Must have kitchen gadgets

BAGGY

The gadget I use the most is my pressure cooker. Great for saving fuel as stuff is cooked 1/2 time. Also use the pan for jam?

meritaten

I wouldnt be without my hand mixer! am trying to think of 'gadgets' that I use not the ones stuck in the utility room and never see the kitchen! and my sugar thermometer, I love to make sweets and it has really been invaluable, and encouraged me to make marmalade for the first time!
ahh - food slicer! it comes out at christmas and for partys when I have cooked a ham and need it sliced! invaluable then (or for when an expensive joint of meat is tough - very thinly slicing it saves the day.
apart from that, I can only think of my scales and my mincer (victorian food processor, lol) which I use a lot for making faggots or when I want my own mince.
I think it depends on what you cook most often, the way you cook and the time you have!
even if I had one I wouldnt use a food processer for making pastry - I love making it by hand!

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

With the level of debt you have already dealt with and the amount you still have outstanding, you really don't need new gadgets this year, or you could end up back in trouble.




Stick with the current blender until it goes pfffft, stick with the oven and microwave until they do.


A coffee machine is pointless. Use a cafe press and if you can't be bothered with that, you really won't bother with a coffee machine.

A jam maker is pointless. Use a big saucepan and a thermometer. Assuming you already make jam and don't buy the cheap stuff, throwing it away because it's gone mouldy, not because you've eaten it all up.

Soups - saucepan, hob and blender if you want smooth ones. A £10 stick blender would do, and would be much cheaper than getting a fancy kitchen decoration.

Ice cream maker - plastic tub of custard & fruit puree in freezer, take out, blend, put back. Fancy gadget unnecessary.

********

I have a rice cooker because I like rice, and use it for steaming vegetables, fish and dim sum.

I have a mini slow cooker and it's been used for stew, curry, bread and rice pudding.

I do have a blender, it's been used about 3 times since summer. I normally use the £5 stick blender I bought from Woolworths about 7 years ago.

And I have a mini fryer because my house is timber framed and on the rare occasion I want chips, onion bhajis, or other deep fried food, I don't want to boil up a pan of oil on the stove. It's been used once in the last year.

The kettle looks knackered but still boils water, the microwave needs an extra 30 seconds on top of instructions to cook (like that's a problem!) and the toaster knob snapped off and was replaced with a small lump of wood.

*********

I do, however, have a solid wood butcher's block chopping board, a magnetic knife rack with a small number of fairly pricey knives, three decent saucepans and two frying pans. If your knife is sharp, there's not a lot you can't do.

DawnW

another vote for the stick blender - great for soups, and doesn't cost much, or take up too much space

Food processors and mixers are good. I wouldn't bother with a jam maker - a big pan works just as well.

I had a bread maker and freecycled it because I didn't much like the bread. It was good for dough, but you can just make that in the mixer (or by hand).

Lilyplonk

When I got some vouchers from work, I used them to get an all-singing/dancing Morphy Richards Food Processer (with Blender + other bits/bobs) .................. ever since, I've been wondering why I bothered :undecided

• I love the task of hand-mixing for baking cakes / pastry.
• I have a stick-blender that sits on the worktop permanently.
• On the rare occasions that I need to make meringues or 'proper sponge cakes' I've got an electric food-mixer (James Martin one with beaters/whisk/dough hooks).
• I've got a set of really sharp Kitchen Devil knives AND a sharpener.
• Already had 2 good graters - one metal and one plastic.

The darn thing sits in a cupboard otherwise it would be 'looking at me' and making me guilty/stupid for wanting it in the first place .



It's my 'most underused gadget' - a couple of times perhaps for 'batch slicing' onions for the freezer. How ridiculous of me - I mean, how long does it actually take to slice/chop onions if you really set your mind to doing the task?

• I find it doesn't even chop/slice/grate as neatly as I do by hand;
• the cake-mixing is uneven (have to keep removing the lid and scraping down the sides of the bowl);
• the 'egg white beater' is garbage - my lovely 'James Martin' is far better;
• the blender doesn't hold enough - the stick blender copes far better with larger quantities of soup straight in the pan:T

Maybe, if I had manual dexterity problems, it would have really been a worthwhile acquisition - but even then, I reckon I'd struggle putting the darn thing together and getting the lid on straight.


Now my Pressure Cookers are different story altogether ........... I love those and wouldn't be without either of them - one I bought myself and the other one was given to me by my son who 'found it in an empty house' about three weeks after I bought the first one :j. He asked permission of the Housing Management if he could have it as the property had been vacated / relinquished / keys handed back in and he was there to put an alarm into the property in case of break-in/vandalism.

cashewy

The gadget I use the most is a Braun stick blender which has a chopper attachment, can unclip the stick part and attach it to a small lidded pot thingy with blades inside. Stick blender's great for soups and shakes, chopper pot gets used almost daily to make stuff like houmous and spreads for sarnies or dips, also to blend silken tofu and soya milk to use as egg replacer for cakes and nut roasts. Used a big ol food processor before that till the jug part sprung a leak but this little stick/pot gadget is much easier to use and wash up (not got a dish washer, huh I'm the dish washer!)

Chris25

My slow-cooker & stick blender are the gadgets that I use most. Then it's the electric whisk which I use since my KC gave up the ghost - but my stick blender has a little whisk & chopper attachments too, so easy to use for small amounts.!

I love my slow-cooker -an old Pifco with a ceramic internal pot & doesn't get too hot but when I got a newer one (can't remember the make now but large, oval, stainless steel type) I found that it would leave the worktop underneath hot, so I never left it on without anyone being home. Anyway, it's great being able to throw in ingredients in the morning, then just leave it to produce a lovely rich casserole or joint of meat ready for dinner.

The stick blender I use mostly for soups - we have a pot of it every Saturday, at least - there again, throw a load of stuff into a pot with stock then blend it up, making a delcious meal.

Meadows

gailey wrote: »

I have slow cooker and don't like it.

Get rid of

gailey wrote: »

Breadmaker not used much-plan to use more but love making bread by hand.

Worth keeping as a back up - stash in the bottom of a wardrobe if you don't use

gailey wrote: »

Blenders on last legs.

A kitchen must have, shop around for good offers

gailey wrote: »

Hubby gave away the juicer.

Guess it wasn't really used therefore takes up space

gailey wrote: »

Wondering what gadgets i really want this year, space in kitchen limited. Really fancy the Tefal jam maker have done for last few years.

Jam can be made manually in a quality heavy based saucepan which takes up less space and can be used for many things

gailey wrote: »

Also wondered are food processors blenders too? Want to make more soups, mince my own meat, what do people recommend?

A large Kenwood mixer that takes up minimal space and you can get attachments for mincing, liquidising etc. rather than all separates costing more and taking up more space

gailey wrote: »

Dream would be coffee machine but that's bit extravagent.

Only if you wouldn't use it, we use ours daily

gailey wrote: »

Icecream machine? might be winner with kids.

Would you really use it or would it be a back of the cupboard space taker. Shop around and look at the likes of Aldi or Lidl

gailey wrote: »

Want to make much more from scratch this year.

Only you stopping you

gailey wrote: »

Currently have crap oven, crap microwave

Buy new when you can afford, frugal shopping and home cooking will save the pennies that could be used to buy new

gailey_2

Thank you everyone for advice.

we want to eat more natural and less processed and looking for stuff that assist me in cooking and saving money.

We been married 9years this year

the deep fat frier, toaster, juicer were all presents.

The blenders was husbands before we met so 15years old now when he did his protein shakes.

I have hand blender brought when started weaning my eldest 4.99 morrisons its ok but hard work and messy.

The oven is landlotsd approx 20years old.
has no glass door so cant see whats doing and door not airtight.

would love to save for new oven but something other bills always come up first:(

The slow cooker was 6quid argis sale on grabbot noard couple years back so not much wasted there.

One year hubby brought me kitchen utensils as thats what asked for.

microwave is basic and given to me by mum when old one broke down so free:)

A couple years ago I asked for jam maker and hubby brought me breadmaker. I like making bread by hand and cant work out how thing works depsite reaing instruction manual.

The tefal my freind has says so easy and quick not last year previous years foraged loads of free berries and ofte make hm food presents im hizz at chuteys but nervous with jam.

Cofffee machine is dream that wont materialise any time soon.

I have caffietrier.

we need things for kicthen new saucepan as old one broke.

short on cutlert
need new knives
mixing bowl a

casserole dish.

I love cooking but my crappy kitchen holds me back at time.

Was wondering if some sort multi purpose processer be best to

make own soups
mince meat myself
make smoothies
icecream ect

I really want to step us my ois ways this year and make better purchasesl

Everyones diffrerent so needs and wants are different.

foxgloves

I second all those who have said a jam-maker is completely unnecessary. If you are nervous with making jam, choose a recipe that's high in pectin & won't be tricky to set if you're inexperienced at making jam. You really do only need a large saucepan or a preserving pan if you can get one (if you defo want to buy something, this would be a better buy than an jam making machine). I don't have a jam thermometer, & in 30 years of making jam, marmalade, jellies, etc, I've only ever had one batch that failed to set.....black cherry.....my own fault as it is one that usually needs jam-sugar & I risked doing it without.