What Are Your Unnecessary but Handy Kitchen Gadgets?

Tobermory

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Something Mamanyt1953 Mamanyt1953 posted in another thread about boiled eggs made me think of this unnecessary but oh-so-handy kitchen gadget I bought after The Spouse went on an egg salad kick. I got tired of waiting for the water to boil and then hovering to make sure the eggs were boiling just right. Boiling too much! Aack, not enough! Rats! Too much again! :frustrated: So I bought a Dash Rapid Egg Cooker on Amazon. “Silly,” I thought to myself, but hey, $15. Love it! After discovering a couple of tricks, it’s virtually foolproof to boil one to six eggs!

Any unnecessary but handy kitchen gadget recommendations out there?

470DD891-6987-4216-A311-9C602F7C08CE.jpeg
 

Winchester

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I don't think I have any truly unnecessary kitchen gadgets. I tend to use what I have; even if I only use it once or twice a year, it's something that I do use. I tend to agree with Alton Brown, who says the absolute only single tasker in anyone's kitchen should be a fire extinguisher. Anything else should be a multi-tasker, meaning if you can only do one thing with a gadget, you probably shouldn't have it.
 

Lari

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I just buy the giant jars of already minced garlic.

Mine is probably my mandolin slicer, even though I slice myself too much. I could take the time to slice my veggies thin by hand, but I'm so bad at getting them the same size, and it's faster overall.
 
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Tobermory

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Mine is probably my mandolin slicer, even though I slice myself too much.
I’ve come so close so many times to buying a mandoline! I don’t know why I haven’t; it seems like it would be useful. But I did buy this gizmo that dices, and I’ve gotten so much use out of it. It’s particularly good for dicing onions (I hate crying into my food :)), but I also use it to quickly slice mushrooms and boiled potatoes.
815DECFC-62BF-4104-91B7-16D93E35DBB1.jpeg
Anything else should be a multi-tasker, meaning if you can only do one thing with a gadget, you probably shouldn't have it.
Whew! I think I’m okay then. Fortunately, my egg cooker also makes soft boiled and poached eggs. Love my Eggs Benedict. :)
 

Lari

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I’ve come so close so many times to buying a mandoline! I don’t know why I haven’t; it seems like it would be useful. But I did buy this gizmo that dices, and I’ve gotten so much use out of it. It’s particularly good for dicing onions (I hate crying into my food :)), but I also use it to quickly slice mushrooms and boiled potatoes.
View attachment 314566

Whew! I think I’m okay then. Fortunately, my egg cooker also makes soft boiled and poached eggs. Love my Eggs Benedict. :)
Cute! My immersion blender has lots of different attachments, so I just pop it on the food processor thingy to dice and mince.
 

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I love my cookie scoop. It looks like an ice cream scoop, but it's for scooping up cookie dough and plopping it on a cookie sheet. I hate fiddling with two spoons which it takes so long. They come in three sizes, small, medium, and large. The medium one is best for regular cookies. And to please Alton Brown, you can always scoop ice cream or potato salad with them, too.
 

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Something Mamanyt1953 Mamanyt1953 posted in another thread about boiled eggs made me think of this unnecessary but oh-so-handy kitchen gadget I bought after The Spouse went on an egg salad kick. I got tired of waiting for the water to boil and then hovering to make sure the eggs were boiling just right. Boiling too much! Aack, not enough! Rats! Too much again! :frustrated: So I bought a Dash Rapid Egg Cooker on Amazon. “Silly,” I thought to myself, but hey, $15. Love it! After discovering a couple of tricks, it’s virtually foolproof to boil one to six eggs!

Any unnecessary but handy kitchen gadget recommendations out there?

View attachment 313821
I have this one and I love it. It also does poached eggs and omelets.
 

susanm9006

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I love my cookie scoop. It looks like an ice cream scoop, but it's for scooping up cookie dough and plopping it on a cookie sheet. I hate fiddling with two spoons which it takes so long. They come in three sizes, small, medium, and large. The medium one is best for regular cookies. And to please Alton Brown, you can always scoop ice cream or potato salad with them, too.
I also love my scoops. One I use for cookies so they all come out the same size and bake properly. The second one is larger and I use for meatballs because I don’t like squishing my fingers down into the raw meat to make a meatball. Plus again they all end up the same size.

The other essential is my celery keeper. It keeps celery crisp for weeks so no more tossing out wilted celery.
 
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Tobermory

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Okay, this one is completely unnecessary and totally ridiculous, but it makes me smile so I get it out periodically and use it anyway. I can’t resist that face. :) It’s silicone and you use it to pull and push hot oven racks in and out.
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Okay, this one is completely unnecessary and totally ridiculous, but it makes me smile so I get it out periodically and use it anyway. I can’t resist that face. :) It’s silicone and you use it to pull and push hot oven racks in and out.
View attachment 315494
That's a neat gadget! Wish I had one of those. I'm always nearly burning myself with those hot racks.
 

furmonster mom

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People buy me gadgets because they know I'm the cook, and I tend to make fun things once in a while.

But I don't usually use gadgets.

A knife and cutting board can usually get any job done.

Besides... I hate cleaning gadgets... they always seem to have so many crevices or parts or... just... bleh

Still... I have a couple gifts that I've kept, if only for sentimental reasons.
Pineapple corer
Microwave potato pouch
 

betsygee

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Okay, this one is completely unnecessary and totally ridiculous, but it makes me smile so I get it out periodically and use it anyway. I can’t resist that face. :) It’s silicone and you use it to pull and push hot oven racks in and out.
View attachment 315494
In the unnecessary and silly category...

My spouse had a bad habit of splashing coffee out of the mug when he was carrying it around and we always had coffee spills on the floors. I was looking online for some kind of coffee mug lid and found these. Who knew such a thing existed!

They work, too. The suction holds the lid on the coffee cup. It sure cuts down on spilled coffee and...they're cats! :clapcat:



Screen Shot 2020-01-13 at 8.39.44 AM.png
 
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Tobermory

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In the unnecessary and silly category...

My spouse had a bad habit of splashing coffee out of the mug when he was carrying it around and we always had coffee spills on the floors. I was looking online for some kind of coffee mug lid and found these. Who knew such a thing existed!

They work, too. The suction holds the lid on the coffee cup. It sure cuts down on spilled coffee and...they're cats! :clapcat:



View attachment 317417
Oh, my gosh! Those are great! Must. Have. :)
 
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