or electric dryer damages the fibers of the fabric.

I've got pants, bedding, shirts, towels, and other frequently used textiles that are over 20 years old and still look good. A front-loading washer does much less damage to clothes than a top-loader. Proper type and amount of soap ends a very common reason for short lifespan, and minimum dryer time eliminates another cause. These mitts will probably last me the rest of my life, so a very, very low cost per year for using them. They do cost a bit more than lesser mitts, but with the proper care just mentioned that cost becomes trivial.

The instructions also say not to use bleach or fabric softener. Actually, you should not ever use these products. Bleach is a chlorine product, and it has no place in the home unless your goal is to get cancer. Fabric softener is just a blend of rancid fat and petrochemicals. It doesn't actually soften fabrics, it coats them with a bacteria-harboring slime so you don't feel the dryer damage. A better solution is to dry fabrics properly and skip the "softener."