Holiday cooking with your iPad: be safer while you sauteé

Flour belongs in cookies, not on your iPad. The same goes for butter, wine, eggs and oil. Your kitchen may be a treasure trove of cooking essentials, but iPads and food should never directly mix.

That's why this cooking with your iDevice radio story over at NPR gave us a moment's pause at TUAW central this morning. Although it's a good piece about the varied experience of using traditional cookbooks and modern technology, one blogger still sighed with exasperation. "Did these people never hear of a gallon-sized Ziploc bag?"

Zip-seal bags -- specifically the 1-gallon size -- are, in fact, extremely iPad friendly and minor kitchen miracles. You can still touch your device's capacitive screen through the plastic, and because the bags are so thin and basically iPad-sized, the iPad can be set in your normal holding stand so that your recipes remain viewable.

It helps if you use the bag with the word "Ziploc" facing the back of the unit, not the front. Also, don't get bags with super-thick plastic or with special food-preservation features -- not necessary for this application. (The "freezer" versions of the bags generally work OK, but the somewhat thicker plastic may impair your view.)

Obviously, your device isn't going to survive a liquid submersion, even with the protection of a plastic bag, but anyone who has accidentally splattered their home button can assure you that it's a life experience worth avoiding.

Now that the holidays are here, do not hesitate to use your iPad to expand your home cooking experience. Just use protection. An ounce of Ziploc prophylaxis is worth a pound of Apple Genius Bar.

We've written about using your iPad in the kitchen and the joys of iPad/Ziplock interaction before. If you've got an iPad or iPhone kitchen story to share, let us know!