Implements You Rarely Use

If I go through my kitchen junk, I'd find a lot of stuff I don't use. A hamburger slider press is one of those items that just popped into my mind.

[Jenise]

I've never even seen any of those things in real life. But I remember them all, the Veg-o-Matic in particular. I wanted my mom to get one so bad!! So I watched someone test one they found at a thrift shop. If you're interested, go to about the two minute mark to see her test potatoes. She's set up to do a lot more but IMO there's no reason to stick around past the potato!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q6Z1kd-DnQ

I preferred Saturday Night Live's Bass-o-Matic.

-Paul W.

"It's a floor wax!"
"No, it's a dessert topping!"

I preferred Saturday Night Live's Bass-o-Matic.

Yes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HKTx5WFcs0

Aha! How 'bout my in-the-original-box-still, bagel slicer, a wooden doodad that holds a bagel on its side and has guides for your knife to slice it?

[Jenise]

Aha! How 'bout my in-the-original-box-still, bagel slicer, a wooden doodad that holds a bagel on its side and has guides for your knife to slice it?

I have a friend who's shaky with Parkinson's. That little device is probably the only reason he hasn't chopped a finger off by now!

Aha! How 'bout my in-the-original-box-still, bagel slicer, a wooden doodad that holds a bagel on its side and has guides for your knife to slice it?

I have a friend who's shaky with Parkinson's. That little device is probably the only reason he hasn't chopped a finger off by now!

Probably also would work for my cousin who has age-related essential tremor.

Aha! How 'bout my in-the-original-box-still, bagel slicer, a wooden doodad that holds a bagel on its side and has guides for your knife to slice it?

I don't have one, but this type of guillotine was in the breakfast room of hotels in the USA in which I stayed, used to slice bagels and 'English' muffins for toasting

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00032KSUW

[Jenise]

Peter, say goodbye to the little guillotine (good name)! Another victim of Covid: breakfast buffets are GONE.

It recently dawned on me that if you want to see seldom-used products, go to a thrift store. A few years after fads fade away, you start seeing things like aebleskiver pans, etc. Lately, I've been seeing equipment used to make S'Mores. Now there's something I would use frequently!

[Jenise]

Indeed, one of the funnest things about thrift store shopping is the cultural anthropology of societal kitchen trends, Larry. I'm not a habitue for my own household, but occasionally have needed to cruise Value Village for Christmas ware or decor for my big neighborhood tastings. When I broke my old clay Romertopf style cooker, I just put that on my list for the next time I went slumming for Christmas stuff. Didn't take long to find a brand new, never used ex-wedding gift of same to replace mine.

Oh, yes, there's a trove of fondue pots and waffle irons... unused wedding gifts!

Ha!

My wife was just trying to take the sandwich press to the thrift store, because we've used it fewer than 10 times since we got it 10 years ago. But we're not desperate for storage space just yet, so I told her we can wait. Maybe a house move would be a time to re-evaluate!

Now you are going to tell me that my bacon press wasn't necessary! (Could always use it as a doorstop).

Take a look at https://www.eatthis.com/kitchen-gadgets ... shortcuts/ and fess up if you have ever owned or even thought of buying any of those. This one is fun too. https://www.businessinsider.com/weird-k ... ols-2017-9

For the record, I have owned a spiralizer and a strawberry huller, but never has mutliblade scissors to cut parsley and chives, bear paw meat shredders, but that shrimp peeler does interest me...... That powered grill cleaner doesn't do it for me.

Mathoms! There's a little hobbit in all of us.

I actually use my bacon press. I've been making a lot of grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches lately--a comfort food from my college days--and I use the bacon press to hold the sandwich down.

I don't use my Korean barbecue grill. It's been ages since I made bulgogi.

-Paul W.

I stepped in a rather large pat of bulgogi once....

Actually, I love bulgogi and now that you have reminded me about it I must make some - I'll probably go the easy way and use my cast iron frying pan rather than breaking out the cast iron grille plate which is more work to clean. Just have to check and see if I still have some gochujang as I so seldom use it.

That and steamed rice makes an excellent dinner and white wines, particularly some Rieslings work well with it - they seem to slightly blunt the edge from the spices.

PS - Next time SWMBO wants a grilled cheese sannie, I'll get to say "See - pretty handy this bacon weight, isn't it?

Take a look at https://www.eatthis.com/kitchen-gadgets ... shortcuts/ and fess up if you have ever owned or even thought of buying any of those.

I have never owned any of those, though I will quibble that two of them actually have a teeny bit of value:
- the boil-in bags seem useful to me if you happen to be boiling things that are annoying to chase around the pot, even with a slotted spoon
- the shredder "bear claws" look totally laughable but I have a gluten-intolerant friend who makes pulled pork All.The.Time and those things work wonders on a smoked pork shoulder

This one is fun too. https://www.businessinsider.com/weird-k ... ols-2017-9

I got a strawberry huller as part of a kit of kitchen tools. For the life of me, I have no idea how to use it.

--

On the good side, from my parents' trove of unused wedding gifts I did obtain a really nice ham slicer (...not sure who brought that to a Jewish wedding...), and from my brother's trove I have an ice cream maker that I adore and use often.

I used to be in possession of a waffle iron - heart-shaped waffles, to be precise - but my friend Jay makes a really good yeast-raised batter and it's hard to host a brunch with only one waffle iron so I donated it to him. And feel entitled to eat a few extra waffles whenever he does brunch.

I have seen chefs on Food Channel using bear claws and some of the have been unable to repress a growl or two as they do it - presumably their inner Neanderthal coming out. As a dedicated Cro-Magnon type, I'll just use a couple of forks and save space in my 'tool box' for other things, although the bear shredders would come in handy on Hallowe'en for jumping out from behind a bush and growling at children (hey - they get candy and I get my jollies another way....)

I got the strawberry huller for the wife, who thinks it is just great. I think she has yet to use them, but time will tell.

We have the ice cream maker that is an option for the Kitchenaid mixers (I've found them to be a great workhorse, although their meat grinders work more slowly than a higher end model). The icer cream maker also works for making granitas and sorbets (which I prefer to be savoury rather than sweet).

I’ll fess up to the potato press. (Aka Potato ricer) great for gnocchi as well as mash.
Oh okay, and I also have a bacon press which I do actually use for several things.bacon, sandwiches.

Barb, I don't own a ricer but it's traditional kitchen equipment. Not sure how it got on a list like that.

[Jenise]

I grew up with a strawberry huller. Gone now, and nothing like the device shown here, it was just a flat u-shaped piece of metal that enabled pinching the green part out. Definitely a handy little thing back in the days when we'd hull a huge quantity of berries for a family of 6-8.

I laughed out loud at the robot grill cleaner.

I have never seen a bacon press.

Jeff, the ham slicer had me laughing. Btw, who owns an actual meat slicer? (I do!) How often do I use it? Rarely, but boy was it great last weekend for shaving a cold hunk of sous vide pork loin for a classy-looking pig version of vitello tonnato.

Most of these gadgets--like the chive shears and claws for pulling meat--are things that make no sense to a small household but would be invaluable for restaurant scale kitchen chores.

Bill--the shrimp deveiner? Use a dinner fork turned sideways, same result. And you already have forks.

Bill--the shrimp deveiner? Use a dinner fork turned sideways, same result. And you already have forks.

Agree - like Alton brown, I deplore unitaskers(although I have not yet invested in a wine cork remover that can be used to inflate basketballs etc.)

Bill--the shrimp deveiner? Use a dinner fork turned sideways, same result. And you already have forks.

Agree - like Alton brown, I deplore unitaskers(although I have not yet invested in a wine cork remover that can be used to inflate basketballs etc.)

Bravo. (Remember, it's a floor wax AND a dessert topping....)

Btw, who owns an actual meat slicer? (I do!) How often do I use it? Rarely, but boy was it great last weekend for shaving a cold hunk of sous vide pork loin for a classy-looking pig version of vitello tonnato.

In the 80s, I owned a hand-cranked one! It must have been cast-iron because it weighed a ton but was painted red. It had one blade though I think I could have bought more. And a crank... you put the meat in the V-holder, turn the crank, and push the meat into the blade's path. After a few years I carefully left it somewhere and moved away.