Do you have the following gadgets in your kitchen?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Here’s a rather mundane poll for you. It occurred to me as I was just searching for my grapefruit knife. I’ll put my own answers at the end of this post. Feel free to add more gadgets to the list. (Non-electrics, please.)

For each of the following gadgets, please answer any or all of the the following:

–Do you have it in your kitchen?
–How often do you use it?
–How would you feel if you had to give it up?
–Do you have other gadgets, appliances, utensils, or products that you use instead of this gadget sometimes? Why or why not?

The gadgets:

  1. GRAPEFRUIT KNIFE

  2. TEA INFUSER

  3. CITRUS JUICER (non-electric)

  4. GARLIC PRESS

My answers:

GRAPEFRUIT KNIFE:
Yes, I have one. I use it frequently in the winter. I like grapefruit. I do consider it something of a “must have,” but I could live without it. A paring knife does the job.

TEA INFUSER:
I have several, in different styles. I usually use a tea infuser daily, but lately I’ve been lazy and too cheap to buy more decent tea. I would be very sad if I had to give it up, but I’d get by. I do use teabags sometimes. I also do the loose tea in the pot thing, but my teapot broke.

CITRUS JUICER:
I have two. One is an all-stainless lemon reamer and the other is a plastic juicer top with a strainer that fits over a glass bottom. I use the lemon reamer all the time. I rarely use the other one, because the strainer part is too coarse to catch all the seeds, and so I have to strain the juice anyway, so I might as well use the reamer. But it’s handy if I have to make a lot of juice. I would be pretty miserable without a lemon reamer, because squeezing lemon wedges by hand doesn’t work very well. I wouldn’t care if the other one disappeared. I do have a citrus juicing attachment that fits on my Kitchen Aid. I use it maybe once a year to make fresh-squeezed orange juice.

GARLIC PRESS:
I have a really nice one. I use it frequently, as I love garlic, and it makes it very easy to add just a little garlic to something. I would be sad to give it up, but it’s easy enough to mince with a knife. I do that when I’m making a dish where garlic is a main feature, because I think hand-minced garlic gives you a better product than squooshed garlic, and you waste less, too. My husband sometimes uses jarred pre-minced garlic, but I think it tastes nasty.

2

Grapefruit Knife - Nope, but we have some grapefruit spoons

Tea Infuser - Is that like a tea ball? We have one and I think I used it once for something non-tea-related.

Citrus Juicer - Yes, we own one and it has been used once.

Garlic Press- Have one and haven’t used it in years. They are hard to clean and it is much easier to just mash the garlic with the flat of a knife.

3

NO
NO
YES
NO

I’m not much for gadgets. I didn’t even have a juicer until last memorial day when I was planning on making margaritas, gimlets, a lime glaze, salsa, and cilantro-pesto and needed about 4 cups of lime juice.

I have one that fits over the top of a bowl that I just push the lime down on. I also ahve a small plastic cutting board that I just use for cutting limes and mincing garlic. Easy clean-up.

4

  1. GRAPEFRUIT KNIFE - No. Too specialized. I use three knives (a paring knife, a serrated bread knife, and a 8" chef knife) for pretty much eveything.

  2. TEA INFUSER - Not a tea drinker, generally. If I was though, I’d probably have one.

  3. CITRUS JUICER (non-electric) - I have one, but I never use it.

  4. GARLIC PRESS - I got one as a gift. I find that way too much garlic gets left behind in it, and it’s all sort of stringy globs, instead of a finely minced product. Easy enough to simply chop, anyway. Rarely use it.

I’m gonna add my own gadget, though: The combo apple slicer/corer. So quick and easy when I’m making fruit for my son. Love that thing.

5

–Do you have it in your kitchen?
–How often do you use it?
–How would you feel if you had to give it up?
–Do you have other gadgets, appliances, utensils, or products that you use instead of this gadget sometimes? Why or why not?

The gadgets:

  1. GRAPEFRUIT KNIFE

Nope, although I have thought about getting some grapefruit spoons. What’s special about a grapefruit knife?

  1. TEA INFUSER

I have one, but wouldn’t really care if I had to give it up. I’ve got a small sieve.

  1. CITRUS JUICER (non-electric)

Nope.

  1. GARLIC PRESS

Just bought one, a little time ago. Don’t like it much, actually…I use a ton of garlic in Indian cooking but you need a lot of arm strength to crush that thing and I just can’t make it work that well. Better to use my old way - use the rolling pin, or even just throw them in whole.

6

  1. GRAPEFRUIT KNIFE- I have two, of different curves. One has two parallel straight blades on the other end, for slicing out the segments.

  2. TEA INFUSER- I might still have one. I use it for herbs that need to be fished out of a stew or soup.

  3. CITRUS JUICER (non-electric)- What I have is a pliers-like squeezer for a piece of lemon or lime. Sometimes, my tendinitis flares up, and I can’t do this by hand.

  4. GARLIC PRESS- I gave mine away. I use lots of garlic, but I prefer it sliced.

A couple of years ago, we emptied the gadget drawer. Anything we couldn’t remember using was gone to Goodwill. Things we used all the time went back in the drawer. For anything else, if it was used within six months, it earned a place in the drawer. If not, it was sent to Goodwill.

7

All I’ve got is a garlic press, which I don’t use too much - I mostly mince garlic by hand, or just crush it under the flat of a knife.

8

Grapfruit knife: I have one, but I’ve haven’t used it much recently because citrus gives me canker sores.

Tea infuser: Have one, also a tea strainer. I use them pretty often. The infuser is actually at my office, though.

Citrus juicer: I have a couple of these and use them pretty often for recipes calling for lemon or orange juice in small quantities. No need for an electric juicer (see above).

Garlic press: I have one and occasionally use it, but usually just mince by hand.

I could probably do without the grapefruit knife and garlic press. The others don’t have any really efficient substitutes.

9

  1. GRAPEFRUIT KNIFE - I’m not even sure what one looks like. :slight_smile:

  2. TEA INFUSER - if this is the ball thingy that holds loose tea, I have one, yet I have never, ever used it. I got it in a box of junk from a relative and it is in my junk/utensil/misc. drawer. I think. I don’t drink tea - unless it’s iced tea and then we use tea bags.

  3. CITRUS JUICER - I have the plastic kind that sits over a collection bowl thingy, and I have an electric one that fits on my food processor. I’ve never used either.

  4. GARLIC PRESS - I have one, I use it every once in awhile (Mr2U used it last week for garlic bread, I think) but usually just cut it with a knife.

10
  1. No.
  2. No.
  3. No.
  4. No.
11

[QUOTE=Green Bean]
Here’s a rather mundane poll for you. It occurred to me as I was just searching for my grapefruit knife. I’ll put my own answers at the end of this post. Feel free to add more gadgets to the list. (Non-electrics, please.)

For each of the following gadgets, please answer any or all of the the following:

–Do you have it in your kitchen?
–How often do you use it?
–How would you feel if you had to give it up?
–Do you have other gadgets, appliances, utensils, or products that you use instead of this gadget sometimes? Why or why not?

The gadgets:

  1. GRAPEFRUIT KNIFE – no, I don’t eat grapfruit in the usual way. I peel it like an orange, split open the sections and eat the juicy bits inside. I know it’s strange.

  2. TEA INFUSER – yes. I used to use it a lot but lately have been on tea bags. It’s quite useful when I get a gift of loose tea though. But I could live without it.

  3. CITRUS JUICER (non-electric) – yes, and I use it about 10 times a year. I have a mechanical press (which is what I think you’re talking about) as well as a little hand juicer (a pointy thing you twist the fruit on). I could live without the mechanical press if I got to keep the hand juicer, but I’d rather have the press. I’d have to have one or the other.

  4. GARLIC PRESS – quelle horreur, I wouldn’t have one in the house. :slight_smile: My dad taught me to smash with the flat of a knife, then dice fine, and that’s what I do.

12

Grapefruit knife: nope. A normal knife works just fine.

Tea infuser: yeah, a couple of 'em, somewhere. I generally just use teabags.

Citrus Juicer: yes, 2 of them. One for light-duty, one for heavy-duty. Fresh lemon and lime juice is a staple in my kitchen, and I use the juicer at least once a week, and sometimes as much as 3 or 4 times a week.

Garlic Press: yes, 2 of those, too, for when one is dirty. Yeah, I can dice garlic with a knife. But a good press is faster.

13

This is a grapefruit knife, for those that didn’t know what one was. (This one is more upscale than mine!)

Ooh. Good one. I assume you mean this thing.

  1. APPLE PEELER/CORER CRANK-HANDLE THINGIE
    This is one of those gadgets that looks like it would be more trouble than it’s worth, but it’s not. We used to have one, but after a ton of use, it finally bit the dust. It’s fabulous if you want to make apple cobbler or potato latkes for a crowd. We didn’t replace it when it broke in an effort to reduce clutter. But I’m sure we’ll replace it sometime. I’ll bet the Beansprout would love it.
14

  1. GRAPEFRUIT KNIFE - Nope, but we do have grapefruit spoons.

  2. TEA INFUSER - Two. Often as not I make tea from tea bags, though.

  3. CITRUS JUICER (non-electric) - Yes! We have the cheap, plastic kind. We didn’t have one for a while and it’s a pain in the rear to try to juice lemons or oranges by hand. We probably use it once or twice a month.

  4. GARLIC PRESS - We have one. Vince likes it, but I prefer to mince garlic with a knife. I hate cleaning the garlic press, and I also feel like mincing wastes less of the clove. He probably uses it once a week.

  5. APPLE PEELER/CORER - Nope.

How about:

  1. MEAT THERMOMETER - This is critical in our kitchen, since our oven works sort of sporadically. We probably use it once a month.

  2. SIEVE/SIFTER for flour and the like - We don’t have one, but I want one. I’m thinking about the kind that’s sort of like a cup with the handle you squeeze.

15
  1. GRAPEFRUIT KNIFE - Like many others, no knife, but many spoons.
  2. TEA INFUSER - I’ve got a couple of them, but they don’t get much use.
  3. CITRUS JUICER (non-electric) - Yes. I use it for limes. But I’m so lazy I keep lemon-juice-in-a-bottle around.
  4. GARLIC PRESS - Yes, I have one. Way too much trouble to use and clean. I prefer to dice’em by hand.
  5. APPLE PEELER/CORER - Yep, but I never use it.
  6. MEAT THERMOMETER - Yes, but I rarely use it.
  7. SIEVE/SIFTER - Yes, this one I use a bit more often. Particularly when making chocolate chip cookies.
16

I have none of those. My kitchen is primarily a nice-looking place to heat up the frozen convenience foods and wash & store the dishes. On weekends, it’s also the place where the espresso machine gets used. I have more appliances related to coffee than any other thing.

17

Easy for me. Nope. But I’m a bachelor and rarely prepare any food at hom.e

18
  1. Nope
  2. Nope.
  3. Nope
  4. Yes, but hardly ever use it. I prefer the smash it with the wide blade of the knife method, or if I’m going to blend/mix, I’ll throw it in whole.
19
  1. GRAPEFRUIT KNIFE - Nope. Haven’t touched grapefruit since I got my own place and my mother couldn’t force me to eat it anymore.
  2. TEA INFUSER - Several - I’m an herbalist! I’ve got at least four teaballs/serated spoon type thingies which mostly hold herbs for soups and stews, and two french presses which are used to actually make tea.
  3. CITRUS JUICER (non-electric) - Yes. I use it sporadically. Sometimes it’s just easier to squeeze the lemon half.
  4. GARLIC PRESS - Nope. 'Nother “smasher and dicer” here.
  5. APPLE PEELER/CORER - I don’t have one of the turny things, but a plastic and metal thing that you push down on the apple with. And then you use a paring knife to trim all the core bits that it missed. I don’t like it much, it makes the cut edges turn brown really fast because it doesn’t cut with a sharp edge.
  6. MEAT THERMOMETER - Yes, and now that I’m a Minion of Alton, I actually use it!
  7. SIEVE/SIFTER - Yes, but I don’t bake often, so it doesn’t see much use. I use the sieve all the time for draining large batches of herbs, though.
20

I have a Tupperware juicer thingie - I use it when making lemon meringue pie with fresh lemon juice.

I have 2 meat thermometers, and I use them on rare occasions.

I have a sifter, somewhere…