Daily Life

Cooking tips

Summary: Hints and tips to help you with shopping for food and preparing meals.

• Shopping and labelling
• Lighting
• Colour and contrast
• Everything in its place
• Peeling and chopping
• Cooking

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When you have a sight problem or can’t see as well as you used to, the kitchen can seem rather daunting. But don’t give up! By adapting how you work in the kitchen and using special equipment, a great deal can be achieved.

The following suggestions may help you if you want to get back into the kitchen with confidence or provide you with some new tips if you are already a ‘Delia’ in your own lunchtime!

Shopping and labelling

When shopping for food, don't be afraid to ask for help. Many large supermarkets have specially trained staff. Once home, labelling the food can be difficult particularly if you don’t have enough sight to read labels clearly. Having someone to help you label food can be useful although there are other ways of marking your tins and boxes.

• Tear all or part of the label off a tin to identify it.
• Put one elastic band around the tinned tomatoes, two around the peaches and so on.
• Put a magnetic plastic letter (available from toy shops) on the tops of tins.
• Write the contents of tins on large postage labels with a thick black marker and tie to the correct tin.
• Braille labels are very useful if you are a braille reader.
• Talking tin lids are available. You can record the contents of a tin into one of these gadgets and play back your message at the touch of a button. They are also magnetic so they stay with the tin they belong to.
• Also available is a system which uses barcodes to help with labelling.

Lighting

Make sure that your kitchen lighting helps you to use any sight you have.

• Good strong central lighting.
• Lights under wall cupboards which shine onto worktops.
• A clip-on spotlight that can be used as needed.
• Matt rather than shiny surfaces will help to avoid glare.

Colour and contrast

Colour and contrast can help make things easier to see.

• It is easier to find light coloured food like potatoes on a dark chopping board and darker food, such as green beans, on a light board.
• Cake mix shows up better in a dark bowl (unless it’s chocolate!).
• Dark handles on light kitchen units are easier to spot and may help you avoid banging your head.
• If you are pouring a drink, it is easier to see how full the cup is if it is a contrasting colour.
• Plugs and sockets are easier to find if they are a different colour to the walls and worktops.

Everything in its place

If everything has its place and is always put back there afterwards, this will save a lot of frustration when you are trying to find things. Make sure that everyone who uses your kitchen knows to put things back where they find them.

Peeling and chopping

Using knives can be worrying for people with poor sight. These tips may help you when you need to use a knife.

• Keep your knuckle against the side of your knife as a guide – this way you can also measure the thickness of the slices you want.
• Sharp, sturdy knives are safer than blunt ones, and you are less likely to have an accident when using them.
• Always keep your knives in the same place with the handle foremost to avoid any accidents when reaching for them.
• Some people may prefer a peeler to a knife for fruit and vegetables.

Cooking

The choice of gas or electric cooker is usually a personal preference but there are some useful tips that can be used for both.

• Use the back burners rather than the front ones to avoid accidentally knocking the pans.
• Put the pan on the burner before lighting it.
• Keep handles pointed away from the front of the cooker.
• Practise placing the pans on the burners so that you become familiar with the distance from the worktop to the cooker.
• Keeping your work surfaces clear of clutter as you cook will mean that you have space when you take something out of the oven.
• Mark the temperatures on your oven with bump-ons or tactile marking pens.

We hope these tips have given you a few ideas on how you can use your kitchen with confidence. The RNIB online shop sells some useful gadgets for the kitchen and for other parts of the home.

You may also find our information and advice on using lighting, colour contrast and magnification helpful for when you are working in the kitchen.

Our guide to making shopping easier gives hints and tips about shopping, including information about online shopping.

You can find more cooking tips for people with sight problems at Susan's Kitchen.

Content author: eyehealth@rnib.org.uk

Last updated: 20/11/2008 11:13