Author Topic: Kitchen gadgets (Read 13950 times)

Hyacinth · « **on:** March 20, 2006, 21:02:01 »

while we're waiting for Spring to spring upon us, and we've got some time, just wondered..

1. Which kitchen gadgets do you have and wouldn't be without?
2. Which kitchen gadgets do you have and have to keep for that once-a-year or so essential use?
3.Which kitchen gadgets do you have which are at the back of the cupboard after using just once?

;D Lishka

Doris_Pinks · « **Reply #1 on:** March 20, 2006, 21:59:39 »

1 = Breadmaker and Stick wizzy thing

2 = Coffee grinder for spices, Waffle Iron, but do use more than once a year!

3 = Mr Pinks! ;D ;D ;D Just kidding!!!!!!!!

Mrs Ava · « **Reply #2 on:** March 20, 2006, 22:34:59 »

1. My stick whizzy blender jobee thingy, sugar thermometer and waffle maker as that is a saturday morning brekky regular!

2. Mandolin - perfect during courgette season for getting those fine shreds and for summer coleslaws, but it doesn't really see the light of day during the darker winter months.

3. Oh I have stacks! Hamburger press, donut mould, pastie presses to name but a few!

Curryandchips · « **Reply #3 on:** March 20, 2006, 22:58:59 »

1. Hand blender, mainly for soups, have been know to 'save' gravy with it. We are on our second, the first was simply worn out ! Also a grater, and my knives ... ( I have a diamond sharpener now :D)

2. With Emma mentioning the mandolin, I made a mandolin for producing tagliatelli, having seen something similar on an italian programme. It rarely gets used now, I must resurrect it ...

3. Any gadget that doesnt get used by me should be binned, but sadly it belongs to my wife, she collects gadgets !!!

euronerd · « **Reply #4 on:** March 20, 2006, 23:24:30 »

Being a bloke, I am by definition a gadget person and have dozens of the things. You're not counting knives, are you?

1. sharpener

Garlic peeler

salad spinner (for all veg prior to sautéeing or stir fry).

2.A proper cast iron mincer (from the 19th century) but once a month rather than once a year.

3. An electric multi cooker that's supposed to do everything from 'keep warm' to 'stir fry', none of which it does particularly well.
A standard garlic crusher.

Geoff.

tim · « **Reply #5 on:** March 21, 2006, 06:42:43 »

Just for a start!! Oh, & my steamer 'grid', of course.

rosebud · « **Reply #6 on:** March 21, 2006, 09:58:49 »

Oh Alishka,a knife as old as i can remember back, it is sharpend on a regular basis i just could not manage without it, old bone handle on it , brilliant veg knife.

A sponge ring tin, hole in the centre fancy cake tin for visitors rarely used, make a fruit cake instead.

A lovely steamer used about 3 times stacked away what a waste i will never use it.also a sandwich toaster takes to much time up cleaning it.

supersprout · « **Reply #7 on:** March 21, 2006, 10:16:09 »

Apart from favourite pots and knives, electric steamer and stick whizzer (which replaced the old faithful Magimix :'( of 25 years):

1. Ginger grater, easy peeler, salt pig, cup measure, cooking chopsticks, spaezle maker and razor-sharp veg/cheese/knuckle grater

2. Jamie Oliver type pestle and mortar so heavy I can't lift it off the sideboard, floor-mounted electric grinding machine for Asian bean and grain recipes, electric coffee grinder for spices, broken so you have to hold it together whilst whizzing, microwave idli steamer

3. Deep fat fryer, over-engineered plastic sprouting tiered trays, old electric ice cream maker you have to fill with ice and salt, pasta making machine and tofu presses

:-[ :-[ :-[ ;D

busy_lizzie · « **Reply #8 on:** March 21, 2006, 11:49:55 »

1. My kitchenaid blender, food processor, favourite kitchen knife and veggie peeler. Herb chopper tool, steamer

2. Went through a phase of juicing every day but use it more in the summer now, so in my cupboard. I have got lots of little plastic pastie makers and microwave containers that I got from better ware which I only use occasionally.

3. I got the Jamie Oliver Pestle and Mortar for Christmas too, from my brother, it is a big heavy stone thing which I have never used. Keep meaning too, but I have a small one that is much more manageable.

busy_lizzie

tim · « **Reply #9 on:** March 21, 2006, 11:51:36 »

3. .......... Have you tried his shakeituppything??

Hyacinth · « **Reply #10 on:** March 21, 2006, 20:35:54 »

No-one admitting to have a George Forman 'healthy living' grill, then? ;D

See that that stick wizz-thing's gotta be good as so many of you have them - and Curry on his second, too. Gotta be the sign of a good gadget when the first thing you do when one gives up the ghost, is to go out and buy another..

Euronerd, what make's your mincer - Spong?

From reading this section for quite a while, thought that you all were more hi-tech or plugged into the National Grid than you are (or admitting to?) ;)

No electric carving knives...no electric can openers...anyone else got a crock pot? I've got my Auntie Lily's...comes out every winter for slow cooking lentil dishes, etc...

My two essentials are 1) my knife which I use for everything - it's for left-handed peeps and I keep it lethally sharp (really shouldn't should I? ;D) and 2).......it's a cake tester....a really fine skewer topped by a circular piece of plastic with C A K E written on it. Can't test veggies for proper done-ness with anything else.Don't bake cakes these days. Take these 2 things with me when I go anywhere where I'm going to be expected to cook.

Don't have a toaster.Don't like the steamed bread smell you get before the bread starts to toast, so do mine on the cooker grill where it doesn't smell so offensive, but for toasting muffins on cold winter evenings I've got 2 toasting forks - one of them my m-in-law's old brass one and the second one of those telescopic wire ones from my childhood - remember those?

The gadget I replaced after the first died(bought in 1970, died-the-death 2003), is a Moulinex coffee grinder/blender.Make my mint sauce & soups in the blender part - and make coarse vermiculite into fine in the coffee part ;D

Lishka

modified to add...Sprout, a floor mounted electric grinding machine?

katynewbie · « **Reply #11 on:** March 21, 2006, 23:12:02 »

:-[

Just bought a George grill!!!!!!

1.My knife is a chefs knife, really sharp and I take it with me "if I am expected to cook"
2.Huge oval plate my mother gave me, gets in the way in the cupboard all year til i have an "event" when its the perfect thing!
3.Pasta machine...went mad and made loads when i got it, have done nothing with it since!!

euronerd · « **Reply #12 on:** March 21, 2006, 23:12:36 »

Lishka, I didn't realise you wanted us to list everything! I could run to seven pages. ;D The mincer (below) is "The Enterprise Meat Chopper No 5. Pat June 5 '81". I do have a 'modern' Spong as well, from the fifties I think. Very similar pattern. Since you mention testing, there's a pic of my testing fork too (I just love old things, can you tell?). And how could I have left my Rima Grill off my original list? I haven't yet seen anything that will replace that when it dies. Like you, my knives do 90% of the work.

Geoff.

katynewbie · « **Reply #13 on:** March 21, 2006, 23:21:38 »

:-\

My mum used to have one of those mincers Geoff, and where is it now? I could spit....

;)

Hyacinth · « **Reply #14 on:** March 21, 2006, 23:23:08 »

Rima Grill, Geoff? Ringing faint bells..

Asked whether your old mincer was a Spong cos I had one, bought in the 70s and about 5 years ago gave it to a charity shop - design not changed much since yours, has it?........regretted its going ever since :(

Like you, love my old gadgets - don't have a camera (cos I can't be doin' with new-fangled stuff :o) or I'd post a pic of my iron corned beef can opener with bulls head on it....

euronerd · « **Reply #15 on:** March 21, 2006, 23:35:40 »

Katie doesn't it irk you when you think how much stuff you've thrown out over the years? Mine was originally my gran's but my mum probably used it for 40 years before I inherited it.

Lishka, the Spong has one improvement - three interchangeable plates with different sized holes but otherwise just different enough to avoid infringing patents lol. And do get a camera please. :D

Geoff.

katynewbie · « **Reply #16 on:** March 21, 2006, 23:52:13 »

:o

Just remembered...Great Auntie Gwen died and the family were clearing the house out. She was the best pastry cook ever and when asked if I would like anything, I asked for her rolling pin, still have it and use it. Think it's at least 80 years old!

supersprout · « **Reply #17 on:** March 22, 2006, 07:48:05 »

Love this thread!
;D ;D ;D

Can't figure out three out of five in tim's photo ??? it's like one of those 1950s party games 'everyday objects photographed from an Unusual Angle' lol

Cake tester with 'cake' written on it ... what do we have to do to persuade you to get a camera lish?

katy, I have my maternal gran's rolling pin too! :D

Spong brings back happy memories of sitting at the kitchen table mincing strips of beef, raw liver, onions and brown bread (in that order, to leave it as clean as possible) for burgers in the 1960s. I loved the squishy sound it made as it minced, and fought to be the one of four kids who were 'allowed' to turn the handle.

A good friend of ours had a large Spong coffee grinder. I bought the small one which was useless and I gave it away. Years later I found the very grinder on a market stall in Ealing, and it's been a staple of kitchen life for morning coffee ever since. My old next door neighbour said he never needed his alarm clock since I mounted it on our party wall ;D ;D ;D

Hyacinth · « **Reply #18 on:** March 22, 2006, 08:40:05 »

Sprout! What's that tin lid of leather cleaner you've got and what do you clean with it? I use saddle soap and it comes in a rectangular block in a plastic-y container

And Tim...bottom left of his pic, looks like a cigarillo!? - reminds me of my smoking days - essential accompaniments to any cooking a f@g and a glass of vino..."what's your magic ingredient?" oh asked once.."everything always tstes so good"..."f*g ash" was my reply...

I confess to using the grinder of the Moulinex for grinding coffee beans - as well as vermiculite and spices, but hey! I wipe it round with tissue after use :-[..

I've three coffee machines, all used .1) standard mocha m/c for early morning kick start, 2) (love the shape of this)..nice old Swan Brand American-style percolator(not electric :))..water is forced up from the bottom, through the coffee basket, into a domed lid with a perspex 'nipple' in the top...the resulting 'pop' sound it makes as the coffee water hits the dome before sinking back has been my soothing background sound to many many writing exercises over the years and 3) Turkish/Greek coffee maker..small saucepan with a long handle. The coffee is lethally strong and is my 'luxury' drink.

supersprout · « **Reply #19 on:** March 22, 2006, 12:04:15 »

Envy for the Swan percolator and soothing glug glug plop sound effects, happy memories :)
The Spong coffee grinder didn't have a container for the coffee to fall into. I had just finished a tin of Propert's Saddle Soap (as you do, at the time I used it to clean leather goods) and it was a perfect fit, without the lid. Tadaaa!

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Author Topic: Kitchen gadgets (Read 13950 times)