What are your unconventional kitchen tools/utensils you were skeptical of at first but feel you can’t live without?
Small set of whetstones so I can keep my kitchen knives absurdly sharp. Sharp vs “meh” vs dull knives make a huge difference in speed, comfort and safety. I’ve scuffed my knives a bit getting into things, but at least they’re sharp as hell and touching them up only takes a few minutes.
Also it’s hardly unconventional, but a quick read thermometer (fold-out type) is almost a must.
Quick read thermometer is essential. Do you not cook pork chops because they come out as dry, flavorless pucks? Thermometer fixes that. No more guessing how many minutes per inch of thickness at whatever temp, just look up what “doness” you want, and check them every few minutes.
Also, digital kitchen scale, and onion goggles.
For the onion googles:
Get a USB fan and a powerbank and aim it over your cutting surface.
I have a shameful ikea sharpener (you know, one with a sort of a wheel you roll the blade against) but it is amazing.
Roll roll slice & dice!
Nothing shameful about it. It gets the job done to a satisfactory level. What more can you ask for?
Its okay and does the job, but learning to sharpen on a stone can be done in a spare afternoon with a youtube video and a 5 dollar diamond stone from ali. Your knives will thank you.
The 2 big problems with pull sharpeners is that they sharpen parallel to the blade, making the knife edge more brittle and they deepen defects in the blade, so if there are even tiny dents in the edge, the pull sharpeners will make them larger over time.
I haven’t figured out how to get a good edge with stones. “it’s all in the angle” but without some kind of guide I can’t find the right angle. I tried marking the edge with sharpie, it helped a little bit still not as good of an edge as I get with other means.
On the flip side, I am a professional metallographer so I am extremely experienced in progressive polishing to insanely fine grits. I just don’t have a good feel or control of the angle. Metallography has to be perfectly flat.
I got this one weird ass meat mallet from a Brian Lagerstrom video and I use that shit for my black bean burrito filling. It works like a dream chopping and mincing anything especially if you are cooking it.
Souper Cubes, which are basically silicone containers with a lid for freezing food. I’m trying to do more batch meal prepping, and 1 cup sized blocks are waaay easier to store in the freezer than a bunch of freezer bags whose contents may or may not have frozen completely flat. It makes portioning easier too. I haven’t tried baking in it but I do like that they’re oven safe too if I ever want to do that.
Love these. I make my own stock, refried Beans, chili, etc. Anything feeezable.
I use them for making big ice cubes for cocktails
A standalone egg steamer / boiler / poacher (like https://www.sunbeam.com.au/kitchen-and-home/cooking/pie-waffle-snack-makers/poach-and-boil-egg-cooker )
Yes I can boil or poach eggs on a stove or in the microwave, but the sheer ease of use and that it’s always perfect is a life changer.
I’ll add to this: an egg topper/cracker. One simple thunk breaks a perfectly round crack in the egg shell, meaning you can behead it with ease. It’s a simple tool, but I wouldn’t want a kitchen without it.
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.
A giant metal wok spatula is an absolute must-have also.
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.
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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.
That’s not my native one, there were ones even before that one.
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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!
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They were spice grinders originally.
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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 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.
Just crush it with the peel.
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.
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.
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!
I use a toothbrush to clean it
Do you use it on your teeth later? ;)
Haven’t been sick in ages! No friends though.
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.
Some of those are so crappy it drives you crazy, but some are sturdy with tight tolerances and works wonders IMO.
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.
But that’s not unconventional, is it? Everyone has one.
I haven’t got one.
The taste you get is radically different though. A press vs chopping is not a convenience issue as much as a recipe one.
I have an old Soviet wheel-cutting can opener that is still doing good after 40 years and lots and lots of exploitation
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.
Strawberry cutter. That stupid looking plastic strawberry with the little blades in it? Turns out it can do basically evening I don’t like cutting, mushrooms, berries, olives, all in tiny perfectly uniform cuts.
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.
it tends to be a pita too wash
I know you’re not supposed to, but I just stick mine in the dishwasher, and it seems to work fine.
Funnily enough, cabbage is one of the few things I don’t use it for. It never really even occured to me.
I’m quite proficient with a knife
Yeah, I really, really am not. You think you’re proficient, then compare yourself to what you’d consider “normal”. Then there’s me, worse than that normal by a much bigger margin than the margin between you and normal.
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!
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.
Like 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.
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!
I never saw this video but I knew it was going to be technology connection before clicking on the link.
Of course it’s Technology Connections.
Good stuffHere is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=i_mLxyIXpSY
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Bamboo pot scraper. Not a brush, but an actual small wedge of wood that you can use to scrape cast iron, stainless, etc pots & pans.
Great for heavy duty scraping, but usually just use it lightly to get crispy residue off of stuff (well cooked rice, beans, etc).
I like how much easier it is to rinse off, compared to a brush or sponge, that you really have to clean after using
Did I miss it or did no one say Rice Cooker yet? A good rice cooker makes rice texture so much better while simplifying the whole process.
Someone gifted me a Le Creuset rice cooker. I use it at least once but often twice a week. At $200+ it’s truly something I never would have bought myself.
Oh my partner’s been trying to convince me to accept one because I make so much stovetop rice, but don’t want a digital rice cooker with plastic and circuits and all that.
How does it do?
Get a good pressure rice cooker. These are meant to let you leave the rice warm inside for about up to a week. Game changer and always have rice on hand.
Not sure any food can safely be kept warm that long, they keep your rice warm and edible for quite awhile but even 12-24hrs is pushing it.
It depends on the brand. Western rice cookers have a keep warm feature that I wouldn’t trust.
Zorushi and Cuckoo that keep the rice under pressure at around 140F will keep for 2-3 days. https://kitchencuddle.com/rice-cookers-that-keep-rice-warm-for-days/
Yeah, a week is really pushing it, I think I just remembered wrong.
If it keeps rice above the “danger zone”, dont see why not, but that’s hot, not warm. And a week is pushing it.
If you make a lot of rice then spring for a zojirushi neuro fuzzy. Expensive, yes, gamechanger, yes. Buy once, cry once.
That company makes the best damn coffee maker ever
It’s great! It only makes 4-6 servings of rice at a time but I prefer that because it means there’s less leftovers
A pot is IMO sufficient for single use cooking (maybe once every 1-2 weeks of cooking) if you are not a primary rice household.
I mean I eat rice more days than I don’t and I use a pot. 15 minutes + mostly unattended, while I’m prepping some protein or whatever.
My problem is the cleaning after with starchy stuff.
Especially sticky rice variants are annoying to clean (read: throw in the dishwasher)With a rigid bamboo pot scraper (and, yes, a little soaking if really stuck on there), I’ve found it’s actually not worth the bother of the dishwasher when it’s so easy to do by hand.
But I’m into a real rice rythme these days lol
Is that just a small piece of bamboo that you cut or something transformed. I can’t seem to find much information searching for bamboo pot scra
I just bought mine at a retail outlet. Here’s an old and unused one for comparison. This is after a couple years’ use.
Oh I found it online: https://www.bambuhome.com/products/pot-scrapers-set-of-4
Thank you for the link! Kinda want to try that seems so different than what I use…
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!
Works with Play-Doh too, and is (relatively) safe for little kids.
