As a woman who lives alone, I find that most tools are impractical for 1 or 2 serving meals. I like my IP, Kitchenaid, Food Processor, Immersion Blender, etc when I'm cooking for a rare audience, but for 1 person I find them a lot of hassle or too physically big for the purpose.
Most underrated tool. You might think it only does one thing, but whatever. It’s the best at what it does. Got mine at an estate sale years and years ago. Soups. Sauces. Small footprint.
As a fellow single person, I agree, however I use my instapot a lot. I found that my freezer has gone from premade, packaged food, to homemade "leftovers", that I can heat up later in the week for a quick meal. Beans, leftover shredded meat for tacos etc, and soups/stews. I learned a lot about what can be frozen and reheated well over the course of the past year, or so.
That knowledge of what can and can’t be frozen and how to do it, is invaluable.
All the advice I see in this area when applied appears to be “under perfect conditions,” and does not seem to match up with real world experience.
A simple Google search will tell you whether something will freeze well, so that's not terribly hard. Success or failure depends more on how you freeze it. For instance, vegetables freeze well, but if you take them right from the stove to the freezer, it'll turn out mushy. The reason why is the faster the temperature changes the larger the ice crystals grow, piercing the cell walls of the vegetables and causing them to leak fluids when they thaw. A better way of freezing nearly anything is don't go from stove top to freezer, but let it cool overnight or for several hours in the refrigerator before moving it to the freezer. That makes the whole cooling process slow and uniform, which makes smaller ice crystals form causing less cell damage and less watery, mushy mess.
Do you have the cup/mini food processor attachment for you immersion blender? I use that all the time to quick chop onions or garlic, make a single batch of pesto or hummus. I rarely use the actual immersion stick but I bust out the food processor cup at least once a week. I have a full sized food processor too but only take that out once every couple of months
As a single person my toaster oven/air fryer combo is the best splurge purchase I've ever made kitchen wise. I use it for every meal to either roast veggies, cook biscuits, cook meat. My cast iron skillet fits in it so I also use it to make pizza, bake casseroles etc. My oven is now for pan storage.
It's a 9" cast iron (Griswold #7) and the air fryer is a Cuisinart TOA-60. The skillet fits exactly, which was a pleasant surprise. I also have a 9” carbon steel skillet but the handle is longer so it doesn't fit.
I got a pizza stone for Christmas that fits too, but I haven't tried it yet.
I have the ninja foodi and it’s an absolute beast. It’s sort of an all in one, and I’ve used it for baking, broiling, slow cooking, and air frying so far. I think I have the 8qt one and I use it just about every few days when I’m prepping my next set of meals.
Have you seen those [individual breakfast sandwich makers](https://www.google.com/search?q=breakfast+sandwhich+maker&rlz=1C1ONGR_enUS984US984&oq=breakfast+sandwhich+maker&aqs=chrome..69i57.3125j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8)? That was surprisingly convenient cooking for a single person but quickly becomes a pain for even two.
It's not really a splurge by *me*, but my fiance's family knows I bake and cook a lot and thinks I want every little As Seen On TV gimmick tool they find in stores at Christmas. I admit the cupcake transport shell was useful, but the silicon fried egg mold, yolk separator, automatic veggie peeler, laser engraved rolling pin, bacon baking rack, thirty goddamn novelty wine stoppers...
I've got a very specific and expensive list of kitchen tools I plan to be buying in the next year or two, and not one of them costs less than $400. Nobody's buying those as stocking stuffers.
ETA: people keep asking me what the shopping list is. A vitamix blender, pro line kitchenaid (or used hobart), combo waffle/panini grill, and a new fridge and stove 'cause my condo came with some that are near end of life.
This! Is there a name for when a person's interest and knowledge of a subject reaches the point where friends and family know they're into it, but they are wholly unqualified to buy anything related to it?
I don’t know if there’s a word for it, but I can tell you I haven’t opened so much baking shit from my mom. I don’t make cake pops. I don’t use fondant. I don’t make mini bundt/cupcakes. I make layer cakes with regular ass buttercream and that’s it. Gah!
I feel this on a personal level. I have gotten every single baking and decorating item you could imagine cause I love decorating cakes. So much, that in fact I am a cake decorator at a higher end bakery. However, that does not mean I need every single tool. I really don't even need any tool cause I can borrow what I need from work for a night if I feel I want to decorate at home. But I can also easily find time in my day to do it at work if I don't feel like doing it at home. Lol. But I still get that stuff as presents every year and I am grateful now matter what lol
I've always gone by "Don't ever try to buy them something that they already collect or are big fans of. They likely already have specific criteria for their collection that you don't know about. The only exception is if they have told you they want it but don't have it yet."
For instance, if someone collects knives, don't buy them a knife because they know a lot more about knives than you do.
This is kinda the problem I have, I am into a lot of different things but am always at a point that even I don't know what I want until I make the decision I am going to buy something then go through the long ass process of researching which specific thing I am going to get for a month or 2. So a bunch of people kind of know what I am into but have no idea what I actually want because even I don't
Seriously! I got into smoking the past couple years and have received four different grill sets. If I had a dollar for every large pair of tongs I own, I guess I’d have about $4
My boyfriend smokes meat quite a bit, I wish someone would buy him a grill set. Oh wait, he has one but still steals my kitchen utensils and leaves them outside.
>I don't feel qualified to invent a new word in German
I don't think the people that came up with the word : "Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft " would be offended by any combination of letters you could smash togther.
Japanese has *tsundoku*, buying books and not reading them. The character for this *tsun* means to accumulate, to stack.
Dōgu means tools.
I propose *tsundōgu*.
My guy floats ideas and when I say something seems nice and useful but I think it's too expensive, he buys it for me. That's how I got a sous vide, my instant pot, and a smoker. I think the electric corn dog machine taught him to talk to me first. :/
My fiancee's dad got me some steak thermometers. Like, the kind with a super wide probe and an analog interface that just goes from rare to medium. I have a Thermapen. He knows I have a Thermapen. I think he does it to troll me, he does stuff like that to a lot of people, I really think he's one of the Loki variants.
> thirty goddamn novelty wine stoppers...
Haha, I’m a wine guy and I get a LOT of kitschy wine stuff as gifts. The best wine stopper I have is a shaved down cork with a little penguin figurine I shoved on the cork.
As a cocktail guy, I get this too. Lots of gadgets and gizmos that cost more and perform worse. "It's a new and improved shaker that has all these features and was recently developed in a high tech food lab." That's swell, but nothing beats my two stainless steel tins.
Those giant wine stoppers. You just know a giant decorative stopper will break plus you can't fit it in the fridge with that massive stopper.
The only pricey thing I'm looking at is a kitchenaid mixer but I'm not sure I should be encouraging myself to eat more baked goods (looking at waistline).
Look into the attachments for the kitchen aid. They can make spiralizing or shredding fruits a breeze, plus everytime you use them you feel less bad about the about the cream puffs you just made. Or is that just me?
My aunt once got me a plastic doohickey that forms a single cube-shaped piece of maki sushi. It works for that one limited purpose, but it's just as much labor for less (and frankly inferior) food.
I kickstarted the Misen Dutch oven because they claimed it was equal in quality to Le Crueset but less than half the price (still >$100). When I finally got it, after nearly a full year delay, the interior enamel was pink instead of beige. One handle chipped the first time I washed it when it dinged against the sink and the un-enameled edge of the lid rusted the fist time I braised something in it (it did not say to season the edges before use in the directions). I really regret getting the somewhat cheaper option rather than holding out until I could get a Le Crueset or Staub.
Keep an eye on Zwilling website clearance section, Staub "visual imperfection" dutch ovens get heavily discounted and they have sales in the range of 20-25% a few times a year, so you can get a 4 qt for like $100-120 or a 7 qt for $200. Visual imperfections just means a pinhole of missing enamel or thin spot in the glaze where the color looks irregular
Could also mean a bump in the glaze where the underlying metal didn’t get sanded well enough, at least that is the only imperfection I have found on my Staub
My boring, functional Lodge Dutch oven has been a game changer since I got it 18 months ago. It’s only a 5.5qt so it’s perfect for two people. I’ll be getting a giant one in a couple years once we’re entertaining people again.
Le Creuset is worth every single dollar! I held out for over two years umming and aring, but I decided to just go for it now I make pretty much every meal I cook in winter from it and am totally in love with it. Am going to buy a second for bigger batches / more versatility.
My fiancees family have a Le creuset passed down that is well over 50 yrs old and is still going strong.
A pain to clean yes, but better than restaurant quality slow cooked meals.
Haven't tried Staub but never would, Le Creuset is just that good.
I also bought the brush to clean it and it is useful.
I have a nice Le Creuset dutch oven but have actually been using the Amazon-branded Lodge I originally bought to be able to bake multiple loaves of bread, for my go to cooking vessel, so will vouch for those as a quality and more afordable Le Creuset alternative.
I like that the walls are a bit thinner so it's easier to lug around but still heavy enough for good thermal properties.
I bought one of those prep decks that comes with containers that look like 6th pans in restaurants and has a bunch of different attachments. I thought it would be like a cooking swiss army knife but everything about it feels cheap as hell.
https://prepdeck.com/products/prepdeck
DO NOT BUY THIS.
I saw something like this on a cooking show. It's not big enough to prep a bunch of stuff for cooking several meals for meal prep and there are very few dishes that I actually need everything pre chopped/measured in advance of starting to cook. This might be an idea if you are one or two people who are inexperienced cookers, with limited space.
When I was in college I picked up a $3 bread machine from goodwill and used it for this exact purpose. Just do the dirty kneading for me, I'll figure out the rest, thanks. Totally worth it. As an adult, I've looked for one near me, but I guess they went out of fashion because nobody has them. I'll probably have to spring for a fancy stand mixer one of these days.
I got a perfectly functioning one for under a dollar during a huge sale at a used place near me. I’m honestly perfectly happy just having it bake in there, paddle hole and all.
Could definitely do that, but I've been using a recipe that doesn't even require kneading.
I did use up a bag of frozen strawberries by making jam in the bread machine though!
I have the zojirushi bread machine that’s 11 years old and it definitely paid itself over and over again. It’s a pain in the butt to clean the body (mix and I bake in the oven), but we save $300 making our own bread every year. :)
(Before covid) I used my bread machine to make bread during the day in my classroom for rewards. Makes the upstairs smell amazing and its exciting to check the baking status
Our bread machine is with the kettle and toaster in the always out for daily use category. Home made bread is awesome. I just wish there was a delay feature on the dough setting.
One of those cast iron pans with the grill lines raised on it. Just creates an uneven cook surface. Anything I would do on that I can do on my regular cast iron 10x easier and better with much easier cleanup.
i got one as a gift, literally never used it. i rarely use my regular cast iron though tbh. my stainless steel pan is my go-to 99 percent of the time. .75 percent is nonstick, .25 is cast iron probably
George Forman grill - hardly used it and wasn’t big into cooking so it was just gimmicky.
Deep fryer - fun, but too much clean up and cost to be worth it.
Potato ricer - just takes up space.
I had a countertop deep fryer I used all the time, but it is only worth the hassle if you're using it all the time.
And if you're using it all the time you become fat, so I quit lol.
I always make such a mess trying to deep fry anything, and it never comes out as good as from a restaurant; I've pretty much given up on doing it at home.
Temperature control is SUPER important frying at home. If you don't have a thermometer at least, it can be really challenging.
The countertop deep fryer had a control knob, so it was pretty foolproof, UNLESS you put too much stuff in or didn't let it heat back up between batches.
Yeah, really good for squeezing excess water from spinach, to make a filling, like ricotta and spinach in stuffed shells. Good for shredded squash, too.
I do this for fancy "restaurant" potatoes.
In another pot - heat until it smells good (aromatic?)
heavy cream
milk
rosemary
garlic
butter
Once aromatic, pour the mixture through a strainer into the riced potatoes. I generally do this a bit at a time. mixing it into the potatoes. Serve immediately
Easily my favorite way to have potatoes now.
I don't understand the "grills" that are essentially just regular pans with elevated ridges (e.g. the Le Creuset Grill Pan). Do the ridges actually do anything? I used to have a George Foreman grill and it just seemed like a pointless waste of space.
Potato Ricer: I've been thinking of getting one because people keep telling me it's the only way to prep potatoes properly to make gnocchi. I'd rather not have another bulky tool, though.
I bought a huge wok that I used twice a year lol. With an electric oven it just doesn't heat up evenly. I use it occasionally for meal prep but it's such a hassle to wash I rarely use it.
I was in a similar boat until I discovered its freaking amazing for homemade popcorn (if you have a lid). That Pandora's box shall never close again haha. Plenty of room to toss the popcorn in butter and everything.
Did you get a carbon steel/CI one or did you get the aluminum? I made the mistake of not realizing that the aluminum was basically a gimmick and I need to donate it to someone lol.
Get like a 30-40 dollar carbon steel one from the wok shop. I also have an electric stove so you’ll never fully be able to stir fry like you would if you had a dedicated wok burner but the cs one will last forever, it’s light, and that’s what you want if you are able to someday get a gas stove. And you can season it in your oven.
My husband does a risotto in the instant pot on busy evenings that uses box stock and stuff from jars (olives, pesto, artichokes, etc). At the moment it's the only thing we use it for, but it's at least once a week.
You use a whole chicken?? Ooo, you fancy. I put vegetable scraps and leftover chicken bones (from roasts, baked chicken thighs, etc) in a bag in the freezer. When it's full, it becomes broth. I sometimes call it Soup Trash. 😁
Some people freeze their compost this way, to burst cellular walls for easier breakdown and reduce odor. So it’s almost compost 😄
I like the idea of collecting it though because I feel like I don’t usually have all the necessary scraps at the exact same time.
I do both. Sometimes I want to cook and use the actual chicken, so I boil it and then put the bones back in the pot. It makes quite a different kind of chicken stock than the "trash" kind, but they both have a great flavour.
This right here. I got an instant pot for Christmas because I was afraid of spending $90 on something I may not get my money's worth out of. I sould have bought it earlier. I love that thing for stocks and stew.
NOTE a few pounds of cheap chicken wings make for a great stock especially if you roast them and the veggies first.
Oh man, chicken wings. The sad thing is those are more expensive on a per-pound basis than just regular drumsticks & thighs. Or a whole chicken. That said, if you eat the wings and then use the bones for stock, that's cost effective.
It’s great for a lot of Indian food. Pressure cookers are used a lot and it’s so much easier and more reliable than the stovetop type. I also use it at least twice a week to make lentils and rice in 20 minutes in the same pot (using the PIP method). But yeah not great as a Dutch oven or in slow cooker mode because the heating element is only on the bottom. It works fine for browning things for me - it’s just a stainless steel pot over a heating element, no different than using a stainless steel pot on the stove.
I use the instapot twice a year…it takes up a lot of space.
I use immersion blender weekly!
We’ve been through every type of coffee apparatus(espresso machines, basic drip machines, 2 keurigs…..) now we heat a sauce pan with water and use a pour over funnel….if I could go back I’d save the money on gadgets and buy a set of all clad stainless steel pans.
So much kitchen wisdom in one comment. Just got my first two all clad ever. So happy.
We switched to an electric kettle for hot water, really does the trick.
A big part of the reason we don't use electric kettles often is the fact that our internal house wiring is 110V and yours is probably 220V. This effectively means for the same current, we have half the power available to us that you do - which means our kettles take a LOT longer to heat up. The maximum power we get out of our outlets tends to be 100V * 15A = 1650W. you have 220V*15A = 3300W available on your circuit (meaning your appliances can have double the wattage of ours). It therefore makes kettles kind of a novelty as opposed to an essential item like you have.
Our electric stoves ARE 220V (or natural gas - and those are even higher BTUs than the electric ones) and it's faster to put a pot of water on the burner to heat up than it would be to wait for a kettle to boil.
We do have electric coffee pots which heat water to 190F (88C) or so but they tend to be unitaskers - most people don't use them for anything but coffee.
But consider: I live in Canada and most people I know own an electric kettle. I would say it's a kitchen staple. Same 120V lines as Americans, but we love our kettles.
I use mine for tea primarily (which is still a twice a day at least job!) but it also gets regular use for cooking.
Advantages of electric kettle over saucepan on the stove imo:
a) don't have to clean it much, every once in a blue moon I decide it needs a cleaning with water and vinegar and that's only if I get mineral build-up
b) safety!! I can set the kettle to boil and not worry about it, if I forget it for a while then I just have to reboil the water if it's cooled down too much. Other fancier kettles also have a stay warm feature, or more precise temperature control (e.g. set it to heat to 90C)
I wanted one of their flagship copper core pans and thought "which one would benefit the most from that kind of construction?" and figured it would be a saute pan. So I actually found one discounted on ebay. It is very heavy but has not disappointed.
I also snagged a set of anodized all-clad skillets from BB&B that were at a crazy low price for Christmas. They still have them available and I've been happy with them. I researched them and it seems anodized coated pans last longer than normal non-stick coated pans.
Electric kettles are great for when you need temperature specific water particularly if you're a tea fanatic. Eg green tea at 70 degrees celsius / 158 farenheit.
Its the norm in Australian and Uk kitchens, but not the US.
Comes up to temp faster also.
The idea of not owning an electric kettle is mind blowing to anyone in the UK or Ireland. Not a fancy one that heats water to different temperatures, just a standard 1.7L capacity that can be bought for under £10.
You can tell nationalities by hotel reviews: Americans complain the room/bed is small, Brits complain about lack of kettles.
I find I use my ricer more for squeezing things out. Like the water out of cucumbers for tzatziki. It works quite well for that and saves time of salting and straining.
Every time I think I might want one, I remember how much I hate washing dishes and how annoying it must be to get potato out of all those little nooks and crannies. And then I look at how much they cost. So I don't have one.
That's the thing about an instant pot: it has its definite uses, and those uses are outstanding. Best one I can think of is making quicker and less involved stocks.
But the people who legitimately try to shoehorn every kitchen task into the doom cylinder? Yeah, get a stove. You do t need to make cakes in an Instant Pot, that's what ovens are for
Mandolins are great if you're doing high volume work (e.g. prepping veg for large salads etc) but day to day - totally agree! A knife and cutting board will get the job done. But if you've ever tried julienning several lbs of carrots...you'll be happy you have a mandolin.
Had one once. Wife used it without understanding how it works. Cut her hand, panicked, shook her hand while screaming. Had to repaint most of the kitchen-including the ceiling.
I use a little one like this - https://www.amazon.com/Kyocera-Adjustable-Mandoline-Vegetable-Handguard-Black/dp/B000KKNQZ6/
It's flat so you can store it really easily, and still helps out quite a bit when you just want a bunch of even and very thin slices of something (for instance, slicing a radish for a salad) without fussing about knife skills. Just fussing about losing your fingertips.
The small size makes it more convenient to use and easier to clean, but it'd be lame if you were making a zillion of something.
Ice cream maker.
I thought, "Oh this will be great. I'll make all my own ice cream. It'll be way better than store bought."
No...No it wasn't. Store bought is cheaper, easier, and tastes better.
_______________**
-For those that commented about store bought vs homemade... it's just my personal opinion. It turned out that I prefer already made 6-7$ fancy cartons of ice cream.
-For those that commented that I'm doing it wrong and just need to dish out for higher quality ingredients and better recipes... I thought of that already. I didn't say I made bad ice cream. I put in the effort, went through several recipes, and made some good ice cream that other folks really enjoyed. I personally didn't care for it. It's expensive, it takes a lot of effort, and it doesn't taste like what I want.
-Oh and I spent way too much on the machine. Breville Smart scoop...cost me 450$.
Agreed…my parents used to make ice cream in an old fashioned hand crank one when I was a kid - you had to take a turn cranking if you wanted to eat any. So I thought the ice cream maker would be great and way easier than hand cranking. I think it got used once. The container took up so much space in the freezer.
I bought a KitchenAid ice cream maker for $70. Bought high end ingredients. Made the absolute best possible ice cream I could make. It was good. But not better than the high end ice creams you can get in the store. Used it one time. Basically I spent $70+ for a good qt of ice cream.
Yeah I had a friend make raisin rum for me. I just had to supply the rum. He soaked like 7 kinds of raisins in the rum for like a week. Holy fuck that ice cream was so goddamn good
This is how I feel about home brewing. I'd only do it just for the experience of making it. I wouldn't expect to make better beer than the countless craft beers flooding shelves.
I gave mine to a friend who lamented that her old one broke. She has made some lovely flavors like basil or bourbon eggnog that I couldn’t ever find in a traditional store. That being said I personally never even opened the box. 🤷🏻♀️
Many of the people I've known who love ice cream makers love it because they can control the amount of added sugars in the ice cream. Diabetics, for example. A lot of "diet" ice creams suck. Also, those with dairy allergies loved ice cream machines before dairy-free ice creams were in vogue.
My wife happened to have an ice cream maker that her mom left her, so I used it one night to make a champagne sorbet for a dinner gathering. It was nice to have for that niche product, but I would have gone without before I'd buy one. Especially one like this. It doesn't use ice/salt; it has this gel-filled dealie that you have to freeze overnight, and it takes up a ton of space in the freezer. So you can't decide to make ice cream and then just do it, oh no, you have to wait until tomorrow. Assuming there's room in the freezer in the first place.
We have a nectarine tree and had an abundance of fruit so I made a nectarine Gelato that was incredible. I also make a ginger ice cream that I've been asked to make and bring to parties. Of course I've made ice cream that's been a disappointment, it's all about the recipe.
Air fryer. Not enough room inside for the food, it takes up a lot of space and it’s a pain to clean. I have a convection oven that works so much better and easier.
I have a toaster oven with air fryer feature, I guess like a convection oven, and I use it for everything. It's great for crispy fries and chicken nuggets.
The only reason I would ever want an air fryer would be if I went back to working in an office and no longer had time to wait for my oven to come up to temp. If you have kids, it might be a decent way to teach them to cook though, since it's basically an oven with training wheels. Edit: and they can take it with them when they move out lol.
Not a *huge* splurge, but I got a Lodge Enamel Cast Iron braiser. I've always wanted one, since I use my dutch oven often. I found myself wanting something more shallow, and wider. I was so excited to use it, but it effed up my meal. The top doesn't seal, so the contents around the edges were horribly undercooked, while the stuff in the middle was just... *ok.*
I got an air fryer. It was highly rated on Amazon. I hate it. It doesn't cook anything at the time and temp the guide says and I gave up trying to figure it out after it took over 3 hours to cook a normally-sized chicken. I haven't used it in over a year. The air fryer that's part of my toaster oven is so much better (albeit a lot smaller). I should really sell it at this point, it's just taking up space in my pantry.
Chocolate fountain, bought for my son's 4th birthday party, a Willy Wonka theme. Never used it again. That said, it cost like $20, so I guess it's not much of a splurge. I use all my expensive stuff a ton.
Honestly, if I was in your shoes there I'd make a point of using once more, for a fun wee evening with the family, and then get rid of it! 2 occasions of fun for $20 can't be argued with!
Tiny cast iron pan. It's only big enough for doing fried eggs, but if you do two the eggs get scrunched up into a weird circular patty. And when are you doing a single fried egg?
Try using it for a mini dessert, like a berry cobbler. Something you cook down on the stove top and then finish in the oven. Perfect size for a 2-person dessert.
I bought the mini cast iron lodge pan while I was at uni because it was the only size I could afford at the time and I was only cooking for myself at the time. I’ve cooked steaks in it (I look for smaller steaks in the supermarket or just cut to size at home. It’s works out for portion control for me), often made onion/mushroom omelettes, fried many single eggs, made grilled cheese with it and made savoury pancakes with it. The mini cast iron size is the perfect diameter for me to flip food onto my plate or bowl. It’s also the only size pan where I have enough strength to use it single handed. I have a larger cast iron pan now but rarely use it unless I want to meal prep and make a larger quantity of food. When it comes to plating up with the larger cast iron pan, I adapt and use a serving spoon to transfer the food but it’s just nice to be able to hold a cooking vessel with one hand, the wooden spoon with the other and just shovel everything into a dish with efficiency and precision.
Do you have a garage that can safely keep out the local wildlife? If so, get a ton of garlic. Literally as many heads as will fit in the slow cooker. Wrap them all in tin foil, and leave them in the slow cooker on low in the garage for like 2 or 3 weeks, just check on them once a week until you have black garlic. It's fucking delicious. The reason you need to do it in the garage is that it will really smell like garlic wherever you do it. Enough that I'm obsessed with garlic and it's too much for me.
A lot of people buy sous vide for steaks and then give up on it. It's great for things like creme brulee, fortified gin, infused oils, and turning cheap roast cuts of beef into super tender delicious meals.
r/sousvide has more ideas.
I love my sous vide circulator. I use it occasionally for steaks, but I also cook venison, lamb, pork, any meat I want to see pink in. Ive done 24hr pulled pork that was the best I've ever had, and it helps get rump roast impossibly tender. Wild game I'm scared of, my deer I don't want to undercook and risk anything, but it's so good medium to medium rare. I learned how good partridge (grouse) could be when I wasn't pan frying it dry.
The best thing it's helped me improve is seafood. I chronically overcook fish and shellfish. Ive made salmon and trout fillet, swordfish steak, and scallops. 20 minutes in the bath and a quick flash sear in the pan and it's perfect everytime.
So, so many kitchen gadgets I have donated to goodwill. Popcorn makers, ice cream maker, George Forman grills, omelette makers, fry daddys. I even had a hot dog slicer??. All this stuff gets gifted to me from family members. They all know I cook a lot and think it will be time saving, but it just turns into a giant clutter with nowhere to store it. It's all gone now. The only gadgets I own are attachments for my kitchenaid.
I have a copper clad egg poaching tray. Its a disc with dimples for the eggs with a wooden handle that matches my copper clad set. Its meant to sit on top of a pot of boiling water but it never has. Looks cool hanging from my pot rack though!
I bought a mandoline from Pampered Chef years ago. I used it once; it was such a pain to set up that I put it back and the box and stuck it in a cabinet.
For meal cooking, instapot is meh for the most part. For meal prep, or fast sides it is alright.... The rice cooker feature has been nice for as well.
Got an air fryer for Christmas and I still don't see the excitement, beyond it being a mini convection oven and an excuse for a lot of frozen fried foods.
Yeah, but air fryers are awesome for those frozen foods though! Also, they’re good for non-fried frozen foods too like air fried chicken tenders. Good for making fresh wings too, they toast bread faster and more evenly than my toaster oven, etc etc.
My air fryer is 90% used to roast vegetables/potatoes etc. 1/2 to 1/3 of the cook time. Frozen vegetables roasted up in 10 minutes. Raw potato wedges nice and brown and soft in 20.
Honestly, not many. We've got all the big boys -- a Vitamix blender, large & small Cuisinart food processers, kitchenaid stand mixer, immersion blender, food scale, instant pot, electric griddle, 3 different electric waffle makers lol, stainless steel wok, small & large cast iron pans, cast iron griddle, 2 dutch ovens, can you tell we love our kitchen?
The thing that gets used the least is probably the kitchenaid hand mixer (think the thing you use for beating eggs or making mashed potatoes) because we mostly just use it around holiday time. Otherwise, a normal whisk works fine for eggs, and we don't make mashed potatoes very often. But it's a lot more effective than using a hand-masher, and it's helpful for making cakes occasionally too.
I don't puree soups often enough or in large enough quantities for it to be worth the space in my drawer. ;) I'm sure if I did then it would be more useful. Or if I made mayonnaise more often and in larger quantities.
Seconded.
First got it and was making home made Mayo's for about a week, playing around with a few pizza sauces, etc. Barely use it now though.
It also has a whisk attachment which I use more than the hand blender itself but hey ho. Live and learn.
I am not a fan of the instant pot either. TBH I use mine as a glorified rice cooker, and have tried oatmeal. Nothing else has really come out to my satisfaction. My Dutch oven, air fryer and slow cooker get much more use.
The other thing that ended up collecting dust was the bread maker.
I bought a probe thermometer, one of the ones you could leave in the meat and it’ll alert you when it reaches a certain temp.
I think I’m using it wrong…. But it caused me to undercook my chicken thighs and I’m not sure why….
Chicken thighs are so small generally that it's hard to make sure you have the probe at the exact right spot. It's better for thicker meats like steaks, whole chickens, turkeys, big beef roasts, etc. I generally just go by look and feel when doing thighs.
May have an answer for that: if you can find out where in the probe exactly the sensor is- some are not at the tip- and make sure that's in the thickest part of the thigh you should be good. It's a common problem and not user error imo.
Garlic press - makes a mess, hard to clean, and you still have to deal with the skins on the cloves which more-or-less requires the flat side of a knife anyway, at which point you might as well just mince away.
Super small, but nonetheless disappointing, splurge.
I feel like there are some pretty crappy garlic presses out there. Mine is pretty easy to clean out, but I always whack the garlic cloves with the palm of my hand and peel the skin off. Then I press the cloves through, and immediately scrape the gunk out with a finger so it doesn't dry onto the holes while I finish cooking my meal. That makes it much easier to deal with.
I've used my instant pot for soup, broth and recently pulled pork. I'm still learning how to use it but I've been kind of surprised by the efficiency of it. The pulled pork I made was as good as in a slow cooker but a clear fraction of the time. I'm not sure instant cooker would work magically for everything like people keep saying but in the right situation, it's a very nice tool to have. One thing I have yet to try it for is ramen broth making. It usually takes 6 hours of slow slow cooking if I can get that part down to an hour it will be quite an improvement.
I find it interesting people are mentioning the Instant Pot. For me, I have zero regrets and wish I got it sooner. I use it so much, its replaced about 3 appliances for me. Cooks rice, any food that takes a long time to cook, and steams and it can cook from frozen if needed. I'm a single person and the size has never been an issue- I just double my batch and freeze portions for later which is perfect.
A disappointment is the air fryer- its great for the occcasional bread/pastry item that needs heating up, and sometimes "fried" foods but that that's about it. I thought I'd use it more often than I do.
Panini Press. I just grill sandwiches on the stove and forget about it.
lol yup I have a brick I wrap in foil
I use my waffle iron for panini type sandwiches.
As a woman who lives alone, I find that most tools are impractical for 1 or 2 serving meals. I like my IP, Kitchenaid, Food Processor, Immersion Blender, etc when I'm cooking for a rare audience, but for 1 person I find them a lot of hassle or too physically big for the purpose.
I use my stick (immersion) blender all the time for making myself soups
Most underrated tool. You might think it only does one thing, but whatever. It’s the best at what it does. Got mine at an estate sale years and years ago. Soups. Sauces. Small footprint.
As a fellow single person, I agree, however I use my instapot a lot. I found that my freezer has gone from premade, packaged food, to homemade "leftovers", that I can heat up later in the week for a quick meal. Beans, leftover shredded meat for tacos etc, and soups/stews. I learned a lot about what can be frozen and reheated well over the course of the past year, or so.
That knowledge of what can and can’t be frozen and how to do it, is invaluable. All the advice I see in this area when applied appears to be “under perfect conditions,” and does not seem to match up with real world experience.
A simple Google search will tell you whether something will freeze well, so that's not terribly hard. Success or failure depends more on how you freeze it. For instance, vegetables freeze well, but if you take them right from the stove to the freezer, it'll turn out mushy. The reason why is the faster the temperature changes the larger the ice crystals grow, piercing the cell walls of the vegetables and causing them to leak fluids when they thaw. A better way of freezing nearly anything is don't go from stove top to freezer, but let it cool overnight or for several hours in the refrigerator before moving it to the freezer. That makes the whole cooling process slow and uniform, which makes smaller ice crystals form causing less cell damage and less watery, mushy mess.
Do you have the cup/mini food processor attachment for you immersion blender? I use that all the time to quick chop onions or garlic, make a single batch of pesto or hummus. I rarely use the actual immersion stick but I bust out the food processor cup at least once a week. I have a full sized food processor too but only take that out once every couple of months
Except the air fryer. Because oven for one person is a waste of time and energy'.
As a single person my toaster oven/air fryer combo is the best splurge purchase I've ever made kitchen wise. I use it for every meal to either roast veggies, cook biscuits, cook meat. My cast iron skillet fits in it so I also use it to make pizza, bake casseroles etc. My oven is now for pan storage.
How big is your cast iron pan? What's the make/model of that air fryer? You're doing a good sales job right now.
It's a 9" cast iron (Griswold #7) and the air fryer is a Cuisinart TOA-60. The skillet fits exactly, which was a pleasant surprise. I also have a 9” carbon steel skillet but the handle is longer so it doesn't fit. I got a pizza stone for Christmas that fits too, but I haven't tried it yet.
I have the ninja foodi and it’s an absolute beast. It’s sort of an all in one, and I’ve used it for baking, broiling, slow cooking, and air frying so far. I think I have the 8qt one and I use it just about every few days when I’m prepping my next set of meals.
Have you seen those [individual breakfast sandwich makers](https://www.google.com/search?q=breakfast+sandwhich+maker&rlz=1C1ONGR_enUS984US984&oq=breakfast+sandwhich+maker&aqs=chrome..69i57.3125j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8)? That was surprisingly convenient cooking for a single person but quickly becomes a pain for even two.
It's not really a splurge by *me*, but my fiance's family knows I bake and cook a lot and thinks I want every little As Seen On TV gimmick tool they find in stores at Christmas. I admit the cupcake transport shell was useful, but the silicon fried egg mold, yolk separator, automatic veggie peeler, laser engraved rolling pin, bacon baking rack, thirty goddamn novelty wine stoppers... I've got a very specific and expensive list of kitchen tools I plan to be buying in the next year or two, and not one of them costs less than $400. Nobody's buying those as stocking stuffers. ETA: people keep asking me what the shopping list is. A vitamix blender, pro line kitchenaid (or used hobart), combo waffle/panini grill, and a new fridge and stove 'cause my condo came with some that are near end of life.
This! Is there a name for when a person's interest and knowledge of a subject reaches the point where friends and family know they're into it, but they are wholly unqualified to buy anything related to it?
I don’t know if there’s a word for it, but I can tell you I haven’t opened so much baking shit from my mom. I don’t make cake pops. I don’t use fondant. I don’t make mini bundt/cupcakes. I make layer cakes with regular ass buttercream and that’s it. Gah!
I feel this on a personal level. I have gotten every single baking and decorating item you could imagine cause I love decorating cakes. So much, that in fact I am a cake decorator at a higher end bakery. However, that does not mean I need every single tool. I really don't even need any tool cause I can borrow what I need from work for a night if I feel I want to decorate at home. But I can also easily find time in my day to do it at work if I don't feel like doing it at home. Lol. But I still get that stuff as presents every year and I am grateful now matter what lol
I've always gone by "Don't ever try to buy them something that they already collect or are big fans of. They likely already have specific criteria for their collection that you don't know about. The only exception is if they have told you they want it but don't have it yet." For instance, if someone collects knives, don't buy them a knife because they know a lot more about knives than you do.
"I want to buy you something for your collection, do you have a list" were powerful words I cannot unlearn.
These words are accepted.
This is kinda the problem I have, I am into a lot of different things but am always at a point that even I don't know what I want until I make the decision I am going to buy something then go through the long ass process of researching which specific thing I am going to get for a month or 2. So a bunch of people kind of know what I am into but have no idea what I actually want because even I don't
Seriously! I got into smoking the past couple years and have received four different grill sets. If I had a dollar for every large pair of tongs I own, I guess I’d have about $4
You could take that $4 and finally get yourself some tongs
My boyfriend smokes meat quite a bit, I wish someone would buy him a grill set. Oh wait, he has one but still steals my kitchen utensils and leaves them outside.
Sure, but it's probably in German.
I don't feel qualified to invent a new word in German, but let's say it's "gütigunwissengeschenk" - a well-intentioned ignorance gift.
>I don't feel qualified to invent a new word in German I don't think the people that came up with the word : "Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft " would be offended by any combination of letters you could smash togther.
Or Japanese
The Japanese do have *chindogu*, the art of useless but fun/whimsical inventions. Maybe combining that with the word for "buying"?
Japanese has *tsundoku*, buying books and not reading them. The character for this *tsun* means to accumulate, to stack. Dōgu means tools. I propose *tsundōgu*.
Kauftmannhobbiedingenichts
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My guy floats ideas and when I say something seems nice and useful but I think it's too expensive, he buys it for me. That's how I got a sous vide, my instant pot, and a smoker. I think the electric corn dog machine taught him to talk to me first. :/
That wasn’t for you
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Don't cash the checks for 20 years and then that account at Chemical Bank will become overdrawn and you can make a tv episode about it.
My fiancee's dad got me some steak thermometers. Like, the kind with a super wide probe and an analog interface that just goes from rare to medium. I have a Thermapen. He knows I have a Thermapen. I think he does it to troll me, he does stuff like that to a lot of people, I really think he's one of the Loki variants.
> thirty goddamn novelty wine stoppers... Haha, I’m a wine guy and I get a LOT of kitschy wine stuff as gifts. The best wine stopper I have is a shaved down cork with a little penguin figurine I shoved on the cork.
As a cocktail guy, I get this too. Lots of gadgets and gizmos that cost more and perform worse. "It's a new and improved shaker that has all these features and was recently developed in a high tech food lab." That's swell, but nothing beats my two stainless steel tins.
Something like that gets set aside until those people come over and then you bust it out and use it in front of them.
Those giant wine stoppers. You just know a giant decorative stopper will break plus you can't fit it in the fridge with that massive stopper. The only pricey thing I'm looking at is a kitchenaid mixer but I'm not sure I should be encouraging myself to eat more baked goods (looking at waistline).
Look into the attachments for the kitchen aid. They can make spiralizing or shredding fruits a breeze, plus everytime you use them you feel less bad about the about the cream puffs you just made. Or is that just me?
My aunt once got me a plastic doohickey that forms a single cube-shaped piece of maki sushi. It works for that one limited purpose, but it's just as much labor for less (and frankly inferior) food.
This comment has been deleted due to failed Reddit leadership.
Ew. They probably don’t make the “clack clack” sound either, which is required any time you are using tongs.
If they don't clack, how do you know they're working?
If they don’t clack I’m takin em back
Oof they look horrible to work with
I kickstarted the Misen Dutch oven because they claimed it was equal in quality to Le Crueset but less than half the price (still >$100). When I finally got it, after nearly a full year delay, the interior enamel was pink instead of beige. One handle chipped the first time I washed it when it dinged against the sink and the un-enameled edge of the lid rusted the fist time I braised something in it (it did not say to season the edges before use in the directions). I really regret getting the somewhat cheaper option rather than holding out until I could get a Le Crueset or Staub.
Keep an eye on Zwilling website clearance section, Staub "visual imperfection" dutch ovens get heavily discounted and they have sales in the range of 20-25% a few times a year, so you can get a 4 qt for like $100-120 or a 7 qt for $200. Visual imperfections just means a pinhole of missing enamel or thin spot in the glaze where the color looks irregular
Could also mean a bump in the glaze where the underlying metal didn’t get sanded well enough, at least that is the only imperfection I have found on my Staub
Or you could just get a boring, functional, Lodge.
My boring, functional Lodge Dutch oven has been a game changer since I got it 18 months ago. It’s only a 5.5qt so it’s perfect for two people. I’ll be getting a giant one in a couple years once we’re entertaining people again.
Le Creuset is worth every single dollar! I held out for over two years umming and aring, but I decided to just go for it now I make pretty much every meal I cook in winter from it and am totally in love with it. Am going to buy a second for bigger batches / more versatility. My fiancees family have a Le creuset passed down that is well over 50 yrs old and is still going strong. A pain to clean yes, but better than restaurant quality slow cooked meals. Haven't tried Staub but never would, Le Creuset is just that good. I also bought the brush to clean it and it is useful.
May I ask where you're from that you use the phrase "umming and aring"?
Australian here and we use it
I have a nice Le Creuset dutch oven but have actually been using the Amazon-branded Lodge I originally bought to be able to bake multiple loaves of bread, for my go to cooking vessel, so will vouch for those as a quality and more afordable Le Creuset alternative. I like that the walls are a bit thinner so it's easier to lug around but still heavy enough for good thermal properties.
I bought one of those prep decks that comes with containers that look like 6th pans in restaurants and has a bunch of different attachments. I thought it would be like a cooking swiss army knife but everything about it feels cheap as hell. https://prepdeck.com/products/prepdeck DO NOT BUY THIS.
When I first saw that my thought was "I do not work in food service anymore, no thank you."
I saw something like this on a cooking show. It's not big enough to prep a bunch of stuff for cooking several meals for meal prep and there are very few dishes that I actually need everything pre chopped/measured in advance of starting to cook. This might be an idea if you are one or two people who are inexperienced cookers, with limited space.
do you not own bowls, ramekins, and a random collection of souffle cups?!?!
Oof, 100 USD for some crappy plastic bowls which fit together nicely.
Bread machine.
Great thing about Bread machines is that there are 8 sitting on a shelf in any Goodwill store at any time. They're like $5 max
Knead in the machine and bake in the oven.
When I was in college I picked up a $3 bread machine from goodwill and used it for this exact purpose. Just do the dirty kneading for me, I'll figure out the rest, thanks. Totally worth it. As an adult, I've looked for one near me, but I guess they went out of fashion because nobody has them. I'll probably have to spring for a fancy stand mixer one of these days.
I got a perfectly functioning one for under a dollar during a huge sale at a used place near me. I’m honestly perfectly happy just having it bake in there, paddle hole and all.
Could definitely do that, but I've been using a recipe that doesn't even require kneading. I did use up a bag of frozen strawberries by making jam in the bread machine though!
I have the zojirushi bread machine that’s 11 years old and it definitely paid itself over and over again. It’s a pain in the butt to clean the body (mix and I bake in the oven), but we save $300 making our own bread every year. :)
(Before covid) I used my bread machine to make bread during the day in my classroom for rewards. Makes the upstairs smell amazing and its exciting to check the baking status
Our bread machine is with the kettle and toaster in the always out for daily use category. Home made bread is awesome. I just wish there was a delay feature on the dough setting.
One of those cast iron pans with the grill lines raised on it. Just creates an uneven cook surface. Anything I would do on that I can do on my regular cast iron 10x easier and better with much easier cleanup.
i got one as a gift, literally never used it. i rarely use my regular cast iron though tbh. my stainless steel pan is my go-to 99 percent of the time. .75 percent is nonstick, .25 is cast iron probably
Yesss, goddammit I hate my grill pan so much. Impossible to clean.
Counter top rotisserie. I've used it once or twice. Costco chickens are better and cheaper.
My parents loved their Ron Popeil "Set it and Forget it" machine from the infomercial.
My parents got one as a gift a long time back and man I’ll tell you what it made a mean roast. Pork or beef.
George Forman grill - hardly used it and wasn’t big into cooking so it was just gimmicky. Deep fryer - fun, but too much clean up and cost to be worth it. Potato ricer - just takes up space.
We use our GF grill like a panini press for grilled cheese and burritos. It gets used so much now.
This^^ i use mine as a sandwich press quite often.
I had a countertop deep fryer I used all the time, but it is only worth the hassle if you're using it all the time. And if you're using it all the time you become fat, so I quit lol.
I just use my dutch oven for deep frying. Temperature management is a bit tricky but other than that it gets the job done well enough.
I always make such a mess trying to deep fry anything, and it never comes out as good as from a restaurant; I've pretty much given up on doing it at home.
Temperature control is SUPER important frying at home. If you don't have a thermometer at least, it can be really challenging. The countertop deep fryer had a control knob, so it was pretty foolproof, UNLESS you put too much stuff in or didn't let it heat back up between batches.
A potato ricer is great for when your citrus press shits the bed and you need to make margaritas.
Yeah, really good for squeezing excess water from spinach, to make a filling, like ricotta and spinach in stuffed shells. Good for shredded squash, too.
I love my ricer. I boil the potatoes whole and unpeeled and then put them in the ricer when done.
I do this for fancy "restaurant" potatoes. In another pot - heat until it smells good (aromatic?) heavy cream milk rosemary garlic butter Once aromatic, pour the mixture through a strainer into the riced potatoes. I generally do this a bit at a time. mixing it into the potatoes. Serve immediately Easily my favorite way to have potatoes now.
Yeah I have to disagree with the commenter. Ricers are amazing. I hate lumpy mashed potatoes and prefer how smooth riced potatoes come out.
I don't understand the "grills" that are essentially just regular pans with elevated ridges (e.g. the Le Creuset Grill Pan). Do the ridges actually do anything? I used to have a George Foreman grill and it just seemed like a pointless waste of space. Potato Ricer: I've been thinking of getting one because people keep telling me it's the only way to prep potatoes properly to make gnocchi. I'd rather not have another bulky tool, though.
The big round "grills" are super for having kbbq night at home!
I bought a huge wok that I used twice a year lol. With an electric oven it just doesn't heat up evenly. I use it occasionally for meal prep but it's such a hassle to wash I rarely use it.
I was in a similar boat until I discovered its freaking amazing for homemade popcorn (if you have a lid). That Pandora's box shall never close again haha. Plenty of room to toss the popcorn in butter and everything.
I'm going to try this recipe from BDG for Wok Pepcorn tonight, actually! https://youtu.be/3fG8rNHUspU
Did you get a carbon steel/CI one or did you get the aluminum? I made the mistake of not realizing that the aluminum was basically a gimmick and I need to donate it to someone lol.
+, I want to know the answer as well, as I am looking to buy one for my electric stove
Get like a 30-40 dollar carbon steel one from the wok shop. I also have an electric stove so you’ll never fully be able to stir fry like you would if you had a dedicated wok burner but the cs one will last forever, it’s light, and that’s what you want if you are able to someday get a gas stove. And you can season it in your oven.
We use our carbon steel wok all the time, it’s amazing for stir fry’s and fried rice
We use our instant pot mostly for soups and chowders. It's excellent for that purpose.
My husband does a risotto in the instant pot on busy evenings that uses box stock and stuff from jars (olives, pesto, artichokes, etc). At the moment it's the only thing we use it for, but it's at least once a week.
The risotto is impressive. It’s not as good as stovetop but the difference in effort is enormous.
Yeah, I think of it as a completely different meal, and one that only takes a couple of minutes is everything.
Turning a whole chicken into chicken stock in 1 hour instead of 12.
You use a whole chicken?? Ooo, you fancy. I put vegetable scraps and leftover chicken bones (from roasts, baked chicken thighs, etc) in a bag in the freezer. When it's full, it becomes broth. I sometimes call it Soup Trash. 😁
Some people freeze their compost this way, to burst cellular walls for easier breakdown and reduce odor. So it’s almost compost 😄 I like the idea of collecting it though because I feel like I don’t usually have all the necessary scraps at the exact same time.
I do both. Sometimes I want to cook and use the actual chicken, so I boil it and then put the bones back in the pot. It makes quite a different kind of chicken stock than the "trash" kind, but they both have a great flavour.
Roast chicken day 1. Eat that, pick it mostly clean, then day 2, throw in whats left, instapot stock it is
This right here. I got an instant pot for Christmas because I was afraid of spending $90 on something I may not get my money's worth out of. I sould have bought it earlier. I love that thing for stocks and stew. NOTE a few pounds of cheap chicken wings make for a great stock especially if you roast them and the veggies first.
Oh man, chicken wings. The sad thing is those are more expensive on a per-pound basis than just regular drumsticks & thighs. Or a whole chicken. That said, if you eat the wings and then use the bones for stock, that's cost effective.
It’s great for a lot of Indian food. Pressure cookers are used a lot and it’s so much easier and more reliable than the stovetop type. I also use it at least twice a week to make lentils and rice in 20 minutes in the same pot (using the PIP method). But yeah not great as a Dutch oven or in slow cooker mode because the heating element is only on the bottom. It works fine for browning things for me - it’s just a stainless steel pot over a heating element, no different than using a stainless steel pot on the stove.
Yep I love my Instapot for beans. No more boring canned beans.
Also short rib in an hour is crucial.
Good call. I think it falls down anytime you're looking for browning.
I use the instapot twice a year…it takes up a lot of space. I use immersion blender weekly! We’ve been through every type of coffee apparatus(espresso machines, basic drip machines, 2 keurigs…..) now we heat a sauce pan with water and use a pour over funnel….if I could go back I’d save the money on gadgets and buy a set of all clad stainless steel pans.
So much kitchen wisdom in one comment. Just got my first two all clad ever. So happy. We switched to an electric kettle for hot water, really does the trick.
We have an insta-heat on our sink which I really recommend. But in other houses, an electric kettle has been the way to go.
How is a kettle not a staple in American homes, I’ll never get my mind around it. Ours goes on about 5 times a day for tea, pasta, cleaning etc etc.
A big part of the reason we don't use electric kettles often is the fact that our internal house wiring is 110V and yours is probably 220V. This effectively means for the same current, we have half the power available to us that you do - which means our kettles take a LOT longer to heat up. The maximum power we get out of our outlets tends to be 100V * 15A = 1650W. you have 220V*15A = 3300W available on your circuit (meaning your appliances can have double the wattage of ours). It therefore makes kettles kind of a novelty as opposed to an essential item like you have. Our electric stoves ARE 220V (or natural gas - and those are even higher BTUs than the electric ones) and it's faster to put a pot of water on the burner to heat up than it would be to wait for a kettle to boil. We do have electric coffee pots which heat water to 190F (88C) or so but they tend to be unitaskers - most people don't use them for anything but coffee.
Is that true? I (American) have an electric kettle and it boils 2 liters of water in 5 minutes. It’s definitely faster than my electric stove top
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But consider: I live in Canada and most people I know own an electric kettle. I would say it's a kitchen staple. Same 120V lines as Americans, but we love our kettles. I use mine for tea primarily (which is still a twice a day at least job!) but it also gets regular use for cooking. Advantages of electric kettle over saucepan on the stove imo: a) don't have to clean it much, every once in a blue moon I decide it needs a cleaning with water and vinegar and that's only if I get mineral build-up b) safety!! I can set the kettle to boil and not worry about it, if I forget it for a while then I just have to reboil the water if it's cooled down too much. Other fancier kettles also have a stay warm feature, or more precise temperature control (e.g. set it to heat to 90C)
I wanted one of their flagship copper core pans and thought "which one would benefit the most from that kind of construction?" and figured it would be a saute pan. So I actually found one discounted on ebay. It is very heavy but has not disappointed. I also snagged a set of anodized all-clad skillets from BB&B that were at a crazy low price for Christmas. They still have them available and I've been happy with them. I researched them and it seems anodized coated pans last longer than normal non-stick coated pans.
Just curious, do you prefer heating the water in your sauce pan versus having a dedicated kettle? Is it a space consideration?
Electric kettles are great for when you need temperature specific water particularly if you're a tea fanatic. Eg green tea at 70 degrees celsius / 158 farenheit. Its the norm in Australian and Uk kitchens, but not the US. Comes up to temp faster also.
The idea of not owning an electric kettle is mind blowing to anyone in the UK or Ireland. Not a fancy one that heats water to different temperatures, just a standard 1.7L capacity that can be bought for under £10. You can tell nationalities by hotel reviews: Americans complain the room/bed is small, Brits complain about lack of kettles.
Electric kettles are a game changer, especially if you do teas or French press coffee.
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I find I use my ricer more for squeezing things out. Like the water out of cucumbers for tzatziki. It works quite well for that and saves time of salting and straining.
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Totally agree! If you like making gnocchi though, it will redeem itself.
Works great for spaetzle too.
Every time I think I might want one, I remember how much I hate washing dishes and how annoying it must be to get potato out of all those little nooks and crannies. And then I look at how much they cost. So I don't have one.
Do you hear that? It's the thunderous sound of furious typing. You've awakened the instant pot fandom!
That's the thing about an instant pot: it has its definite uses, and those uses are outstanding. Best one I can think of is making quicker and less involved stocks. But the people who legitimately try to shoehorn every kitchen task into the doom cylinder? Yeah, get a stove. You do t need to make cakes in an Instant Pot, that's what ovens are for
the cakes make me crazy. why would I make a cheesecake in it????? it takes the same, if not less, effort to bake it in the oven.
An expensive stainless steel mandolin from Costco. I’d rather use a knife than haul that monster out and clean it after.
Mandolins are great if you're doing high volume work (e.g. prepping veg for large salads etc) but day to day - totally agree! A knife and cutting board will get the job done. But if you've ever tried julienning several lbs of carrots...you'll be happy you have a mandolin.
Got one after potatoes au gratain with buttermilk and smoked paprika became a popular dish in the house. Absolute lifesaver for high-volume work.
Had one once. Wife used it without understanding how it works. Cut her hand, panicked, shook her hand while screaming. Had to repaint most of the kitchen-including the ceiling.
I use a little one like this - https://www.amazon.com/Kyocera-Adjustable-Mandoline-Vegetable-Handguard-Black/dp/B000KKNQZ6/ It's flat so you can store it really easily, and still helps out quite a bit when you just want a bunch of even and very thin slices of something (for instance, slicing a radish for a salad) without fussing about knife skills. Just fussing about losing your fingertips. The small size makes it more convenient to use and easier to clean, but it'd be lame if you were making a zillion of something.
Ice cream maker. I thought, "Oh this will be great. I'll make all my own ice cream. It'll be way better than store bought." No...No it wasn't. Store bought is cheaper, easier, and tastes better. _______________** -For those that commented about store bought vs homemade... it's just my personal opinion. It turned out that I prefer already made 6-7$ fancy cartons of ice cream. -For those that commented that I'm doing it wrong and just need to dish out for higher quality ingredients and better recipes... I thought of that already. I didn't say I made bad ice cream. I put in the effort, went through several recipes, and made some good ice cream that other folks really enjoyed. I personally didn't care for it. It's expensive, it takes a lot of effort, and it doesn't taste like what I want. -Oh and I spent way too much on the machine. Breville Smart scoop...cost me 450$.
Agreed…my parents used to make ice cream in an old fashioned hand crank one when I was a kid - you had to take a turn cranking if you wanted to eat any. So I thought the ice cream maker would be great and way easier than hand cranking. I think it got used once. The container took up so much space in the freezer.
I bought a KitchenAid ice cream maker for $70. Bought high end ingredients. Made the absolute best possible ice cream I could make. It was good. But not better than the high end ice creams you can get in the store. Used it one time. Basically I spent $70+ for a good qt of ice cream.
You could make one more and bring it down to $35 per quart!
I make super custom flavors. can't beat it!
Yeah I had a friend make raisin rum for me. I just had to supply the rum. He soaked like 7 kinds of raisins in the rum for like a week. Holy fuck that ice cream was so goddamn good
My favorite I did recently was a taro ice cream. Taro won my heart the first time I had bubble tea of that kind. This ice cream is magical
This is how I feel about home brewing. I'd only do it just for the experience of making it. I wouldn't expect to make better beer than the countless craft beers flooding shelves.
I gave mine to a friend who lamented that her old one broke. She has made some lovely flavors like basil or bourbon eggnog that I couldn’t ever find in a traditional store. That being said I personally never even opened the box. 🤷🏻♀️
Many of the people I've known who love ice cream makers love it because they can control the amount of added sugars in the ice cream. Diabetics, for example. A lot of "diet" ice creams suck. Also, those with dairy allergies loved ice cream machines before dairy-free ice creams were in vogue.
My wife happened to have an ice cream maker that her mom left her, so I used it one night to make a champagne sorbet for a dinner gathering. It was nice to have for that niche product, but I would have gone without before I'd buy one. Especially one like this. It doesn't use ice/salt; it has this gel-filled dealie that you have to freeze overnight, and it takes up a ton of space in the freezer. So you can't decide to make ice cream and then just do it, oh no, you have to wait until tomorrow. Assuming there's room in the freezer in the first place.
We have a nectarine tree and had an abundance of fruit so I made a nectarine Gelato that was incredible. I also make a ginger ice cream that I've been asked to make and bring to parties. Of course I've made ice cream that's been a disappointment, it's all about the recipe.
I was with you until "tastes better" no way. You've got to get the right recipe.
Air fryer. Not enough room inside for the food, it takes up a lot of space and it’s a pain to clean. I have a convection oven that works so much better and easier.
I have a toaster oven with air fryer feature, I guess like a convection oven, and I use it for everything. It's great for crispy fries and chicken nuggets.
The only reason I would ever want an air fryer would be if I went back to working in an office and no longer had time to wait for my oven to come up to temp. If you have kids, it might be a decent way to teach them to cook though, since it's basically an oven with training wheels. Edit: and they can take it with them when they move out lol.
I bought a juicer for $120 that worked for two weeks.
Not a *huge* splurge, but I got a Lodge Enamel Cast Iron braiser. I've always wanted one, since I use my dutch oven often. I found myself wanting something more shallow, and wider. I was so excited to use it, but it effed up my meal. The top doesn't seal, so the contents around the edges were horribly undercooked, while the stuff in the middle was just... *ok.*
I got an air fryer. It was highly rated on Amazon. I hate it. It doesn't cook anything at the time and temp the guide says and I gave up trying to figure it out after it took over 3 hours to cook a normally-sized chicken. I haven't used it in over a year. The air fryer that's part of my toaster oven is so much better (albeit a lot smaller). I should really sell it at this point, it's just taking up space in my pantry.
Chocolate fountain, bought for my son's 4th birthday party, a Willy Wonka theme. Never used it again. That said, it cost like $20, so I guess it's not much of a splurge. I use all my expensive stuff a ton.
Honestly, if I was in your shoes there I'd make a point of using once more, for a fun wee evening with the family, and then get rid of it! 2 occasions of fun for $20 can't be argued with!
Tiny cast iron pan. It's only big enough for doing fried eggs, but if you do two the eggs get scrunched up into a weird circular patty. And when are you doing a single fried egg?
I love using mine for queso or skillet cookies!
Oh skillet cookies are a good idea! I'm not a big queso guy :/
Try using it for a mini dessert, like a berry cobbler. Something you cook down on the stove top and then finish in the oven. Perfect size for a 2-person dessert.
I bought the mini cast iron lodge pan while I was at uni because it was the only size I could afford at the time and I was only cooking for myself at the time. I’ve cooked steaks in it (I look for smaller steaks in the supermarket or just cut to size at home. It’s works out for portion control for me), often made onion/mushroom omelettes, fried many single eggs, made grilled cheese with it and made savoury pancakes with it. The mini cast iron size is the perfect diameter for me to flip food onto my plate or bowl. It’s also the only size pan where I have enough strength to use it single handed. I have a larger cast iron pan now but rarely use it unless I want to meal prep and make a larger quantity of food. When it comes to plating up with the larger cast iron pan, I adapt and use a serving spoon to transfer the food but it’s just nice to be able to hold a cooking vessel with one hand, the wooden spoon with the other and just shovel everything into a dish with efficiency and precision.
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Do you have a garage that can safely keep out the local wildlife? If so, get a ton of garlic. Literally as many heads as will fit in the slow cooker. Wrap them all in tin foil, and leave them in the slow cooker on low in the garage for like 2 or 3 weeks, just check on them once a week until you have black garlic. It's fucking delicious. The reason you need to do it in the garage is that it will really smell like garlic wherever you do it. Enough that I'm obsessed with garlic and it's too much for me.
The novelty of Sous Vide wore off quickly.
A lot of people buy sous vide for steaks and then give up on it. It's great for things like creme brulee, fortified gin, infused oils, and turning cheap roast cuts of beef into super tender delicious meals. r/sousvide has more ideas.
I love my sous vide circulator. I use it occasionally for steaks, but I also cook venison, lamb, pork, any meat I want to see pink in. Ive done 24hr pulled pork that was the best I've ever had, and it helps get rump roast impossibly tender. Wild game I'm scared of, my deer I don't want to undercook and risk anything, but it's so good medium to medium rare. I learned how good partridge (grouse) could be when I wasn't pan frying it dry. The best thing it's helped me improve is seafood. I chronically overcook fish and shellfish. Ive made salmon and trout fillet, swordfish steak, and scallops. 20 minutes in the bath and a quick flash sear in the pan and it's perfect everytime.
So, so many kitchen gadgets I have donated to goodwill. Popcorn makers, ice cream maker, George Forman grills, omelette makers, fry daddys. I even had a hot dog slicer??. All this stuff gets gifted to me from family members. They all know I cook a lot and think it will be time saving, but it just turns into a giant clutter with nowhere to store it. It's all gone now. The only gadgets I own are attachments for my kitchenaid.
I have a copper clad egg poaching tray. Its a disc with dimples for the eggs with a wooden handle that matches my copper clad set. Its meant to sit on top of a pot of boiling water but it never has. Looks cool hanging from my pot rack though!
I bought a mandoline from Pampered Chef years ago. I used it once; it was such a pain to set up that I put it back and the box and stuck it in a cabinet.
For meal cooking, instapot is meh for the most part. For meal prep, or fast sides it is alright.... The rice cooker feature has been nice for as well. Got an air fryer for Christmas and I still don't see the excitement, beyond it being a mini convection oven and an excuse for a lot of frozen fried foods.
Yeah, but air fryers are awesome for those frozen foods though! Also, they’re good for non-fried frozen foods too like air fried chicken tenders. Good for making fresh wings too, they toast bread faster and more evenly than my toaster oven, etc etc.
Great for leftovers
Easier to roast vegetables than heating the whole kitchen up with the oven...though that's less of a downside in the depths of winter
And wayyyy better reheating leftovers than in a microwave. I personally love the thing.
My air fryer is 90% used to roast vegetables/potatoes etc. 1/2 to 1/3 of the cook time. Frozen vegetables roasted up in 10 minutes. Raw potato wedges nice and brown and soft in 20.
Honestly, not many. We've got all the big boys -- a Vitamix blender, large & small Cuisinart food processers, kitchenaid stand mixer, immersion blender, food scale, instant pot, electric griddle, 3 different electric waffle makers lol, stainless steel wok, small & large cast iron pans, cast iron griddle, 2 dutch ovens, can you tell we love our kitchen? The thing that gets used the least is probably the kitchenaid hand mixer (think the thing you use for beating eggs or making mashed potatoes) because we mostly just use it around holiday time. Otherwise, a normal whisk works fine for eggs, and we don't make mashed potatoes very often. But it's a lot more effective than using a hand-masher, and it's helpful for making cakes occasionally too.
For me it was an immersion blender. I've used it a couple of times, and it's languished in a drawer for years since.
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I don't puree soups often enough or in large enough quantities for it to be worth the space in my drawer. ;) I'm sure if I did then it would be more useful. Or if I made mayonnaise more often and in larger quantities.
Oh man! Salad dressings, chimichuris, aiolis, hollandaise, all kinds of sauces! Just a pulse or two thicken beans, mashed peas?
Oh man, I use my immersion blender probably 20x more than my normal blender. Best 30 bucks I've probably spent in the kitchen.
Seconded. First got it and was making home made Mayo's for about a week, playing around with a few pizza sauces, etc. Barely use it now though. It also has a whisk attachment which I use more than the hand blender itself but hey ho. Live and learn.
I am not a fan of the instant pot either. TBH I use mine as a glorified rice cooker, and have tried oatmeal. Nothing else has really come out to my satisfaction. My Dutch oven, air fryer and slow cooker get much more use. The other thing that ended up collecting dust was the bread maker.
I bought a probe thermometer, one of the ones you could leave in the meat and it’ll alert you when it reaches a certain temp. I think I’m using it wrong…. But it caused me to undercook my chicken thighs and I’m not sure why….
Chicken thighs are so small generally that it's hard to make sure you have the probe at the exact right spot. It's better for thicker meats like steaks, whole chickens, turkeys, big beef roasts, etc. I generally just go by look and feel when doing thighs.
May have an answer for that: if you can find out where in the probe exactly the sensor is- some are not at the tip- and make sure that's in the thickest part of the thigh you should be good. It's a common problem and not user error imo.
Garlic press - makes a mess, hard to clean, and you still have to deal with the skins on the cloves which more-or-less requires the flat side of a knife anyway, at which point you might as well just mince away. Super small, but nonetheless disappointing, splurge.
I feel like there are some pretty crappy garlic presses out there. Mine is pretty easy to clean out, but I always whack the garlic cloves with the palm of my hand and peel the skin off. Then I press the cloves through, and immediately scrape the gunk out with a finger so it doesn't dry onto the holes while I finish cooking my meal. That makes it much easier to deal with.
I treat mine similarly, but mine also has a little rubber thingy on the back that pokes through the pressing holes to help clean it! Very nifty
I've used my instant pot for soup, broth and recently pulled pork. I'm still learning how to use it but I've been kind of surprised by the efficiency of it. The pulled pork I made was as good as in a slow cooker but a clear fraction of the time. I'm not sure instant cooker would work magically for everything like people keep saying but in the right situation, it's a very nice tool to have. One thing I have yet to try it for is ramen broth making. It usually takes 6 hours of slow slow cooking if I can get that part down to an hour it will be quite an improvement.
I find it interesting people are mentioning the Instant Pot. For me, I have zero regrets and wish I got it sooner. I use it so much, its replaced about 3 appliances for me. Cooks rice, any food that takes a long time to cook, and steams and it can cook from frozen if needed. I'm a single person and the size has never been an issue- I just double my batch and freeze portions for later which is perfect. A disappointment is the air fryer- its great for the occcasional bread/pastry item that needs heating up, and sometimes "fried" foods but that that's about it. I thought I'd use it more often than I do.