Not all materials can withstand a high amount of heat in the oven. Some may melt (in the case of thin plastic), while others will spark and flame up (like aluminum foil), which is why you may wonder if your wooden skewers are suitable for an oven.
Understandably, many kitchen utensils come with an instruction leaflet indicating the amount of heat they can withstand, but this is not so for wooden materials.
So if you’re wondering if using your bamboo skewers in the oven is okay, this article will answer that in detail.
Yes, you can put your wooden bamboo skewers in the oven, but this is on the condition that they should be adequately soaked in water for some minutes before use. The soaking makes it less susceptible to burning up in the oven since light wood burns easily.
Can You Put Wooden Handle Skewers in the Oven?
Yes, you can put metal skewers with wooden handles in the oven, and unlike the bamboo skewers, the wood used on the skewers is thicker and polished.
Therefore, they do not need to be in the water before putting them in the oven since they won’t burn quickly.
Wooden skewers are usually made of dry bamboo and prone to charring when exposed to high heat, and the only way to make them a little heat resistant is by soaking them for some minutes before use.
They’re ideal to be used in ovens and grills and are smooth and easy to slide the meat on without splinters entering the food.
To enjoy your kebabs means to have the skewers well protected for the time they’d be in the oven.
Soaking wooden skewers prevents the thin dried skewers from catching fire in the oven.
However, many chefs hint that soaking up the skewers does not entirely prevent them from charring since the exposed tips always char. However, the covered party of the skewers does not burn.
How Do You Keep Wooden Skewers From Burning In the Oven?
You can’t completely prevent bamboo or wooden skewers from charring in the oven because it is wood and can quickly get dried up, but you can increase their resistance to heat by soaking them.
The sticks can be soaked in either warm water or juice for 30 minutes before the food is on them.
This action will make the skewers studier and increase their heat resistance, prolonging their stay in the oven.
Just in case you are wondering about the step-by-step procedure to soak your wooden skewers, here is a detailed explanation of how to prevent the skewers from burning.
- Fill a bowl with either warm water or juice. It doesn’t necessarily have to be filled to the brim but just enough to get all the sticks adequately immersed.
- Put all the sticks you desire to use in the bowl of water or juice.
- Leave it for 30 minutes while preparing your food to be fixed on it.
- Please take out the skewers from the water one after the other while putting food on them. Please do not take out all the wooden skewers at once to prevent them from drying again.
More than just keeping the skewers from burning up in the oven, soaking them in a juice box is a way of flavoring the food.
The juices absorbed by the skewers are reabsorbed by the food when heated in the oven, making it tastier.
Those already exposed to the challenges of using wooden skewers make things easier for themselves from the get-go based on the type of skewers they use in their preparation method.
Instead of using wooden skewers, they use thicker bamboo skewers and cover them entirely with food.
Bamboo skewers are thicker than wooden skewers and do not char quickly, and also, if soaked, can take in more heat than wooden skewers.
Alternatively, some chefs use metal skewers while grilling to prevent burning. Metal skewers do not need to be in the water before use, and you can use them repeatedly; unlike wooden skewers, they also have their flip side.
Do Skewer Sticks Burn In the Oven?
Yes, wooden skewers burn in the oven from dry wood, have little to no heat resistance, and are thin.
So when they’re straightforward to manipulate when putting food on them, the skewers are not ideal for the type of heat.
It would help if you soaked the skewers before putting them in the oven, soaked skewers will absorb the heat quite alright, but they won’t burn quickly like dry skewers.
Fortunately, there are alternatives to wooden skewers that do not burn quickly like stainless steel skewers, but that’s not the only available substitute.
Other alternatives to wooden skewer sticks are listed below;
#1. Chopsticks
These sticks are comparably thicker than traditional skewer sticks, which means they’re less likely to burn as fast as the Skewers.
However, to make them more heat resistant, you should also soak them for 15 minutes before adding food.
#2. Rosemary Stalks Are Also Suitable For Grilling
The better part is that they also increase the flavoring of the food.
This action may not be a convenient option for everyone since rosemary stalks are not everyday household items, but if you can afford to get some, they are a good substitute for wooden skewers.
Bamboo Skewers are thicker than regular wooden skewers but should also be in the water before usage. Cocktail toothpicks are also available options to use instead of wooden skewers.
When soaked for 20 minutes, they can conveniently stay in the oven simultaneously; skewers stay there, making the food more appealing.
Some people recommend using dry pasta, but if we’re considering options that last longer in the oven than skewers, pasta doesn’t look like the best option, but it is also an alternative. Fruit sticks are also good alternatives to wooden skewers.
How to Use Wooden Skewers in the Oven?
As mentioned earlier, when you intend to use wooden skewers for your kebabs or barbeque, you must first soak them in water or juice before putting the food on them.
However, the usage method wasn’t for those new to using skewers, which is why this step-by-step guide on using wooden skewers in the oven is available.
Steps | Method |
---|---|
Soaking The Wooden Skewers | Get an empty bowl and fill it with warm water or your preferred juice to get all the skewer sticks well soaked for 30 minutes. You can use a plastic bottle for this purpose also. Add the skewers to the water bowl and put something heavy over them to keep them submerged since wooden skewers will float. You should soak more than the required number of sticks just in case some break in the process of putting the food on it. |
Prepare Your Food | It could be meat, vegetables, or potatoes; whichever you intend to grill should be prepared while the sticks are soaking. |
Take Out the Skewers | After the recommended time has elapsed, take the Skewers and put the food on them. You can spray it with non-stick spray to prevent the meat from sticking to them, but this is optional. However, it would be best if you didn’t leave the skewers out of water for too long without putting the food on them. |
Grill on moderate heat and avoid roughly flipping the food to prevent it from scattering. | When grilling any food, assemble the food with the same cook time to avoid having some overcooked and some undercooked. For example, if you’re grilling meat and vegetables, you usually see both items on the same skewer stick; however, they’re not on the same. The reason is that meat has a longer cook time than vegetables; if combined, the vegetables may become tender while the meat is undercooked. |
Assemble the food | Assemble all the vegetables in one skewer stick while the meat should be on another stick before putting it in the oven. If you want them to be on the same stick, you can reassemble them after they finish cooking. And also, the size of the food matters because if they’re not cut in the same size, some may be well cooked while others may not. So, especially for meat, ensure that the pieces are the same size. |
Should You Soak Wooden Skewers Before Oven?
All chefs spread this instruction that you must first soak them in warm water or juice to get the best results from your wooden skewers.
Soaking them makes them stay longer in the oven without burning since damp skewers are more heat resistant.
Although the soaking doesn’t completely keep them from burning, it increases the heat resistance of the skewers.
However, the edges are thinner and, even after being soaked, will dry faster. Meanwhile, the soaked part covered in food will only absorb the heat, but there wouldn’t be a situation where the skewers will catch fire.
Only metal skewers do not need to be soaked in water before the oven because metal will not burn.
Even with their wooden handles, soaking stainless steel skewers is unnecessary.
Besides, metal skewers take less time; they’re reusable and can be exposed to any temperature within the kitchen space, be it from the oven, grill, or microwave.
Conclusion
There are different options to use when grilling food, and they all have their threshold for heat, with wooden skewers having the least.
However, if you dream of using wooden skewers in your oven, it is not impossible since there are ways to use them without them catching fire. Follow the steps listed above to make that possible.