freckafree I use the microwave to do the lemon filling and the total time is the same as the stove top pan. It never scorches, you just need to stir it a few times while it heats up.
Something I wish was NOT obsolete – a jelly strainer. Big, metal, conical strainer, which one could line with muslin (or cheesecloth), with a wire stand for draining the fruit juice to make jelly into a smaller diameter container.
I haven’t seen one since my grandmother died, haven’t seen one in use since I was a child, but if I could find one, I’d use it at least once a week.
I bought a hot-air popper at a second-hand store not too long ago, and there were several there. (I use it to dry clock parts after cleaning them.) I have a Foley Food Mill, and am in the market for a meat-grinder. Around here, in fact, most of the big hardware stores sell meat grinders - this is hunting country, and everybody has their own favorite recipe for venison sausage.
Saw a lot of electric woks at the second-hand store, too - anyone have one of them?
My mom loved her Romertopf when she had a poorly insulated/unevenly heated oven, and it made fantastic roast chicken there. But with her new oven, the Romertopf is pretty much pointless and might even make the chicken worse when cooked at the same settings as in the old oven, since the new oven doesn’t cool nearly as much between heating cycles and so the Romertopf can take in more heat to give to the chicken.
I bought a jelly strainer about a month ago at True Value Hardware. It’s so much better than cheese cloth. I used it on a couple gallons of grapes. It has three legs that you put on a pan rim. The hoop on the top gets a reusable jelly bag put on it.
I think what you really are talking about is a food press. Look under jelly sieve too.
I found an old cookie press that must have been a high end model. It has fancy design disks I have never run across before. It cost me $2 at Goodwill.
Of course - if you are serving tea to six people, you need to heat the water for six. A tea kettle is preferable to a pan - and water for six in the microwave doesn’t work. Mine only gets used for winter book club.
And I think you should sift flour even if you weigh it in order to get the volume right for proper integration with the baking soda/baking powder. I get much more consistent results with sifted flour.
I have had a whole host of ‘fad’ electric kitchen gadgets (many of these are still around but their popularity has come and gone):
[ul]
[li]Elecric wok[/li]This was just stupid: teflon coated so you couldn’t get it too hot–which is exactly what you want to do with a wok. Underpowered in any case.
[li]Bread maker[/li]Seemed to follow a particular pattern with everyone that owned one: use it a lot for a few weeks, then let the things occupy counter space. For years mine was used only to mix pizza dough until I got a stand mixer. They are still available but are nowhere near their heyday.
[li]Fondue pot[/li]Ii have no idea exactly what the ‘fondue’ pot we had really was–but we called it a fondue pot. It was a hot oil pot we dipped raw meat in to cook it at the table. Real (cheese) fondue pots have gone out of favor and have recently come back in.
[li]‘Non-planetary’ mixers[/li]The mixers I am refering to are the kind where the bowl spins (as oposed to the Kitchen-Aid type). Probably still available but I sure haven’t seen them around.
[li]Hot air poppers[/li](Already covered well by Duck Duck Goose) sure made popcon quickly, easliy and without mess–tasted awful, but that’s what makes America great! Microwave popcorn made these dissapear.
[li]Sandwich maker[/li]I have an electric job that will cook a couple of sandwiches in a couple of minutes–provided the bread is standard sandwich size (the same thing goes for the ‘Hobo’ sandwich makers). I actually like mine (makes a good cheese without needing to butter the outside).
[/ul]Could probably think of more if I really tried–and keep in mind these are just things I have owned.
I have a whistling microwave tea kettle. It’s very cool. Used several times daily by all family members. It will be obsolete when the microwave oven is.
Here’s one that never made it to my house, and I’ll expect to die off soon. Chocolate fountains
Having gone on a great quest to make the ‘perfect’ apple pie last year, never having made a pie in my life, I can tell you there are still people who do. And lard made crust is hands down my most popular. My husband takes my ‘experiments’ to work with him, along with a chart for people to vote, I’ll send in from two to four pies at a time.
Ferret Herder I just got this pressure canner a month ago. I love it.
[begging mode]
Can I get the recipe for the winner, crust included?
[/bm]
I canned about a million jars of salmon in an All American. I concur, it is the best ever made. Tolerances so precise, it has no gasket on the lid.
Sure!
Pie Filling:
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
3 tbsp. white flower
-Between 8-10 apples. I had great luck with the Stayman Winesap, though I had to have them picked up and brought here. (My father works for a RV transportation company, and his drivers go through PA. a lot.) Personally, those are my favorite. The other, and more easily gotten were Jonagold’s.
Crust: (copied from my great grandmother’s recipes, brought over from Hungary.)
3 cups flour
1 tbsp. powdered sugar
1 cup lard
5 tbsp. cold water (get a cup of ice water and keep it in the fridge for a half hour)
1 tsp. vinegar (apple)
In a mixing bowl, take the flour, lard, sugar and vinegar mix together with fork or pastry cutter until chunks pea sized and smaller. Add water one tbsp. at a time (I usually ended up using from 5-7 depending on the weather.) until you have a pastry ball. Separate into halves, cover one half and put in fridge. Roll out on a slightly floured surface. Transfer into bottom of pie pan (many different techniques, I roll from each end meeting in the middle, pulling log up, into the pan, and unrolling.) Add apples, four pats of butter. Prepare upper crust in same manner described above, smoosh edges of crusts together, (again, many different techniques, I have an edger thats older than dirt that we found at an auction, but I usually just use my thumb,) Take a knife slit holes in the crust, star in middle, then bigger at the 1-4th point all the way around. Some people put cinnamon on the crust, I don’t, it’s sweet enough as it is. Some people put little designs with cookie cutters on the upper crust, I don’t. It’s apple pie, not a cookie. My pie shouldn’t be pretentious, it’s the pie that the little old ladies tear up when eating it, and say “I didn’t know people still made pies this way.”
Damn, now I’m going to have to make one.
Sorry for the hijack.
I would kill if I could find another cast iron stove top waffle Iron.
Round, please.
Lost mine in the divorce.
Like she was going to make waffles. Right.
Tris
:eek: Now he has to kill you! :eek:
How about one of those machines that sealed plastic bags by melting the top edges together? I remember my mom using that a lot, to pack food for freezing. I guess ziploc bags made those obsolete.
My mom had a Tupperware frozen ice treat maker back in the early 70s. We didn’t have a dishwasher and I hated washing them! I never thought it worth the effort to make these.
This is a photo of Tupperware’s current line. (I can’t believe people still buy these!)