My favorite is an immersion blender. I have a cord free model. I like to use it making sauces and eggs.
Sauces to hide veggies from my toddler who doesn’t realize the veggies are there for fortification and health.
Eggs I like to blend/whip air into the scramble. Cheese is an easy add too. They are super fluffy and delicious.
As far as cleaning it, I wipe any missed chunks off, put warm water plus soap in a cup, and blend til stiff peaks, JK.
What is your favorite kitchen gadget?
Highly underrated, but a good thermometer can help a lot with cooking meats. Getting the right temp is much more accurate than cooking by sight or feel, and having one that reads in under a second is super convenient.Typhur makes some quality ones that I like to use
My mother in-law insists on cooking for a time vs to temp. Dried pork and chicken don’t taste great
I have a regular thermapen as well as the thermoworks “dot” leave-in thermometer. Both are invaluable. I can’t imagine roasting anything substantial without a reliable way to check the temp.
Seconding, I use my instant read thermometer alot. Whether it something from the oven, airfryer, or stove, especially for fish and chicken, it keeps me from over cooking the meat
Meat is an obvious good use case, but i also use my thermometer to check the doneness of bread. Recipes often tell you a time/temperature, but it’s going to really depend on your oven/pans/the rise/etc, which is why recipes will tell you to insert a toothpick or something like that. It’s way easier to just stick a thermometer in.
I’ve found that you need to use an instant read for this, though, not a leave-in thermometer because bread has much less thermal mass and thermal conductivity than meat (which is mostly water), and the probe of a leave in thermometer will conduct heat into the bread, giving an arbitrarily high reading.
I also use my thermometer for checking the temp of leftovers because I hate when something is cold on the inside, and I don’t like jamming my finger into like 5 different spots to test to see if I heated something up enough.
Zojirushi rice cooker
Excellent pick. We have a zojirushi as well and that thing is a workhorse in our house.
I have a cheap rice cooker. Works great for steam veggies and cooking rice. Something i learned was rinsing the rice 3+ times. Really helps make the rice not gloopy.
What makes the Zojirushi a stand out?
I went through a few cheap ones before buying the Zojirushi, making it ultimately the more affordable option.
Cheap ones don’t make rice as well (especially in small quantities–bottom gets burnt, top gets mushy, rice is cooked unevenly, etc), don’t keep rice as long, typically don’t have as many features (different types of rice and other grains, timers, etc), and rarely last very long. Using it about three to five times per week, rice cookers which only cost 30 bucks or so had an average lifespan of 3 to 6 months for me. I’ve had my Zojirushi for 12 or 13 years now.
What kind of vegetables do you steam in your rice cooker ?
Haven’t seen it mentioned yet so I’ll throw out a digital scale. Ours isn’t any special brand, but I picked it specifically because it measured to the tenth of a gram and not all scales will do that. I use it all the time, for baking, brewing coffee, portioning things out, making consistent sized burger patties/meatballs etc.
A scale is great for baking, too. Volume measuring cups are a hassle and inaccurate. Scale is easy.
Love my kitchen scale. Even a cheap simple once is amazing
My vacuum sealer, for sure. It’s not only great for prepping to sous vide, it gives me extra room in my tiny freezer if I seal stuff instead of putting it in a container or even a plastic bag. And bonus, I haven’t had a single case of freezer burned meat since I started using it.
This was one of the first things I bought as a single person. Buying meet in bulk was economical. I use to make salsa an freeze it in “pages”. I still use it for all sorts of food
What does freezing in “pages” mean?
Assuming he means the same as I do….
Freeze it in a baggie lying flat so it spreads out and gets thin. Then you can store a bunch of them upright like pages in a book.
It’s a great way to efficiently freezer space while having many accessible
Ahh that makes sense, crafty, I didn’t realize there was an expression for it. Thank you!
Upvote for freezing as “pages”. It’s good to see someone else thinking that way
Not a gadget exactly, but I love my chef knife! It’s a Kan core chef knife. I have had it for several years now and enjoy using it every time. It is very sharp and is easy to keep sharp. It was not cheap, but not terribly expensive when compared to other professional quality knives. I use it almost every day and it has never disappointed me.
For actual devices in the kitchen, I would say my Kitchenaid stand mixer is my favorite.
Hard agree. I feel like you can cook almost anything with just a cast iron pan and a chef’s knife. It’s the essentialist’s gadget of choice
I’ve got a couple of really good chef’s knives, but I’ve been a terrible failure at keeping them sharp over the decade. I was trying to finely dice an onion yesterday and felt like I was back in a student flat with a blunt handmedown. I think they’ve gone past the stage of just using a regular sharpener, but I don’t know where I can get them re-edged.
I just posted a link to this sharpener which I love in another comment.
Some of the dull but high quality knives I had took a bit to get sharp first time (under ten minutes though).
Guh, I think I even have that sharpener. But it’s been in a box since I’ve moved house years ago an I’ve always assumed it was too late for it to save them. You’ve inspired me to find it and give it a go! Thanks!
Hopefully you find it. Make sure you watch the video that’s linked in the instructions. Some of it is a bit of a self-glaze but the correct pressure and direction etc. are shown in the vid.
If you don’t find it, definitely worth buying another one IMO given how cheap they are. Love a good sharp knife.
A good sharp knife is the best
My favorite in terms of just being neat and cheap is my “safety” can opener. https://www.amazon.com/Safe-Cut-Can-Opener-Restaurant/dp/B0761PZC5F
It’s not about it being “safer” to me. It’s just plain better. It completely unseals the tops of cans without puncturing them, meaning the lid comes completely off at the rim. Never failed me. Opening something like some cat foods or refried beans is much better because it leaves no lip for the contents to catch on. I use it for pull tab cans too!
I’d say it’s a toss up between my rice cooker and air fryer/toaster/convection oven.
I have a toaster oven. I use it daily, great for holding temp on a lot of foods an rehearsing
I swore by my toaster over for over 20 years. Loved it so much is buy the same one from places like Goodwill just to have a spare.
Then Ninja came along with their convection ovens that actually work… Game over.
Food processor.
Dicing things with a knife takes forever. But the processor does it in like 3 seconds.
I feel like cleaning a food processor takes longer than dicing with a knife. I use mine for softer tough foods like dried apples or making graham cracker crust but I can’t justify busting it out of the pantry and cleaning it otherwise, what are you using it for?
It gets most use out of making pico de gallo dicing up the onions, the tomatoes, and chopping the cilantro. Anything that can fit and needs to be finely cut, I just use the processor.
Yeah, we just throw our salsa ingredients in and let the processor chop them too
Let me blow your mind: mini food processor/chopper! Fewer moving parts, much easier to use and clean, and it completes 90% of the tasks I used to use a food processor for.
You want to chop an onion: skin it, quarter, shove it in, brief pulse. Done, put everything in the dishwasher. Perfect size and So much more convenient
Ninja Foodi combination pressure cooker and convection oven. It also incubates yogurt. Fucking love that thing
Wait, they have a combo device doing both convection and pressure cooker? What black magic is this??
not at the same time (that would fucking rule though)! basically it has 2 lids, a pressure cooking one, and one with a heating element and fan in the top for convection. between those two lids it also has fermentation incubation, broiling, dehydrating, slow cooking, steaming, air frying (convection baking but it runs the fan fastest), and sear/sautéing (no lid) functions
Pressure ovens are a thing; I know someone with one. I think it has potential to really do some interesting stuff, but since they aren’t common, I figure it’s a lot of trial and error.
It is as good as it sounds.
I’m still on the lookout for a stainless steel internal pot, and a 4-tier rack, to make it the ultimate kitchen appliance.
I don’t know if I’d call it a gadget, but I absolutely LOVE the only round handled wooden spoon we have. Best. Utensil. Ever.
If we’re talking just electronic gadgets, I personally like using ( but Hate cleaning ) the food processor. That’s mostly my fault, though, since I almost never fully rinse it out because I’m usually busy doing a lot more cooking afterwards that takes away all my attention. Saves me from having to do things like chopping up onions.
Second in line would be a kitchen-aid stand mixer. Saves me time not having to shred chicken by hand.
I have a round handled wooden spoon. The left half of the head is a normal spoon and the right half tapers to a point like a spatula or turner. I use it in almost every meal I cook.
@Heikki2 I had a thing for holding onions when slicing them. It was like a fork, but with 20 or so, really long tines, tight together with just enough spacing that the knife fit between them.
Now that I describe it ti sounds like one of those TV-shopper things that solve a non-problem, it made it so much easier, and I miss it.My Benriner mandoline slice. Given how much I use it, and sometimes isn’t careful enough, it’s a surprise I still have all of my fingertips
We got a Kevlar glove for just that reason. Still has most of its fingertips
Plus one for the glove. I always lived in fear of the mandolin but I got a microplaner that included the glove. Now I use it for the mandolin, the grater and the microplaner. Life changing.
I don’t own a mandoline for this reason. The finger tips are he arguably the worst cut to have.
Finger webbing is the worst IMO
Corner of the mouth is terrible as far as tiny cuts go.
I got this knife sharpener recently. Cost €8 / about $9 USD. Absolutely incredible find. Every knife I own is now razor sharp which I love.
If you’re buying it yourself watch the video that they link in the instructions and have patience on first sharpen from dull.
Awesome
Not sure what counts as a “gadget”. If it can be any cooking implement, then my Dutch oven. If it has to be something more “gadget-y” then my rice cooker.
I consider anything that is often used or a favorite item that you use. Downtown have to be daily use item. Just has to bring you happiness. I agree about the CI. I use a 12x12 skillet daily for breakfast and cook most things on it
Big cast iron pan & small cast iron pan. They get the most use.
Actual gadgets - 3-stage knife sharpener.
I have a 12×12 square lodge that sits on my stove. I cook most things on it. Eggs, pancakes, burgers, half-assed hibachi. Its my go too for many things
