BS: Kitchen gadgets

Subject: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: RangerSteve
Date: 06 Feb 05 - 12:11 PM

The spatula and salad shooter threads got me to thinking about kitchen gadgets. Especially the ones that were really neat until the novelty wore off, or the ones that are completely useless. In the first category, I have a sandwich griller, which was great at first, but it's made for standard sized square bread, and I prefer Pepperidge Farm Home-Style, which is rectangular, and won't fit. Although it also works if you put pancake batter in it. My pancake making skills are pretty bad, and it makes perfect (square) pancakes.

Also in the first category is my bread machine. I love it, but unfortunately, it produces cylinder shaped loaves of a size impractical for sandwiches. I pull it out about once a year when I get invited to a pot-luck dinner. It's interesting watching the host try to figure out the best way to slice it.

I'd also like to get a Ronco rotisserie, which I've seen on the late night infomercials, but I'd like to hear from someone who has one first. The same with the Ronco pasta maker, which looks cool, but I'm sure would end up in the closet after a month. I keep telling myself that pasta occures naturally in stores, and it's easier to buy it than make it, but it still looks so damn cool.

Under the completely useless category is an electric potato peeler that a friend got as a wedding present. It's a container with ball-shaped blades at the bottom that guarentees perfectly round, uniform size peeled potatoes, which means that most of the potato goes to waste, but it peels a bunch at a time. Neither he nor his wife have ever used it.

Your turn.

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 06 Feb 05 - 12:16 PM

Very simple one.
Great big slab of thick glass. Stays cool, so very useful for pastry and such like. Nonstick, so kneading dough doesn't attach itself to the worktop. And rather cheaper than most gadgets.

And Crystal says Ice-cream makers, especially if you live somewhere sunny. If not, they hibernate for 10 months a year.....

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: lady penelope
Date: 06 Feb 05 - 12:24 PM

Most pointless...... hamburger press. By the time you carefully fill the depression with minced beef etc. you may as well just roll a ball, press it flat and get on with it!

Most usefull......vegetable mandolin with hand guard. I have a problem with my right thumb which makes chopping vegetables etc. very painful. But I like making soup and stuff where you need to chop loads of things. This thing's great, requires no power and fits in my utensil draw!

Closely followed by Turkey forks!

Other than that I've managed to completely resist the call of the gadget.........

TTFN Lady P.

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Feb 05 - 01:20 PM

I have a "stick blender" I like very much. I got the kind with whisks, chopping blades and so on -- lots more stuff than is in the example. I also like our mandolin. But what I REALLY REALLY want back isn't a gadget, it's the crown rack to hang pots and pans on. We have the rack, but the only place to put it up is sloped backwards. But I'm working on it.

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: open mike
Date: 06 Feb 05 - 01:44 PM

i gave a short list of some of my kitchen gadgets in the SP***LA thread.
I have a collection, many of which i use. juicers, whisks, funnels,
squeezers, mashers, cutters, molds, spreaders, shakers, grinders, timers ( i esp. like the ones shaped like eggs, veggies, and appliances) some of which serve as dust collectors...and memoirs of times gone by.

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: dianavan
Date: 06 Feb 05 - 02:00 PM

For the last forty years, my brother has purchased the latest gadget advertised on late night television as a Christmas gift for my mom. It has become a tradition in our family because it always provides us with a good laugh. She's a good sport and always goes on and on about how 'handy' it will be.

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: open mike
Date: 06 Feb 05 - 02:13 PM

mandolins in the kitchen?
picture please...not musical i gueess??
i have a osterizer blender with attachments..
food chopper (like mini-cuisinart) ice crusher, small blender jars,
i have a kitchen aid with attachments...(bought at thrift store)
cake mixer, bread kneader, and various shredders....at another yard
I got a Vitamix blender which claims to cook soup, grind flour, etc.
and has a spigot on the front to serve smoothies, etc.
another favorite is the mouli mill, with circular discs
and a crank handle that can shred mountains of cheese or potatoes
of grind those little pesky blocks of Ibarra chocolate that never
seem to dissolve when you put those pie-wedge-shped chunks in hot
water or cocoa.
i also have a flour grinder and make fresh flour from wheat berries.

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: Sorcha
Date: 06 Feb 05 - 02:30 PM

My most useless is a cookie shooter, along the lines of a salad shooter.

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 06 Feb 05 - 02:35 PM

The only thing I have that's even remotely out of the ordinary is a cute little grater with smaller than normal holes that makes it perfect for hard cheeses like Parmessan. It's small and unobtrusive enough for dinner table use so you can grate the cheese directly onto pasta instead of using the crap that comes in a can.

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: dianavan
Date: 06 Feb 05 - 03:00 PM

That little grater also works well for grating whole nutmeg.

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 06 Feb 05 - 03:05 PM

Ah! So dianavan has one too! Yes, it is good for nutmeg. My wife uses it for that purpose. I'm not a nutmegger myself.

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: Peace
Date: 06 Feb 05 - 03:16 PM

Nutmeg:

If you want a taste treat, try grating nutmeg onto spaghetti. Butter, pepper, salt and some grated cheese--GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD.

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 06 Feb 05 - 03:22 PM

Nutmeg on spaghetti? Brucie, I think you have a grater fetish.

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: open mike
Date: 06 Feb 05 - 04:52 PM

www.kitchenaid.com
www.vitamix.com
but believe it or not the best is:
http://www.skil.com/Products/Tools/Drills+Cordless/Drills+Cordless.htm
a cordless drill which can be used with the beater or wire whip attatched to the "chuck" or with a 1/4" drive can also be used to power
the blender for camp ground margaritas!!
tools...you ghotta love 'em. you gotta use 'em!!

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Feb 05 - 04:59 PM

Mandolins.

We, too, have a small grater. And freshly ground nutmeg with spaghetti, as brucie described, IS delicious. Put nutmeg in you Yorkshire pudding, too.

We also have an Oster Kitchen Center -- stand mixer, blender, grinder all in one unit. Love it.

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Feb 05 - 05:10 PM

The reason I use my Kitchenaid Stand mixer is because it is very easy to clean. I have been given other kitchen gadgets that do what they say they'll do, but they're murder to clean. If I can do the same task with a sharp knife in less time than it takes to clean the gadget, the knife wins every time. I have a stick blender and have been finding more and more things that it works well for. But chances are if it's a simple task I'm still gonna pull out the sharp knife, the fork, or the whisk. Some of those gadgets make cooking more work than is necessary.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Feb 05 - 05:28 PM

Darn right, SRS! Sometimes the simplest and easiest way is to do it by hand. I except things like kneading bread dough, which dough hooks do quite well!

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 06 Feb 05 - 05:42 PM

A wheel-type steel pizza cutter. Also good for cutting other stuff. Very satisfying to use, for some reason.

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 06 Feb 05 - 09:53 PM

Not really a gadget, but any single person or couple without children should have a toaster oven. There aren't too many one or two serving dishes that can't be baked in one. True, they don't generally last that long, but for what you save in energy costs compared to using a full-sized oven all the time it's worth replacing them every few years. They don't cost much anyway. The only time our full-size oven gets used is when Susan bakes bread, because she bakes several loaves at once.

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: mg
Date: 06 Feb 05 - 10:49 PM

George Foreman grills are truly great. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: Davetnova
Date: 07 Feb 05 - 03:30 AM

I have an iron but I don't know how it works so it stays in the cupboard.

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: Teresa
Date: 07 Feb 05 - 04:10 AM

My most useful gadgets:

a jar opener that is, essentially, a rubber disc that you put over the jar lid. Whoever invented these was a genius--they are simple and effective.

An apple corer. My mom says she's never seen one like mine ... it's round, and has a center hole to line up with the core and "spokes" that are bladed for cutting the apple into sections.

Ok, ok, I have to mention this. A double-spatula. It basically looks like salad tongs, but the business end is spatulas. Great for turning over sandwiches.
Completely useless gadget:

It was a hand-cranked peeler with a corkscrew-type blade. The blade dulled in no time flat, and was impossible to sharpen. Maybe that's why it cost $15. :-P


Teresa

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: Crystal
Date: 07 Feb 05 - 04:37 AM

My sister had an espresso maker. Useless thing got used for a month, then she went back to drinking instant coffee like the rest of us!

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: GUEST,Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 07 Feb 05 - 10:07 AM

I forgot... We have a coffee grinder that gets used once in a blue moon. Like if someone gives us a bag of whole bean courmet coffee as a gift. We never buy the good stuff. For every day coffee-as-drug use Maxwell House or Folgers straight outta the can works just fine.

I know a lot of people won't drink anything but freshly ground coffee, but I'm not enough of a connoisseur to go through the extra expense and effort. Last thing in the world I want when I'm barely awake and trying to stumble through the morning ritual is a a noisy coffee grinder.

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Feb 05 - 10:17 AM

anyone ever used one of them there spoon that dangle from a bridged spider in a microwave to stir your soop as it turns?

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: Emma B
Date: 07 Feb 05 - 11:21 AM

Apart from my mandolin, which I woulsn't be without, I also have a cupboard full of seldom used gadgets! Possibly the one thing I use most (and makes great alloli) is my trusty pestle and mortar

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: GUEST,maire-aine (cookieless)
Date: 07 Feb 05 - 11:40 AM

The greatest little gizmo I've ever found: a little plastic egg-shaped thing, that goes into the water when you're hard-boiling eggs. It has a little piece of red plastic in the center. When the red turns all dark, the eggs are done. Never under-cooked or over-cooked. Genius!

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: Amos
Date: 07 Feb 05 - 11:58 AM

It's not a fetish, it's a moral commitment to the Grater Good.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: Charmion
Date: 07 Feb 05 - 01:24 PM

Most-favoured gadget: The KitchenAid food processor, which I resisted for years because of the mess factor (i.e., cleaning it). Every major appliance purchase is motivated by a specific need, and in my case it was pesto: it takes too damned long with a mortar and pestle, and when I tried to do it in a jug blender the result was green goo on the walls. I cringed at the price (okay, it's the best brand, but still ...) and resented the large amount of cupboard space it requires, but these objections blew away like the morning dew when I discovered how easy it was to make pesto with the food processor, but also how well it accomplished the tricky task of combining solid fats into flour to make things like pastry and suet puddings. I also like what it's called in French -- "robot culinaire"!

Runner-up: The Braun hand blender ("stick" blender), with which I can purée soup or mash fruit for jam in the kettle and no time flat -- no more "rub it through a sieve" for me. To clean it, you stick it under the tap.

Least-favoured gadget: The Oster jug blender, which does only one thing -- make frozen-banana smoothies for breakfast -- but takes up a quarter of the dishwasher, and has to be disassembled, a task requiring much stronger fingers than God gave me.

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 07 Feb 05 - 03:28 PM

I love having strong shears in the kitchen. When I roast a chicken, I take the shears and remove the entire back, along with its icky nuggets of giblets. I put the backs in the freezer till garbage day to keep the home smelling nice.

Strong shears are also great for cutting spare ribs apart.

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Feb 05 - 03:37 PM

I use a sharp knife and a strong arm to cut the backbone out of the chicken, and I put the chicken backs in the freezer. When I have enough I use them for making soup stock. THEN they can go in the trash.

One of me least kitchenly looking utensils is the needle-nosed pliers. Yup, the orange handled variety like you find at Sears or Home Depot. Great for boning fish, getting those pin feathers from chicken or turkey skin, and numerous other uses. Must be washed and dried carefully.

Julia Child had a pair--I saw her use them on occasion. It makes perfect sense.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Feb 05 - 04:23 PM

SRS, many workshop tools can be used in the kitchen. I too keep a pair of needlenosed pliers in the kitchen, in fact I bought them specifically for the jobs you noted. And I have been known to use other tools -- cold chisels, circular saws, a 1/2 inch electric drill, a nine-pound sledge hammer, a roto-tiller -- as kitchen appliances.

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: lady penelope
Date: 07 Feb 05 - 05:12 PM

Oooookaaaaaay (sidles away from the boys with their toys..........)

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: sian, west wales
Date: 07 Feb 05 - 05:35 PM

I have a double-decker spring-action potato masher that my Mum bought for me in St. Jacob's Market in Ontario. It's a normal masher with a second metal squiggly-bit attached to the first squiggly-bit. Ummm: that is ... the 'arms' of the one are spring mounted onto the arms of the other so that when you bring the first one bearing down on the tatties, it mashes, but lets the 'second' level masher come down too. Double mash. Very satisfying for the stressed-out cook.

She got me the medium size one, but there was a monster size one too, which I reckon must have been for church pot-luck dinners and the like.

siân

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Feb 05 - 06:28 PM

I've seen kitchen gadgets in the shop. When I had work done on the house a couple of years ago the painter had an egg beater he used with a standard drill for mixing paint and various other mud compounds.

At a garage sale I bought a little wood knife block for out in my garage, and the several knives that are in it have been found outside. I use them for gardening, cutting up cardboard, or other things that I don't want to use a good kitchen knife on. I don't know why these knives were outside, but they were. Since a couple were found in the creek, perhaps they went missing from picnics upstream in the city park.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: maire-aine
Date: 07 Feb 05 - 09:24 PM

Speaking of Kitchen Aid appliances (above), I have-- and still use-- a Kitchen Aid mixer that is over 50 years old. My dad bought it used from a fellow he worked with when I was just a little kid. I had to have the power cord replaced about 15 years ago, but nothing else. It's still going strong.

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 07 Feb 05 - 09:39 PM

I'm quite curious as to how Rapaire used the roto-tiller as a kitchen appliance... Oh! Nevermind. Mixing mashed potatoes for the Idaho Legion, right?

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Feb 05 - 11:01 PM

Maybe he seasons his lamb by grinding the critter into the herb garden before cooking him.

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 08 Feb 05 - 06:04 AM

We have three cats.. any part of any animal not required in cooking goes straight into one of these three garbage disposals!

My favourite gadget is my processor.... but it is a pain to wash out.... it's designed by a man who never washes up because it has all these little ridges and valleys, just right for catching food, and serve no purpose that I can see, just look 'pretty'...

When I worked in a restaurant, our best gadget was the giant tin opener. It would take the top of a gallon tin of peaches in about 3 seconds, without spilling a drop of the syrup!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 08 Feb 05 - 07:49 AM

I have a marvellous grating gadget which is over 30 years old. It sits on the bench with a suction disk & has 5 bits shaped like plant pots with holes around the side.

It makes fine sheds, thicker shreds, chunky bits, & crinkly slices & very thin slices. Pop the blade thingy into the handle thingy, wind the handle & out come come the slices & shreds. Pull off the blade thingy & wash it using a brush, wipe the winder bit & base bit & it's all done.

I also have an electric frypan (used occasionally), electric blender (used weekly for my Sunday brekkie banana smoothie), an electric juicer (last used ??) I also have a mouli (last used?) & one of those jar opening plastic things.

When I bought the blender I chose the one with the wide plastic jar, rather than the glass one, as I could get my fingers in around the blade, so much easier to clean it when ya can get a scourer in!

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Feb 05 - 12:46 PM

Ohhhhh, Sandra, my mind drifts to the resulting chaos should you ever forget to unplug that blender before you get your fingers around that blade. Do be careful! You and Rapaire with your bloodthirsty gadgets!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: Megan L
Date: 08 Feb 05 - 01:38 PM

not truely a gadget but since dauvitts heart attack i wouldnt be without my fat trapper it saves degreasing the grill every time its used, and butter buds means he can still get butter flavour in his mashed tatties or on veg but no fat.

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Feb 05 - 07:26 AM

I used to have a wonderful kitchen gadget , but she went off with another bloke !

Subject: RE: BS: Kitchen gadgets
From: GUEST,sandra in sydney
Date: 09 Feb 05 - 07:42 AM

thanks for your concern SRS, but I make different chaos in my kitchen, tho not very often, fortunately.

Yesterday I dropped my best bowl. It is an old (30+ years) Japanese serving bowl which ended upside down on the floor & I was close to tears as I picked it up (over a bowl?? stoppit!!). It lost a fair amount off the top & is now sitting in my bathroom under a plant as the break couldn't be repaired as it was composed of dust & small pieces.

It's a very good excuse to go to my favourite Japanese shop & look for another bowl.

sandra