My stainless sheets also warp. I bought some nordic aluminum from amazon and they’re ok. I then bought like 5 or 6 from a restaurant supply store for service. They were around 7 dollars a piece there.
Stainless were a lot easier to clean, but had to set temp differently, so I just use them now in the fridge as trays to hold raw chicken packages so junk doesn’t get everywhere.
stusser
1668
Steel is much less heat conducive than aluminium, that’s probably why they warp.
geewhiz
1669
Every time I read through this thread I think where do you store all the gadgetry?
If you downsized and could only keep three gadgets what would they be?
I suppose there really needs to be two lists:
- Three Counter Gadgets
- Three Gadgets you can fit in a drawer
It depends on what counts as a gadget? Does a toaster? Because I definitely need that. If a toaster doesn’t count towards my total of three:
Rice cooker
Slow cooker
Instant Pot
If a toaster does count, I think I’d give up the Instant Pot over the slow cooker, but it’d be a hard decision.
geewhiz
1671
I think I would count a Toaster Oven so I am not sure about a toaster!
My three would be
Ninja Air Fryer Toaster Oven
Instant Pot
Electric Tea Pot (my wife would pick either the Keurig coffee maker)
Our rice cooker is so small it fits in the cabinet easily.
Ephraim
1672
Cuisinart Convection Toaster Oven
Baratza Encore Coffee Grinder
Instant Pot
I think the Instant Pot can do rice, so I’d sacrifice my Zojirushi rice cooker. I’d also have a hard time giving up my Cuisinart multi-temperature kettle, but ultimately you can boil water on the stove…
It can, but don’t expect it to cook rice like a rice cooker does. It’s just that once you find a recipe that produces the results you want it will be more consistent and require less attention than doing it on the stovetop.
Ok, everyone is listing instant pot on their list. I feel like I am missing out now, why is an instant pot something I need?
The main reason to own one is that it’s a decent electric pressure cooker that’s affordable and has a ton of device-specific recipe support. But because it has other functions, it can sub for some other kitchen stuff in a pinch and it’s portable. So in a pinch you could manage a pretty decent variety of meals just out of an Instant Pot without even needing a proper kitchen. (It isn’t really optimal at those other functions, though, so if you have the space etc to use more dedicated devices I’d do that instead.)
Houngan
1676
Gotta say, I’m not that much of a fan. A simple pressure cooker does its job perfectly, and I’ve never really needed or wanted a slow cooker, that just seems like a way to nuke ingredients down to their constituent parts, and a pressure cooker also does that 10x as fast. If toasters are out of the picture, I would go with a Cuisinart, a grinder, and a mixer.
RichVR
1677
I suppose it depends upon whether you’re an 8 hours or 8 minutes kind of person.
I have an older kitchen with not a lot of counter space, plus a strong personal preference for empty counters over crowded ones, so all I have on mine is a toaster oven. The Cuisinart and the stand mixer and the sous vide rig etc. live in cupboards and closets. Of those, I’d keep the toaster oven, the sous vide rig, and an electric kettle. I’d ditch the Cuisinart (albeit reluctantly), since I find chopping and slicing kinda therapeutic.
Drawer gadgets is a thinker. If the small hand mixer, the stick blender, and the coffee grinder count—and they actually fit in my largest drawer—then those. But then there’s the box grater. OK, so no more stick blender. Until I really needed one, and then I’d cheat.
Cormac
1679
I gather Toaster Ovens are very popular! is this on top of the normal oven? Doesn’t it basically have the same functionality? (yes, the oven is huge, but if you have one anyway why double up?)
If I was told I needed to downsize to three appliances and three gadgets because my new kitchen was too small, I’d stoically inform the missus that we’re sadly going to have to get rid of the bed to make room for “a few of my things.”
RichVR
1681
Who wants to turn on a full sized oven to make toast? And toast depends upon direct radiance. In a full sized oven you would probably end up with completely dry bread. Toaster ovens are fast. The one I have uses quartz bulbs, it is very fast.
And toaster ovens are multi-use. So you can avoid heating up the full oven and the kitchen as well. Especially in the summer.
stusser
1682
I use my toaster oven a lot more than my full-sized oven. It heats up fast, heats evenly, and does a great job. It’s worth the money to get the Breville.
Cormac
1683
Ok. I normally toast bread in my toaster? (the old school thing that flips up the breadslices vertically)
Guess I could use the toaster oven to put some cheese on that bread, but for that I use the grill function in my oven that heats up pretty fast.
But then I’m a very hap hazard amateur cook that just doesn’t have too much imagination of what wonders one can produce in the kitchen!
(Context: single household downtown with loads of take out options and we do have a canteen at work…)
We use our toaster oven a ton. English Muffins, chicken nuggets, french fries, chicken strips, garlic bread… there are a ton of things that we cook that doesn’t require a full size oven to do and as others have mentioned it cooks a lot faster than a normal oven mainly because of the preheat time is much shorter.
Also, I imagine some full sized ovens do this, but my toaster oven will cook for the programmed amount of time and then turn off (and is a convection oven) and my full oven won’t (and isn’t). I don’t know if I would have gotten it if I’d had a full oven at the time, but I didn’t, and it came with me and has been very useful alongside the full thing too.
