Gadgets, for the purpose of this thread, are things that are not exactly essential; but make cooking easier. For instance, I think a good knife is an essential. An electric knife would be a gadget. A powerful stand mixer is essential for some items, like cheesecake. A stick blender is a gadget. What I want to talk about are these little things, some quite inexpensive even.
For me, a good electronic thermometer that signals when a set temperature is reached is the best gadget to have. I have one that has an radio base and receiver for cooking meat on the grill and another in the house for cooking in the oven. Likewise an oil/candy thermometer makes tasks like fudge making and frying much more precise and repeatable.
Adjust-A-Cup variable volume measuring cups, with both dry and wet scales, are pretty handy, too.
Le Creuset silicone spatulas and spoons, rated for up to 800-degrees F, are nice to have around. They clean easily and can perform a wide range of functions.
Assuming that this is in addition to the usual pots and pans that most kitchens have:
-Ditto the good knives, but good knives aren’t inexpensive. I have a carving knife, chef’s knife, utility knife, bread knife and paring knife, and those are really just a simple collection.
I use my potato ricer for a variety of cooking tasks. In addition to the obvious use with potatoes, it’s good to use with cooked apples, cranberries, and other fruits and vegetables. It produces a nice consistency that isn’t as mooshy as the puree you get from an electric food processor or a blender.
Mortar and pestle for preparing herbs and spices, although lately I have taken to using a small electric coffee grinder for the same purpose with terrific results. The grinder is compact, quick and easy to clean.
Another vote for the mandolin. However, it must be able to be broken down and tossed into the dishwasher easily or it doesn’t cross the kitchen threshold.
I like those dish brushes/sponges that have a hollow handle to hold detergent, too, for rinsing dishes.
I just got (as a gift from a gadget-crazy aunt) a vidalia onion microwave cooker. I can’t wait~
One year my dad got me a Ronco (?) egg beater thingy for Christmas. It pierced the eggshell and whipped the egg so that when you cracked the shell, the whites and yolks were already mixed up. Can’t say I ever actually used that gadget, though!
The Egg-Rite egg timer, a red, egg-shaped chunk of plastic with a liquid-crystal temperature display. It indicates the doneness of hard-boiled eggs (or soft, if you prefer) without regard to number of eggs, altitude, etc. I can’t cook hard-boiled eggs accurately without it, especially when I lived in Colorado. No guess work involved, no trying to remember how long to boil or what temperature. Just plop it in the pan with the eggs, cover with water, turn the heat on to medium and cook until the thing turns black at the degree of hardness you want.
I find the Zap Cap[sup]tm[/sup] a must-have. It’s a nifty bottle opener that essentially looks like a plastic cup. You put the open end on the bottle top, push down, and when you pull it back up straight, it pulls the bottle cap off and out of the way.
Oh, yeah: Microwave oven, rice cooker, and rice dispenser are also must-haves for me. The opener I referred to above…well, as far as I know, it’s no longer available anywhere.
A cheese grater, not the knucle shredding variety.
We are a pasta loving household but do not make our own pasta, Barilla works just fine.
Heavy bottom pots, 8", 10", and 12" skillets (Calphalon preferred). We have a mezaluna but it hasn’t been used much, a chopping board and knife work just fine, garlic press is a gadget to us, the side of a knife works just as well. Several cutting boards, a couple of utility knives, a bread knife (also good for retrieving cereal boxes on shelves just out of reach), and a chopping knife.
No one mentioned a cork screw, essential in our house.
The mixer and food processor are in the kitchen but only really get used during ‘food’ phases.
No mention of a Crock Pot yet? I’m shocked! I have a six-quart programmable one with a full-size crock and a divided crock (for cooking smaller amounts, or two things at once). It also has a thermal carrying case. I use mine at least twice a week, and have taken many favorite dishes to pot lucks with it.
Could I live without it? Sure. But I don’t want to.
Dry measures - those graduated individual cups so useful for measuring things like flour etc. My mother never owned a set so I had never used or even heard of them until 20 years ago. I learned to measure flour by dumping into a regular measuring cup, looking at it side-on, tamping, scooping, at nauseam. Finally bought my first set about 15 years ago. Cue the “glorious discovery” music and sunrise. Get good ones; the cheap ones with flimsy handles aren’t much good when dealing with, say, brown sugar.
Properly-shaped metal measuring spoons. Metal ones will last approximately forever but most of the ones you find a) don’t have an 1/8 teaspoon or 1/2 tablespoon measure, and b) don’t fit in spice hars. We recently found a set, entirely by accident, at the Container Store, that has every size I could want (including 3/4 teaspoon), and has long, narrow, spice-jar-able spoons. I’m measurement heaven
A rice cooker. Given what I tend to do to that poor innocent food when cooking it on the stove, I’d avoided cooking real rice all my adult life. Apparently my mother had trouble also, as we were raised on that Abomination known as Minute Rice. Is the rice cooker essential? of course not. But do I really, really like having it? You betcha!
Good quality stainless steel utensils (spoons etc.) with handles that can go in the dishwasher. Most good metal utensils have wooden handles - which are wonderful but the dishwasher destroys them over a year or two of frequent use. And even good quality plastic utensils will break if you’re stirring something sufficiently dense/thick. Good steel utensils with plastic handles are nearly impossible to find; I think I own once (a pasta fork of all things).
