Kitchen items

[TeeDee]

What kitchen items - tools , mod cons , old tech , or possibly gadgets have you found you've acquired and has become a well used practical bit of kitchen equipment that you didn't know you needed but now wouldn't be without?

This maybe specific to you and your interest ( homebrewing/canning ) or a more general bit of kit ( Micro plane / Mandoline )

 

[Broch]

My name is Broch, and I confess to using a gadget in the kitchen!

We had a Kenwood hand whisk for years before I even took it out of the box but once I started using it I've found it indispensable for quickly creating sauces and soups. I still use a hand whisk for things like omelettes, bechamel sauce, and pancakes but for rendering down tomatoes or creating smooth cream soups it's a great bit of kit and much easier to wash up than a blender or the like.

 

[Chris]

First one is something that I simultaneously think is overrated: a two drawer air fryer.

I don’t think it is that good for a lot of things I see people raving about, for example I would only do steak and other meat in my cast iron pan and/or oven.

But what it IS a godsend for is if you only have one oven compartment in the main oven, like we do. It acts as an extended oven when doing something like a roast dinner, where you might have lots of different stuff on the go cooking at different rates/times or where you’d otherwise run out of space in the main oven.

It’s also useful for just quickly cooking one portion of something without heating the main oven, which I find myself doing often as my wife has some textural issues with certain food which means we often have different things for dinner.

Second: Vacuum sealer. Great for dividing raw meat up into freezable portions. If I see a good ribeye joint I will sometimes just buy the full thing and then cut it up into individual steaks. Which leads me to…

Thirdly: Sous vide stick. Chuck a vacuum packed steak or other meat into a pan of water with the sous vide stick, leave the meat for an hour or two to get it to correct internal temperature and then finish off with a quick sear in the pan. This is particularly useful if cooking a few steaks at once, as it removes some of the stress of trying to get all the timings right in the pan.

 

[TeeDee]

Yep
Immersion blenders are good - make soup making a P.O.P.

Agree ref the Air fryer. I think they can be a good bit of kit for small kitchen needs whist trying to level up.

Vacuum sealer - Yes , don't have one but on my radar


My offering - Supercubes or their knockoff - Giant silicone ice cube type affairs that make doing batch cooking a little easier. It allows to have a bit of a planned mix-n-match of batchcooked food for quality home cooked meals in the freezer. After they have frozen baggy.

 

[Pattree]

A big plastic mixing bowl.

All my life I have known that all mixing is done in a big heavy ceramic Mason Cash bowl. White on the inside and fawn on the outside just like my grandmothers from the 19th century.

I refused to use the plastic one until the day that I developed a way of making bread without spreading flour all over the kitchen.
The plastic mixing bowl is in use a couple of times a week for bread making. Wouldn’t be without it.

 

[Stew]

A spurtle for stirring. Everyone is a doubter before they see it in action. Works so well and doesn't have issues with being too big to move around in the pot/pan. Less mess.

The other is a plastic folding chopping board.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CPJQ17H9?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

Now before you spin out, I don't actually use it for chopping. I chop on wooden boards but when chopping veg, I have this board tucked under the board to the right of the board - all the veg debris gets deposited onto it. Then when I've finished the prep, the debris board is pre-loaded to deposit it all straight in the compost pot.

 

[Toddy]

Silicon spatulas.....they make such a tidy job of things. Fit every pot and bowl.

 

[hughtrimble]

Robert Herder pairing knife in carbon steel. It is ground so thin on such thin blade stock that it'll just keep on cutting and cutting and cutting veg long after the edge has gone. Pretty rustic in finish, but very enjoyable to use.

 

[Bazzworx]

Since getting a thermo pen a few years back I find myself using it regularly to get meat to the perfect internal temp, I wouldn't be without one now. I also love my DeBuyer carbon steel frying pan now I've got a near perfect seasoning on it (after quite a few not so successful attempts). I really like having a vac packer and sous vide stick too but we don't use that perhaps as much as we should.

 

[Toddy]

I've baked on a girdle (bakestone) since childhood. It does everything from scones and pancakes to tortillas and flat breads. It's honestly never off the cooker.
But, my big one is too big for my modern electric cooker, and my MIL's doesn't fit on the electric rings (Son1 pinched it, it works fine on gas) so I bought myself a cast iron flat plate Tawa. No stick up or out handles, just a flat disc of cast iron. It's brilliant

Like this,

Link,

KitchenCraft Baking Stone Tray, Non Stick, for Oven or Hob, for Pizza, Bread, Pancake and Other Recipes in Gift Box, Round, Cast Iron, 27 cm x 6.5 mm : Amazon.co.uk: Home & Kitchen

‎

www.amazon.co.uk

 

[Woody girl]

A spong mincer.
Works even if the power is out, and untill my then partner bought me an electric "wizzy gig," (as its always been known in my house, ) which was used for pate , soup, humus, aswell as mincing stuff.
I don't use it so much now, as the electric hand blender is much quicker to use and clean, but I'll always have it in my kitchen . You never know when it could be needed again.

 

[Pattree]

This is so regularly in use that I didn’t think of it.
It started life as a low quality kitchen knife. It won’t hold an edge and it no longer needs to.
The square end has a bevel finishing in a half millimetre 90 degree edge.

It’s an excellent heavy duty scraper.

It’s an effective spatula.

It’s my mixer for cake and bread ingredients. It’s a dough hook for bread making.

It’s a supreme butty maker. It can’t slice a loaf but I can spread butter and jam in decent quantities faster than a WI volunteer at a jumble sale!

 

[TeeDee]

View attachment 100860

This is so regularly in use that I didn’t think of it.
It started life as a low quality kitchen knife. It won’t hold an edge and it no longer needs to.
The square end has a bevel finishing in a half millimetre 90 degree edge.

It’s an excellent heavy duty scraper.

It’s an effective spatula.

It’s my mixer for cake and bread ingredients. It’s a dough hook for bread making.

It’s a supreme butty maker. It can’t slice a loaf but I can spread butter and jam in decent quantities faster than a WI volunteer at a jumble sale!

You know when you have a new HB pencil and after sometime, it gets chewed , worn down , until just a nub is left?

That.


But if it works it works.

 

[Toddy]

or.....I have a very good provenanced spinning wheel. It dates to the late 1740's. It has history, it was part of the government's efforts to encourage cash into the economy of the Highlands and thus break up the system of man renders and people being 'loyal' to their landowner, and not the crown or parliament.
Anyhow, the wheel was used to teach women to spin flax, and they were paid cash for it. Cash rents eventually led to the Clearances.

The wheel is beautiful, still spins smoothly, is a pleasure to use, but it's been through a lot.
It got woodworm, and the man who treated it made a new flyer and a new front leg, both from the same type of timbers that were originally used, oak and applewood, and at some point, if the fellow that the folks who gave it to me bought it from was right, the horn bearer for the wheel was replaced in the mid 1800's. Everything else is as it was, right down to the tips of the maidens, the applewood distaff, and the pitman......but there are those who claim it's not 'authentic' because it's been repaired and pieces replaced.....I still have the pieces of the old flyer, rusted hooks, eaten with woodworm, etc......and I replied that the spinning wheel is still spinning, is still in use, is still being used to teach women to spin......and they tutt and huff, and feel righteous.....and me and my spinning wheel, we just get on with it

@Pattree
That knife's had a life, doesn't mean it's done yet

M

 

[Chris]

or.....I have a very good provenanced spinning wheel. It dates to the late 1740's. It has history, it was part of the government's efforts to encourage cash into the economy of the Highlands and thus break up the system of man renders and people being 'loyal' to their landowner, and not the crown or parliament.
Anyhow, the wheel was used to teach women to spin flax, and they were paid cash for it. Cash rents eventually led to the Clearances.

The wheel is beautiful, still spins smoothly, is a pleasure to use, but it's been through a lot.
It got woodworm, and the man who treated it made a new flyer and a new front leg, both from the same type of timbers that were originally used, oak andand at some point, if the fellow that the folks who gave it to me bought it from was right, the horn bearer for the wheel was replaced in the mid 1800's. Everything else is as it was, right down to the tips of the maidens, the applewood distaff, and the pitman......but there are those who claim it's not 'authentic' because it's been repaired and pieces replaced.....I still have the pieces of the old flyer, rusted hooks, eaten with woodworm, etc......and I replied that the spinning wheel is still spinning, is still in use, is still being used to teach women to spin......and they tutt and huff, and feel righteous.....and me and my spinning wheel, we just get on with it

@Pattree
That knife's had a life, doesn't mean it's done yet

M

Trigger’s Broom! It’s still the original. We replace our own cells every 10 or so years, but we are still the same person (though of course changed in various ways).

I like to think of objects like this, just as with people, as a story. The story of the wheel’s life continues regardless of bits being replaced and updated and repaired. The thread through history which started when that item was made still weaves its way through history, impacting people and creating things which affect the course of history even if only in small ways. Imagine how wide that ripple has now spread through time, which started when it was built all those years ago.

What I’m saying is… those critics can bugger off!

 

[Pattree]

You know when you have a new HB pencil and after sometime, it gets chewed , worn down , until just a nub is left?

That.


But if it works it works.

Oh I wish this was the case!

The knife was a conventional chefs knife bought from a supermarket a dozen years or so ago. I gave it a go but it really was carp.

The shape is deliberate and the result of my work with a cutting disc and angle grinder.

They didn’t make such rubbish steel knives in the time when old knives are that concave today from natural use

 

[HillBill]

A big plastic mixing bowl.

All my life I have known that all mixing is done in a big heavy ceramic Mason Cash bowl. White on the inside and fawn on the outside just like my grandmothers from the 19th century.

I refused to use the plastic one until the day that I developed a way of making bread without spreading flour all over the kitchen.
The plastic mixing bowl is in use a couple of times a week for bread making. Wouldn’t be without it.

If you make a lot of bread, and don't have one already... a Danish whisk is a game changer. So too, is a shower cap (for covering the bowl, to allow it to rise before kneading, keeps the warmth and moisture in situ) Before the Danish whisk, i used the handle of a wooden spoon. No comparison. I do use a glass bowl though. Not a fan of plastic... easy to shave bits from it into your food if not using suitable tools.

 

[HillBill]

Air fryer was a big thing for us. Our oven is electric, but not fan assisted. So the air fryer really shines when we want something crispier. Need to get another, or a double one with independent control.

The rocker type Garlic crusher... big time saver, not just for garlic.

A 6", rather than an 8" Chefs knife. My go to knife in the kitchen.

A proper slicing knife... normally advertised as a brisket or ham/salmon knife.

Micro plane grater. The daddy of zest, nutmeg and hard cheeses.

Frozen mean slicer. I eat plenty of ramen. Keep a selection of your favourite meats frozen solid... these things will shave them as fine as you want.... few slices, wang em in the ramen a minute before the noodles are cooked... perfection. Less waste, no hassle.... meat sliced as thin as you want it. £20 for one and away you go

Outside of tools.....

Chipotle chilli flakes. They make the best chilli oil ever, and also add so much to other foods with their smokiness and mild heat.

Anchovies...(minced/finely chopped) in things you wouldnt consider adding fish to... Chilli, Spag bol, Curries etc... Excellent depth of flavour enhancer.

MSG. Replace half of whatever salt you add with MSG. Those who know, know.

Mae Ploy curry paste... The best Thai pastes there is, imo. Might have a mild addiction to it.

 

[TeeDee]

Electric egg boiler - sounds a little redundant I guess but once you've zeroed in on the ratio of water to eggs and how you like your eggs - perfection everytime

 

[Tengu]

or.....I have a very good provenanced spinning wheel. It dates to the late 1740's. It has history, it was part of the government's efforts to encourage cash into the economy of the Highlands and thus break up the system of man renders and people being 'loyal' to their landowner, and not the crown or parliament.
Anyhow, the wheel was used to teach women to spin flax, and they were paid cash for it. Cash rents eventually led to the Clearances.

The wheel is beautiful, still spins smoothly, is a pleasure to use, but it's been through a lot.
It got woodworm, and the man who treated it made a new flyer and a new front leg, both from the same type of timbers that were originally used, oak and applewood, and at some point, if the fellow that the folks who gave it to me bought it from was right, the horn bearer for the wheel was replaced in the mid 1800's. Everything else is as it was, right down to the tips of the maidens, the applewood distaff, and the pitman......but there are those who claim it's not 'authentic' because it's been repaired and pieces replaced.....I still have the pieces of the old flyer, rusted hooks, eaten with woodworm, etc......and I replied that the spinning wheel is still spinning, is still in use, is still being used to teach women to spin......and they tutt and huff, and feel righteous.....and me and my spinning wheel, we just get on with it

@Pattree
That knife's had a life, doesn't mean it's done yet

M

Ah, real hi tech stuff. In the Iron Age we use a drop spindle.

And anyone who has seen me attempt to spin will be telling me to go back to my leather.