Unusual Kitchen Helpers

Last Easter when our family was here, I was preparing an oven proof bowl for warming up a dish. From the fridge I took out a small zip-lock bag that had several unsalted butter wrappers, folded neatly. I used one to butter the bowl prior to adding the food. My daughter-in-law noticed what I was doing and was excited to see a new kitchen trick. I told her I save all the butter wrappers to use in muffin tins, baking dishes, and potato skins prior to baking, and so on. Why throw out the wrapper with a little bit of butter remaining when you take out the stick, especially if you have brought the butter to room temperature, which I often do, because I keep my butter frozen.

I wash all my plastic storage bags in hot soapy water, hang them to dry on a special gadget made for RV's to dry small, hand washed items in the shower. I also do this with Food Saver bags. Hence, it is rare that I buy any food storage bags of any kind.

So, what unusual kitchen helpers do you have?

Instead of fancy kitchen mitts I go to the welding store and buy leather welders gloves for handling hot things. Works well, lasts for a few years and are not as
expensive as fancy kitchen mitts or 'pot holders'.

Like the ecology of that Karen but the visuals of those used bags upsets me and I can never seem to get them clean if they have had fat in them so I've tried to do away with bags and use glass containers, usually recycled pickle, mustard jars etc.

[Jenise]

Karen, at a Cordon Bleu class I took in England, butter paper was used to top the breast of a stuffed roasting chicken to keep it moister.

Not much in my kitchen that's unusual. Perhaps the 69 cent yellow funnel for oil changes that I bought at an auto parts store and use for refilling spice jars (it has a wider chute, so dry stuff drops right through) and the long bamboo chopsticks that we use (and rinse/reuse) daily for stirring our french press coffee and tea drinks. Both far more efficient than any of the conventional tools made for those purposes.

I take an ocular measurement of bamboo skewers and cut-to-size to use as a dowel in the center of cakes that have "slippery" fillings (like jelly/jam) to keep the layers from sliding as I frost them or as they are being sliced. Also, use quart sized jars or 28 oz canned goods as a pedestal to drop the sides from tarts or cakes in pans with removal bottoms. Been doing this kind of stuff so long it's hard to think of them as "unusual". I think all cooks have learned to "make do".

I have a retort stand and funnel ring which I use when eg. filliing numbers of bottles (homemade vinegar, sauces, passata etc) the funnel stays put and rasied a little above the neck for adequate air intake.
Purchased it at strange second hand lab supply house in Los Alamos years ago. (I passed up the used electron microscope; hard to carry home on the plane!!LOL)