Oven Gloves, Cloths & Mitts

Not every oven glove is the same shape, and the names matter when you are choosing. A single oven glove, or oven mitt, covers one hand: the quickest thing to reach for, the easiest to keep hanging by the hob, and the right choice for lifting a tray or turning a hot handle. A double oven glove is one long piece with a padded pocket at each end and a span across the middle, so the weight of a heavy roasting tin or a full casserole is carried across two hands rather than one, and the middle section shields your forearms as you lean into the oven. An oven cloth is different again: a folded cloth rather than a fitted glove, used for gripping a handle, resting a hot pan on, or wiping down as you go, and most cooks who use one keep it over a shoulder or through an apron string.

What they share is construction. Ours are made in linen and cotton, padded to hold heat away from the skin, and the outer fabric matters as much as the padding underneath. Natural fibres char rather than melt, which is why a linen or cotton oven mitt behaves predictably near a gas flame in a way a synthetic one does not. They are fully washable too, and being able to put one through a hot wash and have it come back flat and usable is the difference between a glove you keep and one you throw away.

Which is really the point. A supermarket oven mitt loses its padding and its shape within a season, while a properly made double oven glove or oven cloth will still be doing the job in several years. If you are setting a kitchen up properly, our Irish linen tea towels and glass cloths and our linen cleaning cloths are made the same way, and our kitchen linen buyers guide goes through the whole range.

For seasonal care notes, first sight of new pieces and the accumulated knowledge of a family that has worked with linen since 1733, you are welcome to join The Heritage Partnership.