Kitchen Gadgets

[Deleted]

Do you have any unusual kitchen tools that you find indispensable but your friends and family think there is something odd about you for that?

Conversely, what do you have but never use?

I have an old fashioned egg slicer and I love to use it, but I have discovered that most people don't have such a thing anymore, even though you can easily find them in the shops. When I was growing up, I didn't know anybody who didn't have an egg slicer. Sliced eggs were nearly always part of a platter of crudités.

Meanwhile, I don't think I have used my grapefruit knife in at least ten years.

[auntieannie]

I miss my grapefruit knife! ... I will never be able to move all the things I want from my parents' basement!

[Deleted]

I don't know if I should post this in the HOARDING thread or here. I have a drawer FULL of kitchen tools. Some I use often,most not and some of which I don't even know their original intended use. It's embarassing. I must take a picture and post because it's so over the top. I know I have at least one egg slicer. I used to love watching my mother use it ,it was like magic to see the egg transformed like that. I do use it.

[BigIain]

I have a fantastic mid-sized kitchen knife that I bought in Tokyo fish market from one of the amazing knife vendors there. Because it is not stainless, and because it has been left in the sink by visitors to my appt last year, it has several blemishes on the flats along with the most amazing Japanese writing. My mother thinks that I should throw it away. I love it, and keep it razor sharp for use on pretty much anything.

[spindrift]

Sharp knives are a necessity for me. When I stay with friends (with the exception of the Baz's) I always pack a sharp knife for peeling veggies. So many people have blunt, useless knives.

I use my grapefruit knife; how else can one prepare a grapefruit?

I think the egg-slicer has been thrown out.

I have a Rosti grater. It's very useful.

I use my steel trivet when I make (perfect) rice.

An apple corer.

I'll look in the drawer tomorrow and see if there's anything interesting in it.

[bixaorellana]

I'd be willing to bet that Casimira's kitchen drawer contains at least one unused shrimp deveiner, without which no New Orleans kitchen would be complete.

I'm curious to know how many of us keep bottle openers for the kind of pop off bottle caps we seldom encounter anymore.

My kitchen drawer is pretty boring. I do have a Chinese cleaver in there I hardly ever use.

I have a question about kitchen utensils: I mentioned once to a friend that I had kitchen forks and spoons to use for cooking instead of the the cutlery I use for eating. He was dumbfounded, but I thought everyone did that. True or false?

[Deleted]

Errr... what is a kitchen fork compared to an eating fork?

[bixaorellana]

It's just a regular fork, but one that stays in the kitchen. These are cheap stainless forks & spoons I bought just for kitchen use, but I thought most people had a collection of mis-matched cutlery that lived and served in the kitchen.

[Deleted]

I have a medium size serving spoon that I like to taste with when I'm cooking. I like the way it is tapered at the tip just the right way to not allow too much to enter my tender little mouth.
The fork I like to cook with is three pronged and I love it,the tines are not too long and it's easier to use than the conventional long 2 tined ones which I hate.
I use a variety of wooden spoons and such,what Mr.C. refers to as a roux stick.wooden with a squared off tip,a couple of spatulas.
I use tongs quite a bit and a couple of sharp knives and that's about it aside from my copper and wooden bowls.
I use very few if any appliances,a blender and a juicer for large quantities.
A mortar and pestle
I prefer to chop by hand even large quantities

[bazfaz]

I used our grapefruit knife only last week. With it I prepared the grapefruit then topped it with a little brownsugar and poured on a small spoon of dark rum.

I was once given something called a Bean Krisker, though I may have the spelling wrong and will be pursued by the manufacturer's lawyers. What you did was poke one end of the bean through a hole in the handle which concealed some blades. You then pulled the rest of the bean through. This resulted in long strips of bean - so much easier to boil to the mushy consistency beloved by the English in years gone by.

One seemingly useless gadget has turned out to be effective. You place a mango end up on the work surface, place rthe gaadget on top of it, press down - and the flesh falls away from the stone.

[Deleted]

I found a package of little wooden brochettes in a drawer. The discovery has filled me with an uncontrollable desire to skewer some items before the weekend.

[happytraveller]

I have an egg-slicer and I've just used it yesterday. What most people find completely useles but I love it very much it my eggshellperforatingandbreakingdevice. I've posted about it at TTR a while ago. I am fond of this thing.
What I find pretty useless it our Toaster.

[BigIain]

I have a juicer, really good one and more importantly very easy to clean after use. That is, I think it is. Not been used for around a year.

Its cheaper and more convenient to buy Tropicana.

[Deleted]

I agree that there is no point in making one's own juice anymore unless fresh juice is not available at the store. I like to pour myself a glass of juice and use a grand total of one second of my time, or better yet, when there are no witnesses, drink it directly out of the carton.

It's not as though any of us risk vitamin deficiencies by not getting the extra vitamins that juice squeezed five minutes ago may or may not have.

[Don Cuevas]

Since fresh juicy oranges here cost about $15 pesos for 5 kilos, it's worth squeezing them for juice. We bought a used, lever action squeezer at a moving sale for a paltry sum. It has taken me a while to get into the hang of using it (mostly the production setup) but it's gradually becoming a routine. Sometimes I squeeze enough for the next day.

The really odd thing is that you can buy Tropicana or maybe Florida's Natural pre-squeezed juice at Costco in Morelia. But recent tariff increases on U.S. products may encourage more Mexican shoppers to squeeze their own.

[tillystar]

Due to our small kitchen I go for extreme minimalism with kitchen equipment.

We literally have 5 or 6 pans (incl Wok and Casserole dish), knives, wooden and metal spoons, cake tins, whisk, grater, bottle/tin opener, egg/fish slices, colander, Food Processor, slow cooker and hand blender.

Improvisation is the name of the game. A rum bottle makes a great rolling pin!

[bazfaz]

Buying commercial orange juice is not an option for me. Orange peel gives me eczema. No matter what they say about their products being made only from juice, something in the industrial process means that the oils that give me eczema make their way into the juice.
We drink grapefruit juice, apple juice, tomato juice and sometimes grape juice. Each carton lasts us four breakfast. Then on the next day Mrs Faz squeezes us fresh orange juice - and let's face it, it tastes much better fresh. We have a gadget that fits on top of the food processor to squeeze the oranges. It only takes seconds (though more than Kerouac's one second - he is such an impatient boy).

[Deleted]

I agree that there is no substitute for fresh squeezed juice. I have both a manual and a very efficient small electric citrus juicer. When harvesting the blood oranges NOTHING can compare with their juice.The look on my mother's face after taking that first sip is worth every bit of the trouble.

[Deleted]

I harvest the blood orange juice from the fresh juice case at Franprix. Yes, I confess that it cost 2€ for a liter.

[lagatta]

Oh, it is worth it. That is about the only orange juice I like, with its beautiful colour and bitter undercurrent. Mmm les sanguines. You'd spend as much on the blood oranges in Paris.

I have a TRAVEL-RELATED utensile question - what kitchen tools travel with you? I always have at least an Opinel, a waiter's corkscrew that also opens crown caps, and a piece of that flexible thin cutting board (in the bottom of my bag, takes up no space or weight). I wouldn't mind adding a little grater to make salads from carrots, céleri-rave etc - my teeth are too fragile to chomp on carrots.

I have a fairly large selection of kitchen tools and cooking vessels for one person without a lot of money or room, because my kitchen is relatively large for a 3 1/2 (one-bedroom apartment). Many, though not all, old Québec flats are like that because of the countryside tradition of living in the kitchen - near the stove, of course - was transplanted into the city. Some of the more upscale old flats are more Parisian with a tiny working kitchen and a dining room. But I don't have a food processor or a lot of electric things - I'd just as soon slice, chop and grate myself - I don't have the room to invite 20 people here and don't make huge quantities of anything. I do have a Braun immersible blender I paid $5 (Canadian, of course) for at a church bazaar - very handy, that. Except for knives, microplanes and some other specifics, most everything is from "garage" and charity sales.

Garage sales are rather a joke, because they are usually in people's houses or on the pavement or tiny patch of lawn in front of Montréal triplexes. Guess they originally started in US suburbs, in actual garages?

[Deleted]

A small folding utility knife goes with me for those purposes and also to filch cuttings from gardens.
Much of my kitchen also came from "garage" sales. Yes,named so for the fact that the stuff being sold had been relegated to the garage before being tossed all together or sold,donated,given away.

[gringalais]

I have one of those egg slicers but don't do it much. I think the ex's mom gave it to me. I love my Braun hand blender, I use it for making different dips and sauces. I use one of those citrus juicers a lot since they don't sell real lemon juice in the stores, just some sort of substitute. I also use it for oranges when they are cheap.

And bixa - I have several bottle openers. Here most bottles aren't twist-off.

[bixaorellana]

This is one of my most used kitchen tools:


I'm particularly fond of the one I have because of its slightly quirky history. I bought it well over 15 years ago at a thrift shop in Covington, Louisiana for a dime. It's been in continuous use ever since, traveling back to its original home in Mexico when I moved here. And it's when I moved here that I discovered the correct way to use it, rather than what would seem the obvious way. Here is how to insert the lemon or lime half correctly:

[Deleted]

I have 2 of those,I think you gave me one.Love it.

[mockchoc]

I just bought blood orange juice but I'm going to try making blood orange sorbet with fresh fruit. I'll be in heaven if it works out.

[voy]

couldn't live without my eggslicer - and my kitchen fork and spoon were previously my father's and before that were part of my grandmother's "kitchen" silverware - ie plate - most of which is now off them. I esp. love the fork, as from almost 100 years of stirring the ends of the four tines are in on an angle and very easy to use! both of my kitchens have been mostly outfitted from garage sales/thrift shops etc - oh and my absolutely favorite knife is almost 200 years old - has that big broad blade with the curved end that they used to use to bring the food from plate to mouth ( before fork tines changed angles and stopped stabbing your tongue) - and like someone above, the reason I love it is that it's not stainless and takes the most wonderful edge. technically it's a table knife, but I use it to peel vegs, "butcher" 15 lb salmon and assorted chickens and small game. it's great!

[Deleted]

It's true that a lot of the best kitchen equipment is the oldest. Anything that is really well designed is kept forever.

There is also the fact that all of us who "grew up in the kitchen" watching mothers and grandmothers at work have great sentimental attachment to some of the tools we already saw them using in our earliest memories.

[Deleted]

Tis the season for many chefs to receive gifts items for the kitchen. I have more citrus juicer,zesters,etc. then care to count. Have received two already this season. Each one promising to be better than the rest.
Also,a plethora of tea towels,aprons,pot holders, all bearing lemon motifs. Always appreciate and will use.
What have all you other chefs received in the way of kitchen gadgets etc.? Do you welcome,use,cringe?
I know we have received many others over the years.Some quite amusing and others that have gone on to become favorites.Some,we have liked so much that we have replicated for others because of enthusiasm for.

[Deleted]

The only kitchen item I ever received as a gift, I broke, not on purpose though.

[bazfaz]

I do cringe at the gadgets I get given. The only useful one was given to me by a transient guest a couple of years ago. It is for removing the stone from a mango. You stand the mango upright, place the the gadget on top and press. It slips down and the blades slice the fruit away from the stone.