Well, it could make a saucepan hot, to cook sauce, it could make a pan hot, to cook things, like chicken You could put a pan on it, fill it with grease and fry someting. You can grill on it (with a grill pan) you can boil water on it. You can make jiffy-pop pocorn on it, you could make chinese food (with a wok)
The fact is, it is a tool that facilitates the use of other tools. A kettle is the end product, it does one thing, heat water. It doesn’t heat chicken or anything else. Just liquids and water. I am not saying an electric kettle is a bad thing, it is a useful unitasker, but it still is one.
The real advantage to an electric kettle is that it keeps the water hot constantly. My mother loves hers - keeps it on 24/7. Seems a bit silly to me, especially since she also owns a Hot Shot. But like WildElf said, if you use it all the time, it’s useful to you.
I have the same, and never use it. Even when grilling on the deck and cooking in the kitchen, I’m out on the deck often enough to check the thermometer anyway, and it has a loud alarm.
By itself, the stove does exactly one thing: it gets hot. And even when you add pots and pans, a lot of them are only good for certain things. I mean, yes, you can grill or fry chicken or make popcorn on a stove, but it’s not like you can do those things with, say, a saucepan. A saucepan is typically only used for heating liquids–much like an electric kettle. Nonetheless, I don’t think many people would call a saucepan a unitasker, because “heating liquids” encompasses a pretty broad range of possible tasks.
Additionally, the saucepan can sometimes be pressed into service performing tasks that it was not strictly intended to do. Likewise, I’ve seen Alton use an electric kettle to do stuff like hydrate corn husks for making tamales, hard-boil eggs (the kettle shuts off automatically when the water boils, which is very handy for the “bring to a boil and sit” method), and to make creme brulee.
Also, “no uni-taskers” is a useful motto in general, but like most general advice, its retarded when taken to extremes.
Whether or not an electric water kettle is a uni-tasker doesn’t affect the fact that its useful for many people. I have an electric rice cooker (that doesn’t even make congee!) which is a unitasker, but you could only take it away from me if you pried it from my cold dead hands.
If you’ve read Brown’s cookbooks, you know that the “no unitasker” motto was a reaction to accumulating too much damn stuff he never used, much of which was only used for a single dish (french onion soup bowls, for example). It’s more of a “no uni-dishimplement” than “no single purpose object”.
By the definition where a stove or kettle is a uni-tasker, a knife is a unitasker because all it does is cut, so out it goes. You get to do all your eating with sporks.
Yeah, agree on the rice cooker. It’s probably the most unitask-y thing in our kitcen (well, that and the ice cream maker), but it’s SO nice to have. Makes perfect rice, every time, with essentially zero effort.
OTOH, I never have understood rice cookers. I make rice in a pot, it takes maybe twenty seconds of effort on my part. Rice, salt, boil, and when it’s done turn off the burner and cover, let sit for five minutes.
Knives are also good for stabbing people in the face. Well, or anywhere, really–it doesn’t just have to be the face.
Rice cookers are even less effort. Dump the rice and water in and leave them… that’s it. They moderate the temperature as they cook, so they never overcook or undercook the rice, and they shut off automatically when the rice is done. Seriously, it’s just one of those things that seem unnecessary until you use one. Then you’ll never want to cook rice in a pot again. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a professional chef cook rice in a pot.
Speaking of specialized Asian kitchen gadgetry, when I was shopping in a large Korean Supermarket, they had these huge refigerator things that turned out to be kimchi refrigerators. I’m not Korean, and I don’t make kimchi at home, but I didn’t realize that this is a very popular appliance for Korean households with a 40% penetration in homes in South Korea as well as a patent lawsuit.
Someone cut to the chase and recommend me the best bang for my blender buck. Talking about something whose primary duty would be turning ice, mix and tequila into a frosty margarita. Tired of getting large lumps of ice that do not get properly pulverized.
If you’re not in a hurry, I recently got a Kitchenaid blender as a gift but haven’t done anything with it yet. I could make some pina coladas this weekend (the sacrifices I make for you!) and tell you how it goes.
For the record, it has an incredibly heavy base, so it seems like it’ll have a ton of power.
We have one of those magic bullets they sell on TV, and it’s actually really convenient. Our regular blender was used maybe twice a year, but the magic bullet stays on the counter and gets used almost daily.
I’ve never used a timer function on a rice cooker. If I’m going to be making rice, I’m going to be in the kitchen at least 30 mins before eating, just to be cooking the rest of the meal.
