I was watching late night TV, and saw a commercial for a “nifty” new product called the Eggstractor. You put a hard-boiled egg into a hole at the top of a little tripod stand, but this large accordion bellows over it, press down on the bellows, and voila: your hardboiled egg is instantly peeled! (This is opposed to the model morons they show for whom such a task apparently takes hours.)
Now, I must admit, I don’t eat hardboiled eggs, so maybe peeling them is more of a production than I think it is. But honestly, is our society so fat, lazy, and decadent that we NEED something like the Eggstractor? Ugh. It’s enough to make you want to dump your Juiceman into a dumpster and go off and live in the Montana wilderness.
And what about that stupid pasta pot with the colander lid? Isn’t that thing completely useless for the main purpose of a lid, which is supposedly to keep food hot? I looked at one in a “As Seen on TV” store recently, and it sure looks to me like there’s absolutely nothing to keep heat from escaping through those nice convenient holes, either during or after cooking!
I’m no anti-Western civilization nut, and I’m certainly no Luddite, but even I have to draw the line SOMEWHERE… I mean, please.
I could see it’s use for the “harried housewife” who has to make a lot of deviled eggs in a hurry, or potato salad in a rush. It would cut down on the mess that usually goes along with having to peel a lot of eggs at one time. In that application it would be more effecient, not so much lazy.
Another thing, lids on pots that are cooking are meant to keep in heat, and some steam, also they are meant to prevent splatters so they don’t make a mess on the stove and kitchen ceiling. Even so, I can see a pot with a special tool, that the designer calls a lid that fits the pot perfectly and is used to facilitate the draining of liquids from the food you just cooked. Have you ever had a “close call” while draning pasta etc. with no colander available?
I don’t mind the creation of " specialized gadgets" that help facilitate a part of the food preparation process. I can see your point, they aren’t specifically designed for “Joe Blow” who just wants a boiled egg for a snack. However, if he’s such a lazy lout he can’t be bothered to peel his own egg, let him be. (Also maybe he’s just a neat freak, and doesn’t want to risk little bits of egg peel stuck to his egg, or anywhere else?)
You do that?!? I thought I was the only one, judging by the strange looks people give me when they see me pop a whole egg into my mouth.
Anyway, looking at its instructions for use – especially the troubleshooting section at the bottom – I get the impression that peeling an egg with this thing really isn’t any easier than the traditional method…
Well, here’s a chance to share pretty much the only Handy Household Tip I know. I don’t recall where I learned this, but it works like a charm: After you’re done cooking the eggs, immediately immerse them in cold water. This creates a layer of steam between the egg and the shell and makes shell removal a breeze. At least, that’s what I heard—the “layer of steam” bit. Dunno if that’s what really happens, but I do know it makes getting the shell off a lot easier.
Yeah, it’s much easier to peel a boiled egg if you put it in cool water for a few minutes after cooking first, also salt the water you boil it in if I remember my mother’s teaching correctly. I’ve made (and helped make) deviled eggs, and potato salad many times, so I know about the “tapping” and “cooling” bits. Still, you inevitably end up with little bits of egg shells on the table and under it when you are done. At least, we did. The shell seems to stick to fingers quite well, and then drops off and gets spread from there.
I was thinking the pitted device de-shelled the egg, and collected the shells in a container for neater disposal, I’ve seen ones like that I believe. THOSE would be handy if you had a lot of eggs to shell, because they’d be less messy. (Can you tell I’ve grown to hate sweeping up the whole kitchen to make certain to get all the eggs shells so they don’t get tracked everywhere after making Easter and Thanksgiving dinner preparations the night before?)
I got one - it’s not.
It’s fine for whisking, but when you try to pick anything up, you find there is zero grip strength in those tongs. You can only pick up very lightweight things like bacon, not pork chops or chickekn breasts.
The whisky/tong thing sits in the drawer while my regular whisk and tongs do their business…
I love those commercials. I love the people in them who can’t drain pasta or peel an egg without a special device - my favorite is the woman who throws up her hands after the collander fails to catch her poorly aimed spaghetti and dumps it down the drain. I’m sure glad they pointed out what a complicated device the collander is and saved me some heartache. I also like the Perfect Pancake. The mind boggles at how long it would take to make a stack of pancakes using that thing.
Are you tired of the amazing difficulty and effort it takes to get those eggs perfectly scrambled every time? Do you throw up your hands in exasperation as you clumsily slop your partially scrambled raw eggs all over the counter, floor, clothing and family members? Have I got an appliance for YOU!
Well, you see, guys, WE are the negativist people who laughed at “the real inventor of the colander pot” (or of inline skates) so she didn’t get the patent and now some other company is selling it – as seen on the TV commercial for the “inventors registry” outfit ( :rolleyes: That’s the ultimate expression of the infommercial market – we won’t even sell you a lame product, we’ll make YOU payUS upfront to listen to your lame product idea.)
Or as my brother likes to tell me: “This is why there’ll never be talk of The Billionaire Delirious Brothers: we quickly identify what’s stupid about our ideas, and then assume everybody else will, too.” Then there was the time we concluded that going around asking drunken Spring Break co-eds to drop their tops for a video crew would probably get us (a) beat up by jock boyfriends and then (b) arrested…
And the detailed instructions for use of the Eggstractor are really fascinating… 'makes you feel like forget the egg, let’s just have a bagel with cream cheese and lox instead. “If you push down on the Eggstractor while your egg is laying on its side you will destroy your egg.” Precious.
Speaking of the Pasta Pot – the escaping-heat issue can be easily dealt with by having the lid be a colander only over less than 1/2 its surface, and have a sliding cover over that can be spun over that part.
I don’t care about the waste of money buying all these ‘labor saving’ inventions, nor about what is says of American IQs and/or willingness to put forth effort. What amazes me is that people apparently have room in their kitchen to store a bazillion one-use items! And not just store, be able to lay their hands on the exact one they need at the moment they need it.
The electric peeler, the home doughnut baker, the egg scrambler, the egg peeler, the veggie cutter that make ornamental doodads out of radishes, the tong/whisk, the countertop rotisserie, the countertop grill, the 47-different knives assortment (but wait! there’s more!), the cherry pitter, the shrimp deveiner, the eggs slicer/quarterer (so many gadgets for eggs – who knew they were so complex?), the apple corer/slicer, the cake cutter/server, the home ice cream maker, the home cotton candy machine (don’t laugh, I saw it advertised), the bacon rack for the microwave, the egg poacher/hard boiler for the microwave (and there are those devilish eggs yet again!), and on and on and on…
Do people really clutter their kitchens with this crap?? No wonder Americans are eating fewer and few home made meals: They can’t find the basic pots and pans and three knifes that are all a real cook needs to do virtually everything!
