There seem to be a lot of food threads running right now, so it seems a good time to bring this up. I was making hummus last night, and needed to use a garlic press and a lemon reamer, so I was in my “gadget” drawer, and looked at all the things I have accumulated over the years. Some are wonderful, some I can never remember using. Without listing all mine here and spoiling the thread, my most useless item: Electric pepper mill. This thing spins and spins and cracks about 2 peppercorns a minute. The effort required to hold that thing with your finger on the power button is about ten times what it takes to grind pepper manually. It’s kitchen gadgetry at it’s worst.
I don’t know why but I once bought a garlic slicer. It looks like a miniature mandoline, but all it does it get clogged up and it doesn’t make very thin slices.
A ceramic kitchen knife this was so sharp it could cut thru anything you would find in a kitchen , but drop it or knock it slightly hard and it cracks and can shatter
Orange peeler , this long fork type thing with two joined prongs at the end it was always faster and cleaner manually
No, no. You have to slice garlic with a single edge razor like Paulie did in Goodfellas. I suppose that makes my garlic press useless. I get all my Italian cooking techniques from Gangster movies. I learned to make my tomato sauce from Peter Clemenza in The Godfather and I’ve been working on Vincent Mancini’s dumplings from The Godfather Part III. In the commentary on the DVD set Francis (no, not the talking mule) says there’s a recipe in every movie.
The pre-cut aluminum foil sheets were designed for use in restaurants where they are in a hurry and don’t have time to stop & tear. Making them available to home cooks is a good thing, I guess - I personally have cut myself on the tear strip on the foil at least twice, and many times have failed to cut the foil cleanly and have ended up with oddly shaped bits of foil. Maybe I’m just clumsy…but the pre-cut ones will be a big help, I think!
Has anyone yet to find a bagel cutter which (a) will hold the bagel stationary AND cut through the center of the bagel? I think we need a device with a clamp to hold the bagel AND a thumb-screw (or wormgear, rack-and-pinion, etc.)to tweak the blade into an optimum cutting position…!
An apple peeler/corer/slicer. Stupid thing. Unless your apple is of perfect proportions, it will not cut right. You’ll either have lots of spots with peeling on them, or chunks taken out of it.
People swear by these things, but I hate it! I can do a better job with my own paring knife.
Have you seen those apple peelers advertised on TV that spin an apple while an extension arm with a peeler attached peels that apple clean? I just bet that works every time. Anybody have one of those?
Yes! Got mine from The Pampered Chef (although I discovered after buying it that you can get them much cheaper in stores).
I LOVE it. I can make an apple pie in no time flat now. Six apples takes less than five minutes. The slices are the same size and thickness. I also use it to make a quick snack for my kids.
You put some herbs in the hopper, turn the handle, and it tears those herbs for you. The problem is it is more work that tearing them by hand, and as a bonus you have to clean the damn thing afterwards. It was cheap though.
I’d be interested in hearing the details on that one too…
I have something in my kitchen gadget drawer that I have no idea what it is used for. I think it came in a package with a bunch of other wooden spoons, so it’s all wooden like that, but has about 8 thick wooden prongs on the end of it. ??
The other gadget that I keep buying over and over again but can never get one that works is – a turkey baster. Maybe I’m just not spending enough to get a quality one, but none of them I’ve ever bought have had sufficient suction power, actually nil.
It’s that time of year to go shopping for one yet again…
I have one of those gadgets that is like a mandolin, but is made of plastic (everything but the blades, that is). It’s supposed to give you perfect slices and perfect fries. Unless you have an industrial strength tomato, all it does is dent the skin–until it turns the inside of the tomato into juice. As for the fries–well, yes, it will cut them–but NOT all the way through. I was always having to separate them because it wouldn’t cut them cleanly. Irritating to say the least!
For me it is the electric can opener. That stupid thing always was in the way. If I put it in one of the cabinets, it never got used. I found it is easier just to get a GOOD manual opener and use it. I think I finally got rid of the thing because it never got used. I learned that I do not need an electric gadget for everthing I do. Often it is much easier and quicker to just do it by hand.
We have a can opener that we never use. It’s one of those “safety” ones that cut the rim off the can and don’t make all those sharp edges. It doesn’t work. It never did. Yet we never bother to throw it out.
I get all my Italian cooking techniques from Gangster movies. I learned to make my tomato sauce from Peter Clemenza in The Godfather and I’ve been working on Vincent Mancini’s dumplings from The Godfather Part III. In the commentary on the DVD set Francis (no, not the talking mule) says there’s a recipe in every movie.