Immaginative use of kitchen equipment

Shropshirelass

Not sure if it's classed as kitchen equipment but I use the built-in wine rack in the kitchen to store homemade jam and pickles. Don't know how I'd manage without it. Visitors can't see how much is there as only the front jars are visible.
Don't worry there's still room for bottles!

kboss2010

sillyvixen wrote: »

My sandwich toaster has not been used in about 13 years but I am loathed to part with it.

We go through phases of using ours. We'll usually see someone on tv eat a toastie then dig it out and make cheese & ham toasties for a few weeks then back in the cupboard it goes for 6 months.

I also second the spatula. And a ladle for soup/sauces. And a slotted spoon for poached eggs.

Siebrie

A breadmaker that has not been used since we moved here. There was only one type of flour I liked, and they don't sell it here.
The steam contraption, three layers to fill up, used quite a lot when I just moved here and could only afford one piece of equipment to heat things up (no hob in the studio). Best buy ever for that period.
Blender that dh insisted on, used once as too hard to remove cup from base.
Stick blender used regularly.
Deep oil fryer no longer in use, as now have airfryer, which is used regularly.
Kenwood standing mixer, rather useless, as the mixer does not get to the bottom of the bowl and leaves large lumps in the dough. You have to use the spatula to mix the flour and liquid again, which makes dirty fingers, sleeves, machine, and gives me a bad mood.

GlasweJen

Bread maker - weekly use
Slow cooker - weekly use
Steamer/rice cooker - fortnightly - monthly use
Food saver - weekly use
Bean to cup coffee machine - daily use
Milk warmer - couple of days a week use
Pasta maker with all the add ons (ravioli, gnocchi etc) - weekly use
Aeropress - weekend use
Hob coffee thingy - once a month if lucky
Pressure cooker - fortnightly use

I don't think there's anything we don't use. I'd love one of those kenwood food processors but as I don't cook I don't get a say in kitchen purchases, they're so pretty though

JIL

I cook everything in my wok using a fantastic black spatula.
I do have a soup maker and it really is very good, but it was £22 from the Argos retail outlet.
I bought a mixer for cakes as I had a hand held one that was really old. But it's not worth getting it out of the cupboard and setting it up so next time my son and partner visit I will off load it. I will use the hand held one.
I have a bread maker, I do use it at least ten times a month and I have an actifry that gets used once or twice a week.

Imaginative use of kitchen equipment, does anyone remember the cooking of a whole salmon in the dishwasher?

srn

Siebrie wrote: »

A breadmaker that has not been used since we moved here. There was only one type of flour I liked, and they don't sell it here.
The steam contraption, three layers to fill up, used quite a lot when I just moved here and could only afford one piece of equipment to heat things up (no hob in the studio). Best buy ever for that period.
Blender that dh insisted on, used once as too hard to remove cup from base.
Stick blender used regularly.
Deep oil fryer no longer in use, as now have airfryer, which is used regularly.
Kenwood standing mixer, rather useless, as the mixer does not get to the bottom of the bowl and leaves large lumps in the dough. You have to use the spatula to mix the flour and liquid again, which makes dirty fingers, sleeves, machine, and gives me a bad mood.

I have a Kenwood stand mixer and I seem to remember that when we set it up when we first took it out of the box there was a way to set the blades to the correct position so that they reached to the bottom of the bowl and mixed properly. Maybe yours is the same? I bet you can download the instructions if you don't still have them.

Money_saving_maniac

I have a Kenwood ice cream maker which I have not used for 5 years.
Because when we used it solidly in the previous year me and OH put on over a stone each...

rosie383

Thanks for starting this thread Primrose. It has given me a much-needed giggle this morning.

As for my gadgets... stand mixer which I cba to take out each time so I use my £4 ASDA hand mixer instead.

Breville halo fryer thing. Use it almost daily for anything. Did chuck a load of chillis in it a few days ago with the intention of making home made harissa. Totally forgot and was mystified by the sound of things exploding. Once I discovered them, they were great! Chillis cooked enough without choking everyone.

I now have a dishwasher and while I have never cooked a whole salmon in it, I love having it for those days when I have done a load of cooking and have a big pile of stuff to wash. Still feel kind of guilty using it though, even though ours only costs about 15p a cycle.

Neighbour gave us a tassimo coffee machine. Gets used daily as we can't find a little coffee press that we can use on the induction hob.

Got a posh stick blender with cup blender attachment thing, using my grocery scanning points, and I use it almost daily. Both bits of it.

Since I've discovered toastie bags (got about twenty new ones at the car boot for 20p!) the sandwich toaster now sits in the back of the cupboard.

To all of those who have unused gadgets, sell them! People like me may want them, but can't afford them new! You would be surprised how much space you will have in your cupboards once you get rid of things that you just don't need or want. Very liberating.

culpepper

Most used are the microwave which is used throughout the day for heating tea and coffee and as it has a normal oven setting, about 4 or 5 evenings a week for dinner....

Bread maker, we never buy shop bread and haven't for years. We have 2 because we found one in a pile of rubbish and its waiting as a back up to the one we bought 2nd hand.

Runners up....Microwave rice cooker..Its basically a plastic casserole with a second layer of lid and a vented knob. Great for cooking rice and cous cous but also really useful for steaming veg and cooking baked spuds .

Pie maker because it is used weekly to make a pie without the need to turn on the cooker (it uses about 1/10th the electricity)

Least used...
Meat grinder that I bought when I realised I would need to cut out dairy and EVERYTHING seemed to include it even sausages.

Ice cream maker (gets used maybe once a year because it takes up such a lot of the freezer)
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Incidentally we do have a pasta maker which I use for lasagna sheets and tagliatelli and also a manual pasta extruder which I use to make other shapes. Once you get the recipe right, its very therapeutic to crank out the goodies.

[Deleted User]

I have a tefal le saucier and I am not confessing to anything else. I have lots of high tec equipment in my kitchen and all, bar the saucier, gets used at some time or other. There was a time when I use the saucier a lot and then it was so good, I remember there was an ms thread on them. If I need a few cubic inches of space then I will get rid but until then!! My most enjoyed items are a burr coffee grinder and a whizz coffee machine, permanently out on the counter. I have just discovered coffee made with steamed hm almond milk, wow, oh yes almond milk made in my soyabella, at least once a week. Easily paid for by now