Several hours ago, I bought a Melita electric water kettle at Target. I drink tea occasionally, and an electric kettle is handy to have for heating up water quickly; much more quickly than a kettle on a stove. Just pour water in, turn it on, and a few minutes later, after boiling begins, the kettle turns off automatically. You have to be much more careful with a kettle on a stove; it boils slower, and water can boil over if it’s unattended.
I know that electric water kettles are rare in the US; growing up, we thought electric waer kettles were mildly exotic, since you would only see them in Canadian kitchens. What other kitchen appliances are relatively common on one country, but nearly nonexistent in another? (Let’s limit this to developed nations, so people don’t chime in about the lack of ice-dispensing refrigerators in Chad, or the rarity of microwave ovens in Sudanese kitchens.)
I understand that electric rice cookers are ubiquitous in Japan (for obvious reasons); before I bought mine, I’d only seen them in anime. (It doubles as a vegetable steamer.)
Toaster ovens are relatively rare in Australia as well as Garbage disposal units in sinks. Cast Iron pans are hard to find. Electric thermometers appear to be rare in home kitchens around the world which is a great shame.
I’ve heard that stick blenders are relatively rare in the US.
Hm, my mama in California has an electric rice cooker. Never seemed particularly odd to me.
I LOVE electric kettles. They were very common when I was living abroad and a friend of mine and I often discussed how strange it was that no one in the US uses them. When she got married a few years later (back in the US), I bought her one as a wedding gift. It was quite difficult to find, and very expensive to boot (I think about $70 - yikes!).
Larry Mudd, are you living waffle-free? What a sad tale! Mmm, waffles.
If that’s supposed to be an appliance and not just a type of knife, I have never heard of that either.
I have also never seen a garbage disposal unit in a sink in real life.
Refrigerators with ice cube makers can be bought, but they are very rare. Right now I can’t think of anyone who has one, but at least you can see them in shops.
$70 for a kettle? Over here you can buy them for as little as £6 ( $10 ) . We always use the cordless sort. With this you can detach the main body of the kettle from the base which contains the electrical connection. Very handy and you don’t end up draping the plug under the cold tap when filling.
We also take a small (travel)version with us when going on vacation . Very handy for making a cuppa if your hotel room does not posses a kettle. My wife likes her camomile tea last thing at night and I take some sachets of cappuccino instant coffee that contain dried milk and sugar.
Regarding the vegetable peeler question. I remember you could buy one in the UK in the 60’s. It consisted of a drum lined with something like sand paper. It was water powered ( contain a small turbine ). You fitted the hose on the cold tap , put your vegetables in the drum , fitted on the lid and turned on the water. the whole thing whizzed round and the rough inner surface was supposed to remove the vegetable peel or skin. I am sure there are commercial versions in use in professional kitchens and food preparation factories.
OH! I thought we were talking about a swivel peeler! I’ve never seen the doohickey you describe, but I can imagine it. Sounds like a chicken plucker, only sharper. (And no, most American homes don’t have a plucker, either. We buy 'em nude.)
I bought mine for $20; it’s also cordless. I would imagine that they’re cheaper in Canada, where they are more common; economies of scale and all that.
There is a double wall oven in the house I bought. I wonder how common they are outside of the US. (I hope mine doesn’t ever need to be replaced; they’re expensive, and I wouldn’t have purchased it on my own.)
What about dedicated freezers, both front-loading and top-loading? Many people I know have freezers because they buy meat in bulk, or they’re hunters and need a place to keep a couple hundred pounds of processed venison.
Double ovens and dedicated deep freezers are very common in the UK. The freezers come in either upright or chest models. We keep our chest freezer in the garage and is stocked with a variety of both meat , fish , vegetables and fruit. You can buy half a lamb or pig from the butchers to stock it with . last August we bought thirty five pounds of plums from a farm shop . We stoned and halved them and they will last a few months for use in pies and puddings.
I have had an electric tea kettle for five years. I had to have one after my trip to England and the initial investigation for finding one here was about $90 for one.
I waited about a year or so, and POOF, out came a bunch of them. About $30. Mine is a T-fal and because of it I now boil water whether I need it or not several times aday.
Setting aside highly specialized (and often highly silly and faddish) kitchen electrics like hot-dog cookers, a couple of other appliances I found rare when I lived in Japan, but very common here in the States:
Blenders (as in the margarita and milk-shake making kind, not the stick kind)** Mixers (hand-held or stand) Skillets/griddles Can openers
Food processors were somewhat more common, but in my experience more people used mandolines.
