I'm doing more and more home cooking and baking and can now justify the purchase of either a processor or a mixer. I'm leaning towards a good mixer (KitchenAid) as I'm quite handy with a kitchen knife but find kneading dough to be a PITA. So, kitchen gadgets, love 'em or hate 'em? What have you got in your kitchen?
Food processors and food mixers.
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nutri ninja....im finally getting my 5 a day plus greens other than just mushy peas ontop of growlers . really am impressed with it. plus it crushes ice .
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I hate gadgets, they are pointless and clutter up the gaff. There are only two electronic machines that I consider tools not gadgets. First is our old bread maker. I can make bread by hand and do on special occasions, but the ability to put a loaf on and then garden is Hugely useful. Then we have the Kenwood. Ours is a mixer with liquidiser and food processor. We bulk process soups sauces and chutneys and it really helps make that several hours rather than a long day. I prefer Kenwoods s over Kitchenaid because I can attach other tools. If you won't use those tools then the Kitchenaid is first class.
Don't have a microwave but do have a breadmaker. Like Red I make by hand too, but it is great to have it knead while I'm up to other things.
Said before but my favourite thing and is sort of an anti-microwave is my slow cooker. Especially living alone it's great to load it in the morning, go out for the day and come back to the house smelling of food. Like having kitchen elves.
Coffee perk and toaster next, though has to be a 4 slicer minimum. What bloke only eats 2 slices?
Have a mandolin chopper but it's a good way to cut yourself badly. Can't remember the name of my mixer/blender but I don't use it that often. My rottiserie is kind've dead these days and needs replaced, nice way to do big lumps of meat. Also have one of these halogen tabletop ovens which looks like a big glass mixing bowl with a fan heater on top. Again a good an very efficient way power wise to cook up a variety of things.
Too many knies to mention, bone saw for butchering, various steamers, jelly bag for berry season. All way too much for a wee kitchen.
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Said before but my favourite thing and is sort of an anti-microwave is my slow cooker. Especially living alone it's great to load it in the morning, go out for the day and come back to the house smelling of food. Like having kitchen elves.
Coffee perk and toaster next, though has to be a 4 slicer minimum. What bloke only eats 2 slices?
Have a mandolin chopper but it's a good way to cut yourself badly. Can't remember the name of my mixer/blender but I don't use it that often. My rottiserie is kind've dead these days and needs replaced, nice way to do big lumps of meat. Also have one of these halogen tabletop ovens which looks like a big glass mixing bowl with a fan heater on top. Again a good an very efficient way power wise to cook up a variety of things.
Too many knies to mention, bone saw for butchering, various steamers, jelly bag for berry season. All way too much for a wee kitchen.
Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
My electric pressure cooker does pulled pork in 45 minutes. That alone makes it my favourite kitchen gadget
Our panini press comes a close second, grilling just doesn't do the same thing.
Hand zuzzer doobry makes great sauces.
Use the microwave lots. It shortcuts a lot of cooking tasks and makes great crispy Bacon with no burnt bits.
On the hardly ever use list:
Bread maker, used to use it a lot. Fell out of use after the novelty wore off.
Coffee grinder. Don't buy beans.
Coffee machine. Use a cafettiere instead.
Breville sandwich toaster. Makes great toasties but never dig it out.
Our panini press comes a close second, grilling just doesn't do the same thing.
Hand zuzzer doobry makes great sauces.
Use the microwave lots. It shortcuts a lot of cooking tasks and makes great crispy Bacon with no burnt bits.
On the hardly ever use list:
Bread maker, used to use it a lot. Fell out of use after the novelty wore off.
Coffee grinder. Don't buy beans.
Coffee machine. Use a cafettiere instead.
Breville sandwich toaster. Makes great toasties but never dig it out.
Breadmaker, de-hydrator, pressure cooker, stick blender (with covered bowl attachment, great for no mess) electric kettle and a toaster. Small coffee grinder that gets used for spices, I have a hand crank for coffee, and an electric nut/ leaf mill thing. (makes pesto, etc.,)
Everythng else I do with hand tools, from whisks to mortar and pestle.
The stick blender's well worth having; it's just incredibly useful. If all you want the machine to do is make dough, buy a bread maker It'll even make jam for you
M
Everythng else I do with hand tools, from whisks to mortar and pestle.
The stick blender's well worth having; it's just incredibly useful. If all you want the machine to do is make dough, buy a bread maker
It'll even make jam for you M
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Stick blender and covered bowl, as Mary says, indispensable for me as a timesaver. I'd like to get a good quality breadmaker sometime soon, much as I like soda bread and the various other yeast-free loaves I make it'd be nice to have good loaves as well.
All the rest went to the charity shop many moons ago
All the rest went to the charity shop many moons ago
Our Stick blender is used most days and a charity shop Kenwoid chef. There is a microwave but I only use it for heating plates up. The bread maker , slow cooker and deep fat fryer need to all go into storage as they just take up space. There's a Big George Foreman gril thing but I'm in two minds about it, it does cook stuff a bit more healthily but it's a pain to clean and it takes up a lot of space. Herself has a couple of dehydrators but they get used intensely for short periods and then get mothballed for several months at a time. The fancy blender food processor we had as a wedding present lives in a cupboard as it is such a booger to clean. The last time I had it out was to process a load of suet into tallow and it didnt even o a very good job at that, the next time I had a knife and that did th job fine.
Yup a hand blender and a mixer with dough hooks and a lot of grunt are the only ones I'd replace if they broke down.
atb
Tom
Yup a hand blender and a mixer with dough hooks and a lot of grunt are the only ones I'd replace if they broke down.
atb
Tom
I've still got the 1950s era Sunbeam mixer that was Mama's. A pop-up toaster (if my kitchen was a bit bigger I'd replace that with a small toaster oven as they're more useful) a small drip coffee maker (6 cup) and a nuke.
My favorite though is a small rice cooker for much the same reason BR likes the bread maker; it's nice to just add the rice and water and walk away to tend to other things.
My favorite though is a small rice cooker for much the same reason BR likes the bread maker; it's nice to just add the rice and water and walk away to tend to other things.
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I have a Hamilton-Beach 450W mixer. Many features superior to Kitchen Aid such as lock up and lock down with no lever. The bowl is wider for easy additions. The dough doesn't climb the dough hook like in the KA. Less than 10 years experience with the KA mixer, more like 15 with the HB. But, each to their own, I suppose. HB Blender is good, the HB toaster is a POS.
Hamilton & Beach? A couple of engineers who invented the first popular, hand-held electric drill.
Hamilton & Beach? A couple of engineers who invented the first popular, hand-held electric drill.
Magimix 5100. A bit of an outlay but I've had it about fifteen years and never a problem. I use it for dough making, purees, dips, soups, juicing, grating, slicing you name it. I bought a new bowl a few years back but it's never let me down and continues to give good service.
I also use a big stick blender that I got from Nisbetts for larger quantities of soup etc.
I also use a big stick blender that I got from Nisbetts for larger quantities of soup etc.
I have a Kenwood food processor and a stand mixer. Can't rate them high enough, but I really, really like cooking.
The food processor really only speeds up prepartion time, but let's you do some other nitty things. Raise egg whites while you mix the remaining batter for cake, super fast potato purée, marinade sauce is a breeze to prepare and better than pestel and mortar + hand mixing, etc. The stand mixer is a real killer for all things batter and dough, especially thoose that take a little longer to knead.
If i had to pick one, I'd take the food processor with a dough and mixer attachment (Kenwood has them, not shure if sold separately).
The food processor really only speeds up prepartion time, but let's you do some other nitty things. Raise egg whites while you mix the remaining batter for cake, super fast potato purée, marinade sauce is a breeze to prepare and better than pestel and mortar + hand mixing, etc. The stand mixer is a real killer for all things batter and dough, especially thoose that take a little longer to knead.
If i had to pick one, I'd take the food processor with a dough and mixer attachment (Kenwood has them, not shure if sold separately).
I must confess, I gave our kenwood away on freecycle. A delightful cake-baking lady took it off us
I have a stick blender for soups, bread maker, coffee/spice grinder and halogen oven in the kitchen. We had a coffee machine in the kitchen, but weren't using it...then I moved it to the bedroom and it gets used every morning!
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I have a stick blender for soups, bread maker, coffee/spice grinder and halogen oven in the kitchen. We had a coffee machine in the kitchen, but weren't using it...then I moved it to the bedroom and it gets used every morning!
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