What are your unconventional kitchen tools/utensils you were skeptical of at first but feel you can’t live without?
Pizzelle maker - like a cookie iron. It was the only thing I asked for as a HS graduation present, my parents thought I would never use it. 20 years later, I still whip up pizzelle every few months
Unconventional in what sense? For westerners? A wok probably
I used to hate wok because it is so big to wash, but then I started understanding its versatility. I still hate washing it tho.
Wok is pretty standard here in the UK.
You gotta be careful with that purchase as wok cooking is usually meant for very high heat which a lot of kitchen stoves can’t provide—those folks would be better off with a tradition pan & a lower, slower heat when trying to make a stir fry. Here, most woks at attached directly to a propane tank to generate that level of heat.
You can buy portable camping stoves that use propane as well. If your kitchen cant heat enough, then that is a useful tool to have. Honestly I’d say it’s decently useful overall in case of a blackout or something.
I feel this. I use my wok for everything. Would like to upgrade to a carbon steel one.
aren’t woks usually carbon steel? what’s yours?
IKEA. It’s stainless steel with non-stick. It’s the only non-stick thing I have, and I’m desperate to be rid of it.
Having a non-stick wok is incredibly frustrating because it doesn’t handle high temperatures, and a lot of recipes I’d like to do require high temperatures. Like good luck trying to make chili oil in this thing, I have to use a regular stainless steel pot for that - which works fine. I like making Cantonese style scrambled eggs which isn’t really possible in a pot and it doesn’t come out right in the wok since you can’t heat it enough, meaning the egg doesn’t set fast enough.
We have both and I can confirm the non-stick one is so unsatisfying. Wok cooking should be so hot it’s crackly and firey.
You’re not supposed to use non stick above medium heat. Get carbon steel.
A giant metal wok spatula is an absolute must-have also.
I unironically love cooking with my steel chopsticks.
I use the longer steel ones that are used for deep frying foods. They are about 12-14" long.
I’m not as confident with chopsticks so I use a long set of stainless tongs and find them quite useful
Best way to get confident with chopsticks is to use them more! They’re much easier to clean than any tongs. Nothing beats an egg better than a pair of chopsticks.
Made Tamagoyaki yesterday in a round pan with chop sticks. Not easy but tasty :p
A Marijuana grinder. I like foraging for foods, so I tend to use the grinder on things like Staghorn Sumac, or Spice Bush to make a course grind. It allows a lot of control on how much you want to use and how fine, unlike a blender.
Before it’s asked, I actually have never smoked weed. It was listed as a “spice grinder” and I never thought it was for weed when I got it.
My mother in law gave me a spice grinder as she had a spare. This raises some questions.
Your mother in law is a real one. Hopefully this answers some questions!
Hey, maybe she just wants course ground yarrow for tea.
They were spice grinders originally.
A good grinder can do a lot of good
I use a mandoline. It used to take me easily 5+ minutes per onion to dice. Now I can get 2 onions diced in about 2 minutes. Less dramatic time savings are available for other veggies too, depending on how finely I want them chopped up.
I use one to slice cabbage. But I’m not convinced there are time savings because it tends to be a pita too wash.
Luckily I’m quite proficient with a knife so chopping an onion is a fast 2 minutes for me.
I’ve got two - a potato ricer, basically a big garlic press you put a boiled potato in, instant perfect mash.
And one of those spiral apple peeler/corer/slicers, makes cooking anything with apple in so much faster (it’s a fiddle to clean though unfortunately)
Apple watch siri set timer
A danish dough whisk. Somehow it’s easier to mix dough and it won’t have so much gunk sticking between the wires like in the balloon staped whisks. It can be cleaned pretty easy by hand. It’s pretty large though.
Holy shit. That seems so helpful
My boiled egg slicer. It seemed really frivolous when I bought it, and I probably only use it five or six times a year at best but man if it doesn’t cut down prep time for any salad with boiled egg in it, it also works with avocados!
Electric knife sharpener.
Maybe more of a splurge purchase and it works so much better than those janky acoustic sharpeners.
What? It in no way works better. It’s faster, and takes less attention, but the edges they give are crap, and don’t last well.
Even the workshop belt systems aren’t better than stones.
Hell, if you want to factor in damage to the knife, any of the motorised home sharpeners are horrible. Until you get into stuff like a tormek, you’re heating the edge as you work, and that means you have to sharpen sooner, which can reduce the life of the knife by years over time.
I’m not saying you can’t do what you want with your knives, but there’s too much actual data on the various sharpening methods to call any of the available electric sharpeners better by any criteria other than speed.
People who buy electric sharpeners also buy cheap shit knives and store them loosely in a drawer with all the other kitchen stuff so it all balances out in the end.
Acoustic?
Probably unconventional now, but one of those old can openers. Not the turning ones, the manual single-piece ones. Every can opener I have had dies after a year or two, but this one has been going strong for like… 50+ years.
Boy oh boy have I been waiting for the opportunity to plug my favorite can opener. It’s a “turning one” as you call it, from a company called OhSay. American made, and built like a brick shit house, I have no doubts it’ll outlast me. Google it, I think they’re like $15-20
I love the passion for your can opener! I’ll definitely take a look at your recommendation.
In return, here’s a pepper grinder my ex-chef dad raves about that seems to be pretty tough:
!(OXO Good Grips Radial Grinder Pepper Mill, 0.385 lbs, White)[https://www.amazon.com/OXO-Good-Grips-Lewis-Pepper/dp/B003L0OOQM/)]
Hell yeah, I’ll give it a look. I’ve almost made it a hobby to research the shit out of the most durable and long lasting items I can buy, and things that are capable of being maintained or repaired since I’m kind of a tinkerer. I also buy American or union made whenever it’s an option.
I have an old Soviet wheel-cutting can opener that is still doing good after 40 years and lots and lots of exploitation
A garlic press - saves so much time and effort over mincing garlic with a knife because I’m not a pro chef, and can be used in about 95% of situations where you need garlic. I don’t use it when I want the garlic texture, but otherwise I just adjust the amount or the cooking time versus minced garlic. There’s some hate floating around from professional chefs, but I bought one a few years ago to try it and haven’t looked back.
I actually stopped using my garlic press because I felt it was more work than finely chopping with the knife. It’d be great if it was just “press and done”, but there’s always heaps left in the press itself that refuses to go through, which then has to be dealt with by hand anyway.
You just flip the handle over and press the little nubbins backwards through the holes to push out the woody gunk into the trash. If it doesn’t fall completely out a gentle whack on the side of the can knocks it out. It’s all fibrous and doesn’t have much flavor.
The taste you get is radically different though. A press vs chopping is not a convenience issue as much as a recipe one.
But that’s not unconventional, is it? Everyone has one.
I bought one and hated it. How do you even clean it? The garlic gets everywhere except the dish I want it in. Maybe I’m using it wrong.
Do you peel the garlic first? I peel by squashing the garlic with the side of the knife to crack the skin and let it peel off, so I’m half done by that point.
Mine goes in the dishwasher after you reverse-press the fibers into the trash. I do peel the garlic first.
Now to be fair, I hate chunks of garlic, I just want some garlic flavor in the food if it’s supposed to be there. So I’m never going to just smash or coarsely chop it. I’m also a garlic-sweater so I don’t use garlic at all if it isn’t necessary for the dish. But some delicious foods require it, and I just have to try to plan them so I don’t have something important the next day.
Does yours have some function to bend it the other way and push the bits out? I always ended up having to scoop out the stuck bits and it is so much more work than squishing the garlic with the side of a knife. But I admit it may have small lumps. I normally squish, peel off the skin, slice against the grain, and squish again.
Takes about 10 or 20 seconds, nothing extra to clean, and the biggest bits are still pretty small.
Ours does.
Interesting! Everyone is raving over theirs and I can’t imagine mine ever being useful, so it must be that I got the wrong one!
This is not exactly mine but it’s a good example because you can easily see the reverse-push part with the nubbins. I have had ones where that’s metal rather than silicone and they were fine, and you don’t need fat handles unless you have grip problems. In the olden days (pre 1980?) I had the kind where you have to dig out the shreds with a knife and I can definitely see why you’d switch to just using the knife!
I’ve just gone down a rabbit hole of garlic presses and I struggle to find any that look as poorly designed as mine!
Oh honey, time to recycle that sucker! Don’t donate it, that would only bring misery to someone else. Go on chopping or squashing your garlic if you prefer, though. I respect it even though I prefer to press mine.
I use a toothbrush to clean it
Seems like so much work! I’m still not conviced a toothbrush would help that much with getting all the bits out from inside it. I do wonder if the one I got isn’t a very good one.
Odd, I just push the bristles through the other way and all the gunk gets pushed out
Maybe I’ll have to try again some time.
Do you use it on your teeth later? ;)
Haven’t been sick in ages! No friends though.
Some of those are so crappy it drives you crazy, but some are sturdy with tight tolerances and works wonders IMO.
Just crush it with the peel.
A safety can opener that doesn’t create any sharp edges, like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_mLxyIXpSY (a LONG video, but quite an interesting one IMHO).
It’s nor even funny how much this thing is better than any other opener I’ve ever used, it’s just so bloody amazing!
Knew what video it was before I clicked the link. We bought one because of that video!
It’s amazing how someone can just tell when it’s going to be a Technology Connections video. Such great videos on so many different topics!
Seconded. I never thought the subjects he chooses would make for good viewing but TC is consistantly surprisingly interesting.
I never saw this video but I knew it was going to be technology connection before clicking on the link.
I have an OXO Good Grips one that has been great for 25 years.
Ordinary wheel-cutting can openers get used wrong - they should be cutting the side of the can and not the lid, with the knurled wheel flat and pressed against the rim of the can.
No sharp lip, and you don’t need to fish a lid out of the can. Downside is you can’t use a lid cover to “save” the contents if you don’t use them all.
see, i’ve tried using them the “right” way, but i’ve found that i’d rather have the lid be sharp than the can most of the time.
Of course it’s Technology Connections.
Good stuffLike gramathy said, safety openers are just to make it difficult to use the tool wrong. Regular can openers are designed to do the same thing, but it isn’t as obvious and limited in the design.
Fish spatula
@Drusas@kbin.run How’s that different from a normal one
They’re very different, in fact. A fish spatula is almost completely flat, slightly curved, and has a thin, long, slotted metal body. It’s fantastic for picking up delicate or stuck-on foods, not just fish.
@Drusas@kbin.run It was an honest question. Oh nice I have one of those, been using it like that anyways. Didn’t know what it was
I’m not sure about your response. I didn’t suggest it wasn’t an honest question.
@Drusas@kbin.run Well now I know what to look up to replace mine if it wears out
A microplane grater - it’s been really great for dealing with ginger, and even garlic (although for garlic I mostly prefer to just squish it with the flat side of my knife). I’ve also used the slicer end to make chips out of baby potatoes and turnips.
Another go-to for me is a conventional pressure cooker - I use it when I’m feeling lazy, I just chuck everything in it - lentils/beans + rice + veggies + condiments, and it’s all done in one go, only takes 15-20 minutes and there’s no need to soak stuff beforehand. The best part is that I put all my ingredients in just a single ceramic bowl, so cleaning the cooker is super easy (just rinse it with water), and I can eat directly off the bowl, which saves me from having to use a separate dish.
you do a ginger bug yet?
I’ve been meaning to, but never got around to it. Thanks for the reminder!
This was going ta be my pick since I have used it quite a lot & needed to import. I asked around at some local shops but was told it “looks too Western” & was pointed to these tiny, dinky local versions.
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