Must have kitchen gadgets

RAS

gailey

The thing to remember with jam is that the pan needs to be big.

Three times the size of the fruit and sugar you put in it. That allows one third for your jam, one third for the boiling roll when it expands and one third safety margin.

You also need a long handled spoon to keep your hands out the way of the boiling jam,

katieowl_2

I third a jam maker as unnecessary. I use either one of the preserving pans I have (one given, one rescued from a skip!) or the bottom of my pressure cooker. Buy a jam therm instead.

I also think that ice cream makers in the lower end of the price range a complete and utter waste of space. They do not make enough for a family...I gave mine away!

Bread maker is in regular use here...there's just two bread eating members of the family. For us it saves money. Not sure I could keep up with the demand if it was supposed to be making enough for a family, sandwiches for lunch, toast in the mornings etc.

I've got a magimix and a kenwood...use both pretty constantly. Depends what you do, I make bread in large batches with the kenwood, and cake mixes... but the magimix makes crumbs, grates cheese and veg, I have a julienne cutter which makes salads a doddle, I also make minced meat in it, and blend soup... I also have a stick blender, and a electric beater thingy ..use them all

I've got a meat slicer which has saved us £££'s but probably needs a bit longer to pay for itself TBH

I've just started using the pressure cooker again, and think they are useful.

Kate

LameWolf

My "must-haves" are the food processor and the bread maker BUT that is because I have arthritic hands, and they are getting worse, so I can no longer do things I used to do by hand (can't even mix Yorkie pud batter by hand nowadays:().

We have the stick blender that belonged to Mr LW's mum, and the electric whisk that belonged to his gran, and is still going strong after over 50 years' use!

I wouldn't give tuppence for a jam maker - we use Mr LW's gran's cauldron; if we have a small amount to make, I brought a somewhat smaller jam cauldron with me when I moved in here. I don't bother with a jam thermometer - neither of us has ever used one, but I appreciate some are happier to use one. It's personal preference.

We have a filter coffee maker, one of those with a plastic "net" to put the ground beans in; again, I wouldn't give tuppence for one of those machines that uses special pods or capsules; when the makers decide to stop making the pods, you're left with a useless machine - I'm cynical enough to think that somewhere down the line they'll come up with a new machine, with slightly different pods, thus "forcing" their customers to upgrade.:cool: We buy whole beans (from a stall on the local market) and grind them (coffee grinder was a wedding present) as we need them - this is mainly to feed my caffeine addiction, I do confess!:o

I'd be inclined to save for a decent micro/combi (I have one of these, and it's really good, specially as the large built-in oven which was put in by the builders in the 1970s is on its last legs), and also get decent knives, bakeware and saucepans first.

Just my twopenn'orth.:o

Helen2k8

My food processor is underused - I found the stick blender much more convenient for big soup batches.

Another downvote for jam maker - you mentioned you need new pans so just get a nice big pan

Part of the OS mindset is, I think, not having things that only do one job - have a few multitaskers instead.

Having said that, I'm eyeing up a dehydrator to spend my Xmas voucher on

sonastin

I think the thing to do is understand why you want a particular gadget, what you want to use it for, what else it can do which would be an added bonus. On top of that, work out how else you can do it, whether doing it by an alternate route is cheaper, whether outcome of using said gadget will be better than the alternative, etc. Spend a long time weighing up the pros and cons of a particular gadget rather than getting caught up in the desire to live a better lifestyle and deciding that each "must-have" is the only way to achieve it.

And the other trick once you've invested in a gadget is to make sure you force yourself to make it part of your day-to-day routine. Don't use it 100 times in the first week, have a glut of whatever you use it for and then never get it out of the cupboard again. Try to use it sensibly so that it becomes habit and part of the furniture of your OS ways. If you need to alter your meal plans a bit to allow you to play with your new toy, so be it - but don't stop meal planning because when you start again, you'll forget the toy too!

My justification for the breadmaker was that emergency flour/yeast supplies live in the cupboard, which leaves more freezer space for emergency milk supplies - not necessarily cheaper than getting YS/cheapy bread from SM but leaves me more relaxed about getting snowed in. The yoghurt maker was justified by comparing the cost of homemade to the cost of the muller pots I was buying for packed lunches. I've only used it twice so far but I'd been thinking about buying it for several months. I really want the tefal actifry but as we usually have chips with stuff that is being cooked in the oven anyway, I can't justify the cost of that yet. It can stay on the wishlist until there's a healthy safety cushion in the bank first!

angeltreats

Yet another vote for not bothering with a jam maker! It seems like a total waste of time! Jam is so easy to make in a big pan (which you can also use for other things).

You mentioned you have a breadmaker - a lot of them have a jam making function which is probably just the same as using the Tefal jam maker, might be worth having a look at the instructions. But please do have a go at making it in a pan, you'll be surprised how simple it is.

Chris25

gailey, have a look at the CS for cutlery, saucepans & mixing bowls. When my children went off to Uni, I got most of the stuff from there - including some really nice quality saucepans that I decided to keep & let them have the older ones we had at home.

I also got them things like, pastry hand-blender (the old fashioned type with blades), slotted spoons, a new stick blender, electric carving knife, a couple of lovely OXO bits; a pizza wheel & masher. They are worth a look around if you need kitchen bits.

BAGGY

Bootsale is brilliant for old style kitchenalia. I got a hand mincer for £2, a popcorn maker (used once on a cub camp) for £1.50 and tablespoons, scales, cannisters etc for 50p.
Can you borrow the items you desire for a few weeks and see if you like the idea more than the practicalities especially of washing bits and bobs.
I have a stick blender (Aldi) that has a whisk attachment and chopper and bowl. I can wizz smoothies and soup or chop onions/veg for salsa. the whisk is a bit rubbish but better than handwhisking egg whites and takes up little space.
I have got rid of the following
Sandwich toaster (use toaster pockets), juicer (never used), fryer (made the house smell),

msb5262

I'd also say forget the jam maker...even if money wasn't an issue!
This time of year you could make marmalade if you like it - not difficult and as mentioned, the only thing you NEED is a sugar thermometer. Borrow a big saucepan if you don't have one and give it a go.
My basics are a stick blender, wooden spoons, sharp knives and an electric hand whisk. I have a bread maker but prefer making by hand, and have a big Kenwood mixer which I use mainly for mixing huge Christmas cakes. I have a sandwich toaster which I rarely use, but my teenagers love it. That's it, and we are a household of foodies. To my mind, most gadgets are really of limited use if you love to cook.
It sounds to me as if some basic cutlery and saucepans are the best thing you could buy now. Charity shops/boot sales/freecycle are the way to go as has been said upthread!

jools27_2

I use my slow cooker a lot, recently bought a steamer, and everything else is done by my own fair hand, largely because my kitchen is tiny so I have no space, although in saying that I find cooking therapeutic so dont mind spending time mixing, chopping etc. The only thing I bake with any regularity is pastry, so have never felt the need for processors, mixers etc!