Your favorite/ least favorite gadget

[KellyM]

Okay, please forgive me if this question has been done to death, but I did a little search, and the threads I found were a year old or better.

I'm pretty much a traditionalist, and up until now, about the most "gadgety" thing I owned was an egg slicer. Oh, that and my plastic shrimp peeler. I love both of these.

I recently succumbed to the Magic Bullet ad, and I must say I awaited its arrival with no little trepidation, thinking "Oh, no, what have I done?" However, since receiving it, I have been quite pleased. I live alone, and it seemed like the perfect thing for whipping up small portions, and also seemed to be far less "fiddly" than my mini-prep. So far it has been both. And, it came as a two-fer, so I either have replacement parts "in stock", or I already have a Christmas gift for my brother.

So, what gadgets do you love, or hate? (I'm off to whip up another Margarita)

Kelly

 

[middie]

I too have the Magic Bullet and love it.
Hate the blender, it's so bulky.

 

[KellyM]

I too have the Magic Bullet and love it.
Hate the blender, it's so bulky.

You mean the blender accessory for the Magic Bullet, or a regular blender?

Kelly

 

[ironchef]

Okay, please forgive me if this question has been done to death, but I did a little search, and the threads I found were a year old or better.

Why didn't you just bump up the thread?

 

[KellyM]

Why didn't you just bump up the thread?

Well, no good reason I suppose, except that it traditionally is not done on the musician sites where I hang out. Almost no one wants to get back into a year-old thread that already has hundreds of responses. Also, there seems to be no way to change the title of the thread, and mine was slightly different in thrust than the previous ones, asking for both favorite and least favorite. The others seem to concentrate on one or the other.

However, I am happy to bow to tradition here as well. Is "bumping" the preferred way here?


Kelly

 

[middie]

I meant a regular blender as my least favorite Kelly.

 

[ironchef]

Well, no good reason I suppose, except that it traditionally is not done on the musician sites where I hang out. Almost no one wants to get back into a year-old thread that already has hundreds of responses. Also, there seems to be no way to change the title of the thread, and mine was slightly different in thrust than the previous ones, asking for both favorite and least favorite. The others seem to concentrate on one or the other.

However, I am happy to bow to tradition here as well. Is "bumping" the preferred way here?


Kelly

Bumping up old topics is usually the preferred method on most forums because it keeps the amount of threads about the same topic down, and also because there are often times a lot of good info in old threads and people don't want to post the same things over and over again.

 

[KellyM]

Bumping up old topics is usually the preferred method on most forums because it keeps the amount of threads about the same topic down, and also because there are often times a lot of good info in old threads and people don't want to post the same things over and over again.

I assume from your statement that you are, and have been a member of many sites, and for quite a long time. Please excuse my relatively little experience in this regard. I have only been a member of such sites for a little less than a decade, and have only subscribed a to dozen or so.

This site apparently works differently to the ones with which I am familiar; I will bow to your wisdom, as I am a mere stripling of forty-eight.

So anyway, do you have any preferences as to gadgets?


Kelly

 

[Ishbel]

I don't know if I could call it a 'gadget', but my most favourite piece of kitchen equipment is my shortbread mould. It is over a hundred years old, and puts a pretty thistle pattern on shortbread rounds, with a pretty decal round the edge. It was my great granny's!

Least favourite - well, I've got two cupboards and a drawer filled with those 'hmmmm, that's a brilliant idea' things that you NEVER use!

 

[GB]

I do not think that there is a preferred method here. Bumping up an old thread when appropriate is perfectly acceptable, but creating a new, but different thread is fine as well. One does not trump the other.

I guess I would need some clarification on what would be considered a gadget before I could give a real answer. My favorite kitchen tool is my chefs knife, but I am guessing that does not count as a gadget.

I supposed I will pick my probe thermometer as my favorite.

My least favorite would be...hmm...I guess I don't have any. My least favorites are the ones I don't buy because I know they will not get used.

 

[thumpershere2]

Favorite, is my dicing knife, least favorite is the garlic press. Should just throw it out.

 

[Andy M.]

...Least favourite - well, I've got two cupboards and a drawer filled with those 'hmmmm, that's a brilliant idea' things that you NEVER use!

I have a bin full of those once brilliant ideas as well! I thought I'd use a zester a lot more than I do. Perhaps because I have a microplane grater I can use in it's place. I guess there's a gadget hierarchy in place. Would that be a gadgetarchy?

 

[KellyM]

I do not think that there is a preferred method here. Bumping up an old thread when appropriate is perfectly acceptable, but creating a new, but different thread is fine as well. One does not trump the other.

I guess I would need some clarification on what would be considered a gadget before I could give a real answer. My favorite kitchen tool is my chefs knife, but I am guessing that does not count as a gadget.

I supposed I will pick my probe thermometer as my favorite.

My least favorite would be...hmm...I guess I don't have any. My least favorites are the ones I don't buy because I know they will not get used.

Thanks, GB. That's what I thought. I agree about the chef's knife; it is the one tool I just about know I am going to use, no matter what I am cooking. And regarding probe thermometers, anything that goes in the oven gets one of these.

To me these are tools; what I am talking about are the more gadgety items like shrimp peelers, and maybe the stuff you see on T.V.- Zesters, the Kuhn-Rikon Tongs, Slicer-dicer units, string bean frenchers, et cetera.

Kelly

 

[Snoop Puss]

Least favourite - a little gadget for cutting strips of peel from citrus fruits. They have a special name that escapes me for the moment. Anyway, I have one but I can't get it to work properly. I have arthritis so it may be that I don't have the strength in my hands/fingers to get it to cut right; it could be that it's not sharp enough to do its job; it could be that all such tools are rubbish. Either way, I can't bring myself to throw it out and buy another one in case I will be equally useless at using it, it will be equally useless as a tool or the whole concept of the tool is just rubbish.

Favourite - too many to mention. Over the years I've bought a lot of little bits and pieces and more than a few big bits and pieces. To my credit, I do actually use them. My latest big toy is a De Buyer mandoline... A joy to use but hardly justifiable. Mind you, I can make a mean julienne potato cake now! And I do notice the difference between mandolined courgettes and Magimixed courgettes...

 

[Ishbel]

I have a bin full of those once brilliant ideas as well! I thought I'd use a zester a lot more than I do. Perhaps because I have a microplane grater I can use in it's place. I guess there's a gadget hierarchy in place. Would that be a gadgetarchy?

Amongst some of my 'must have that, then never used' treasure trove are

• A weird thing that segments apples
• Another weird thing that is supposed to cleanly remove the avocado flesh cleanly.... it doesn't!
• Egg slicer
• garlic press
• Thing for ensuring that honey comes out of the pot easily- looks like a stick with a rounded, separated area on the top - don't ask me why, but I have a wooden one and a bright yellow plastic one... (so good I bought it twice!)
• bean stringer/slicer
• salad spinner
• various oil/vinegar sets

 

[KellyM]

Favorite, is my dicing knife, least favorite is the garlic press. Should just throw it out.

What's a "dicing knife"?

 

[KellyM]

I have a bin full of those once brilliant ideas as well! I thought I'd use a zester a lot more than I do. Perhaps because I have a microplane grater I can use in it's place. I guess there's a gadget hierarchy in place. Would that be a gadgetarchy?

No, I think "gadgetarchy" would literally translate as "rule by gadgets", which in some kitchens wouldn't be far off the mark.

Kelly

 

[GB]

what I am talking about are the more gadgety items like shrimp peelers, and maybe the stuff you see on T.V.- Zesters, the Kuhn-Rikon Tongs, Slicer-dicer units, string bean frenchers, et cetera.

Kelly

I do not know what Kuhn-Rikon Tongs are, but if they are like regular tongs then you can count that as my favorite gadget. Other than that I am surprised to say I do not think I have any other gadgets. This is very surprising because I am knows as a gadget guy.

I just thought of the one gadgets that I do not have, but want. It is one of those citrus fruit peelers. I don't really know how to describe it, but I am sure a lot of people here know what I am talking about. Mom mom had one and we used it to peel stubborn oranges all the time. It came in very handy!

 

[Andy M.]

No, I think "gadgetarchy" would literally translate as "rule by gadgets", which in some kitchens wouldn't be far off the mark.

Kelly

Exactly! The microplane now rules over the zester!

 

[KellyM]

Amongst some of my 'must have that, then never used' treasure trove are

• A weird thing that segments apples
• Another weird thing that is supposed to cleanly remove the avocado flesh cleanly.... it doesn't!
• Egg slicer
• garlic press
• Thing for ensuring that honey comes out of the pot easily- looks like a stick with a rounded, separated area on the top - don't ask me why, but I have a wooden one and a bright yellow plastic one... (so good I bought it twice!)
• bean stringer/slicer
• salad spinner
• various oil/vinegar sets

Oh, the avocado thing- I think I know what you mean. I use a knife, then a spoon.
You don't like your egg slicer? Admittedly, I don't slice a lot of eggs with mine, but I do use it frequently to slice mushrooms and olives.
I have a salad spinner; don't use it often, but when you need one, you need one.
I'm not sure what you mean by oil/vinegar sets. I have cruets.

Kelly