My sister does ice cream in a zip lock bag with her kids. They love making it.
We have an old Braun juicer. We use it regularly but none of the parts are dishwasher safe (plastic). Handwashing after juicing beets or carrots is a pain in the butt. My wife has eyed a stainless steel Breville juicer. I wonder if there is some rock hard vegetable that can be introduced to the juicer that will burn out the motor.
Since Iām not in the market for another rice cooker, I havenāt been looking. But something like this is the sort of overkill that Iād go for if I were getting a new one. It does white, brown, and sushi rices as well being able to create porridge (congee) and GABA brown rice which apparently is better for you. The clock function is useful to have your rice ready when you get home from work.
We have a food processor. But I find I prefer to hand cut most things. It comes out better. For example, using it to dice an onion drive a lot of moisture out of the onion from the blade action. I prefer to dice the onions by hand, tears and all.
My mother loves to cook and absolutely loves both getting and giving gadgets, so Iāve got a pasta maker complete with a little ravioli attachment and other various things to make all kinds of fresh, fancy pastas.
Itās been sitting in my cabinet for like two years. I should probably try it out one of these days.
I also have a Mickey waffle maker. But that bad boy makes FOUR of them at a time. Usually it only takes a couple of Mickey abortions before I figure out how to get the ears out intact.
We have a vacuum sealer that we use regularly. One of the interesting uses has been vac packing a huge portion of chow mein and freezing it. It then becomes boil-in-the-bag convenience for those I canāt be bothered to cook days.
ULTIMATE FOOD PROC PROTIP:
A food processor is the most worthless piece of crap in the kitchen, that is until you replace the stupid, hateful, idiotic ādonāt lick the electrical socketā lawyer top with a simple flat top with plug. One of these:
(well, couldnāt get an individual pic, but itās the āflat cover with capā)
I wouldnāt touch my processor because I didnāt want to have to disassemble and reassemble the insane mess of plastic that was the lid. But since I got a plain top, I use it two or three times weekly. Can of whole tomatoes + herbs and spices = great red sauce with no mess, no effort. You just immediately rinse out the lid, bowl, and blade, and youāre in business.
Seriously, best thing I ever bought for the kitchen, after my cheapo Victorinox chefās knife. I donāt touch my Henckels any more.
H.
No kidding. I run mine through the dishwasher, so it isnāt so bad. But Iād never try to wash it by hand.
Here are some of my (not yet mentioned) gadgets:
Progressive International Onion Chopper ā I love this thing. You have to quarter the onion first, but other than that, itās great. No more tears. Also works well on carrots, potatoes, celery, tomatoes (as long as they are somewhat firm), etcā¦
Benrzomatic Propane Torch ā Because only pussies brĆ»lĆ©e their crĆØme with butane.
Vita-Mix Blender ā Ya, it blends.
SpyderCo Triangle Sharpmaker ā I think this was a Cookās Illustrated recommendation. I havenāt used it to sharpen any fish hooks, so I canāt speak to that, but it does a heck of a job on knives.
Cuisinart GR-4 Griddler ā Stupid name, but it makes great paninis and pancakes.
Well, yeah. With the (somewhat anal) caveat that you arenāt actually making ice cream with that recipe (no eggs), but itās basically the same principle as the old hand crank machines. Ice + salt water = water that cools down to below 32 degrees and helps freeze your custard.
My point was that the modern ice cream machines are not gimmicksāeven using that baggy method is a pretty labor-intensive way to make ice cream. You have to constantly work it for 15 minutes, and it probably still turns out a somewhat icy because squooshing a plastic bag isnāt a very good way of working air into the mixture. And it only makes one serving; making a full batch of ice cream with a old style crank machine involves a half an hour or more of constant cranking. Itās a good way to keep the kids occupied for a while, though.
An electric kettle is not a unitasker! I mean, sure, it only boils water, but boiled water is used for so many things. I use my kettle about twice a day on average.
I have a kitchenaid stand mixer, and I love that thing. Itās my favourite kitchen tool. I make cookies, cake and other diet unfriendly treats far too often.
My other beloved unitasker is my jar opener. Donāt laugh!
I want a slow cooker, but canāt justify the kitchen space. I already have a gigantic roaster oven I use at thanksgiving and christmas, and that has to live in the garage. Iām also tempted by various attachment for the stand mixer, like the meat grinder and the sausage stuffer. But I donāt think I would really use them more than twice, for the novelty.
An electric kettle is a unitaskerā¦ sorry.
You could just put a pot on the stoveā¦
The stove is also a unitasker. And the electric kettle has an advantage: it brings liquids to a boil a lot faster than most stoves.
My must haves are a food processor, stick blender, coffee/spice grinder, iron frying pan, my le creuset oval cookware, slow cooker and microwave. Some of these, especially the latter two are must haves b/c of the kids. We have a lot more but these are my must haves.
The stick blender is my toy Iāve been using for the past year and it is super awesome. Iāve used it for everything from adult beverages to smoothies to soups to kiddie fresh fruit popsicles. I can make it a homemade soup in about 20 minutes with that all in one pot. Itās criminally easy to saute any veggie add some stock and use the blender to smash it up to whatever consistency you want. In the past 2 months, Iāve made vichyssoise, pea soup, carrot soup and last week a squash/corn chowder. For summer gardeners and farmer market folks, the immersion blender is just incredibly useful to make sauces and soups.
The food processor is nice because itās a huge time saver from making guacs to pastry items (use the FP instead of a sifter).
Between the stick and the food processor we almost never use the blender. Iād rather trade the blender in for a stand mixer b/c itās just not that useful right now.
But far and away the stick blender is incredibly useful b/c itās easy to use and you can keep everything in 1 pot. It also allows for experimentations in the smoothie/soup department as making a soup is so easy you can experiment with a bunch of different herbs.
For things where consistency of the chop matters, Iāll agree. The food processor does a lot more than chop, though: it can shred much faster (and just as good) than you could do with a box grater, it can slice as well as a mandolin (though no adjustable thickness), and itās great for doing purees (we often use ours for making things like guacamole, pesto, peanut sauce, etc.).
A good rice cooker is much much better than a bad one. Basically, any of the japanese brands is going to be better than and of the western brands. Iād also look for a non-stick surface on the interior of the rice bucket. This actually means that the home versions are better than the restaurant quality ones.
My mother has an enormous (40 cup I think) rice cooker for catering purposes. Itās great for what it is, but because of itās size / materials (durability over convenience), about 1 cup (minimum) of rice sticks to the sides each time itās used. I also bought a similar (10 or so) cup rice cooker from a restaurant supply store for making rice for large dinner parties, etc, and it had the same problem.
My wife is after me to get a food mill. Ina Garten has corrupted her on this issue.
I have a probe thermometer with wireless transmission to a remote unit. I though it would be useful but that reality is that the wireless for me is never really used. The wire runs out to the base unit which then needs to be synched to the remote unit. Which then sits on a table only ten feet away as Iām in the kitchen cooking other stuff. I have yet to be in a situation where I am sitting somewhere else (playing a game) waiting for the roast to be done.
Noā¦
It makes things hot. Much like an electric kettle, actually. What other function does it have?